[BUG] Claude Desktop (Linux): left-clicking the tray icon does nothing — window can only be shown via right-click > Show App
Status Closed — not planned
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 1 comment · opened Oct 1, 2026 · closed Oct 4, 2026
What's wrong
On Linux, left-clicking the Claude Desktop tray icon does nothing. The only way to bring the window back is right-click > Show App.
Every other app in the same tray (Dropbox, Blueman, Teams/WhatsApp wrappers, etc.) toggles its window visibility on left click, which is the convention users expect from a tray icon.
Steps to reproduce
- Start Claude Desktop on Linux and close the window (the app keeps running in the tray).
- Left-click the tray icon.
Expected
The main window is shown and focused (and ideally hidden again on a second click, i.e. left click toggles visibility).
Actual
Nothing happens. Right-click > Show App is required.
Notes
- The desktop environment does deliver the click: the tray item is registered as a StatusNotifierItem with
ItemIsMenu: false, so the panel callsActivateon left click instead of opening the menu. The app just doesn't react to it. - As far as I can tell the tray only gets a context menu (
setContextMenu) and noclickhandler is attached to the ElectronTrayon Linux. Adding atray.on('click', ...)that shows/toggles the main window should be enough.
Environment
- Claude Desktop 2.9939.4 (official
claude-desktop.deb) - Linux Mint 22.3, Cinnamon 6.6.9, X11
- Tray applets:
xapp-status@cinnamon.org+systray@cinnamon.org
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