#932410 nautilus: drag-and-drop of files/folders is failing

Package:
nautilus
Source:
nautilus
Description:
file manager and graphical shell for GNOME
Submitter:
Cagatay Aydin
Date:
2026-06-13 09:07:02 UTC
Severity:
important
#932410#5
Date:
2019-07-18 21:50:58 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

Since I did a fresh install of Debian 10, nautilus is quite frequently
failing to drag and drop files and folders. By failing, I mean there is
no error on the GUI side, but also it is as if I have never done the
drag-and-drop, everything stays in their old place. I could not find a
certain pattern to replicate the issue but it happens a lot. Also,
after a while this happens, nautilus crashes with segfault (not
always).

In case it matters, I have `gdm 3.30.2-3` and using Wayland.


*** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where
appropriate ***

   * What led up to the situation?
	Drag-and-drop files/folders (no external drives). No appearant
way to replicate, but happens frequently.
   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?
	Could not find a solution yet.
   * What was the outcome of this action?
	On the GUI side, drag-and-dropped files remain at their old
location, no error displays.
	Here is the relevant part from my syslog:
```
Jul 18 23:56:23 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 18 23:56:23 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 18 23:56:23 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 18 23:56:23 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 18 23:56:59 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 18 23:56:59 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 18 23:57:27 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 18 23:57:27 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 18 23:59:45 myhostname nautilus[19573]: g_object_ref: assertion
'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Jul 18 23:59:45 myhostname nautilus[19573]: g_object_ref: assertion
'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Jul 18 23:59:45 myhostname nautilus[19573]: g_object_ref: assertion
'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Jul 18 23:59:45 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 18 23:59:45 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 18 23:59:45 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 18 23:59:45 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 19 00:00:07 myhostname nautilus[19573]: g_file_get_path: assertion
'G_IS_FILE (file)' failed
Jul 19 00:00:08 myhostname nautilus[19573]: g_file_get_path: assertion
'G_IS_FILE (file)' failed
Jul 19 00:00:16 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
```
	Another time with segfault:
```
Jul 19 00:12:17 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 19 00:14:30 myhostname dbus-daemon[1367]: [system] Activating via
systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.hostname1' unit='dbus-
org.freedesktop.hostname1.service' requested by ':1.2177' (uid=1000
pid=19573 comm="/usr/bin/nautilus --gapplication-service ")
Jul 19 00:14:30 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
nautilus_notebook_sync_tab_label: assertion 'NAUTILUS_IS_NOTEBOOK
(notebook)' failed
Jul 19 00:14:30 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
nautilus_notebook_sync_tab_label: assertion 'NAUTILUS_IS_NOTEBOOK
(notebook)' failed
Jul 19 00:14:30 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 19 00:14:30 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 19 00:14:30 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 19 00:14:30 myhostname nautilus[19573]:
../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading
selection buffer: Operation was cancelled
Jul 19 00:14:35 myhostname kernel: [ 6606.391604] nautilus[19573]:
segfault at 38 ip 00005597295b6859 sp 00007ffd95cd3220 error 4 in
nautilus[559729518000+d2000]
```

   * What outcome did you expect instead?
	Well...

*** End of the template - remove these template lines ***

#932410#10
Date:
2019-12-03 08:51:08 UTC
From:
To:
frequently
is
a

Same issue with a Debian 10.2 (GNOME) fresh install. Is there any
workaround or news ?

#932410#15
Date:
2020-07-27 16:32:19 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainers,

I experience the same symptoms on a fresh install (Gnome 3 + Wayland),
that is: ~20-30s delayed drag & drop when moving files from within
nautilus, producing various error message popups (attached screenshot
for the most relevant one, others are usually triggered when attemting
to move the same file several times).

It doesn't happen when using keyboard or right-click menu to move the
files.

It happens quite frequently (my first try after a reboot triggered it).

Here are syslog extracts :

Jul 27 17:18:21 iDebian nautilus[1073]: ../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading selection buffer: L’opération a été annulée
Jul 27 17:18:21 iDebian nautilus[1073]: ../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading selection buffer: L’opération a été annulée
Jul 27 17:18:21 iDebian nautilus[1073]: ../../../../../gdk/wayland/gdkselection-wayland.c:261: error reading selection buffer: L’opération a été annulée
Jul 27 17:18:27 iDebian gnome-shell[684]: clutter_actor_add_child: assertion 'child->priv->parent == NULL' failed
Jul 27 17:18:30 iDebian gnome-shell[684]: clutter_actor_add_child: assertion 'child->priv->parent == NULL' failed
Jul 27 17:18:40 iDebian nautilus[1073]: g_object_ref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Jul 27 17:19:25 iDebian nautilus[1073]: g_file_get_path: assertion 'G_IS_FILE (file)' failed
Jul 27 17:19:25 iDebian nautilus[1073]: g_file_get_path: assertion 'G_IS_FILE (file)' failed

Similar reports elsewhere:

- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1808900
- https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/issues/211

According to this last link, there is supposedly a fix:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/merge_requests/1057
I haven't tested it.

Thanks a lot for any progress on this.

#932410#20
Date:
2020-07-27 16:33:40 UTC
From:
To:
Forgot it.
#932410#25
Date:
2026-06-13 09:05:26 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

the issue has alwasy been there since trixie, its extremely small.
the issue was present after my recent reinstall of trixie
im sorry but i havent checked sid version of it