Disable kdeconnectd autostart and Integrate it to systemd and dbus services

Ask Fedora
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1

My main issue is that i wanted to disable kdeconnectd from autostarting, but then i noticed that it isn’t managed via systemd, and kdeconnectd cli doesnt provide a way, the only solution was to just kill the process after it starts.

There are actually two service files for kdeconnectd:

  • /etc/xdg/autostart/org.kde.kdeconnect.desktop which is autostarted by systemd-xdg-autostart-generator in graphical target.
  • /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.kde.kdeconnect.service which isn’t used.

The current and default kdeconnect service file and status looks like this

systemctl --user cat app-org.kde.kdeconnect.daemon@autostart.service 
# /run/user/1000/systemd/generator.late/app-org.kde.kdeconnect.daemon@autostart.service
# Automatically generated by systemd-xdg-autostart-generator

[Unit]
Documentation=man:systemd-xdg-autostart-generator(8)
SourcePath=/etc/xdg/autostart/org.kde.kdeconnect.daemon.desktop
PartOf=graphical-session.target

Description=KDE Connect
After=graphical-session.target

[Service]
Type=exec
ExitType=cgroup
ExecStart=:/usr/bin/kdeconnectd
Restart=no
TimeoutStopSec=5s
Slice=app.slice

# /usr/lib/systemd/user/service.d/10-timeout-abort.conf
# This file is part of the systemd package.
# See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Shorter_Shutdown_Timer.
#
# To facilitate debugging when a service fails to stop cleanly,
# TimeoutStopFailureMode=abort is set to "crash" services that fail to stop in
# the time allotted. This will cause the service to be terminated with SIGABRT
# and a coredump to be generated.
#
# To undo this configuration change, create a mask file:
#   sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/user/service.d
#   sudo ln -sv /dev/null /etc/systemd/user/service.d/10-timeout-abort.conf

[Service]
TimeoutStopFailureMode=abort
systemctl --user status app-org.kde.kdeconnect.daemon@autostart.service 
● app-org.kde.kdeconnect.daemon@autostart.service - KDE Connect
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/xdg/autostart/org.kde.kdeconnect.daemon.desktop; generated)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/user/service.d
             └─10-timeout-abort.conf
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2026-03-17 01:17:18 CET; 1h 23min ago
 Invocation: a4d43062e9044e89b3c4543a3da84661
       Docs: man:systemd-xdg-autostart-generator(8)
   Main PID: 1901 (kdeconnectd)
      Tasks: 10 (limit: 2283)
     Memory: 19.7M (peak: 45.3M, swap: 17.4M, swap peak: 17.4M)
        CPU: 30.034s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/app.slice/app-org.kde.kdeconnect.daemon@autostart.service
             └─1901 /usr/bin/kdeconnectd

Mar 17 02:35:51 vmfedora kdeconnectd[1901]: Cannot find Bluez 5 adapter for device search false
Mar 17 02:36:21 vmfedora kdeconnectd[1901]: Cannot find Bluez 5 adapter for device search false

In order to disable kdeconnectd from autostarting i had to disable service generation for that .desktop by adding Hidden=true to it

Then i followed dbus Docs in order to integrate systemd service to that dbus service, as this will make the dbus service manageable via systemd, providing the ability to manual start, stop, enable, disable… with systemctl

This includes modifying /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.kdeconnect.service and creating a new systemd service under /etc/systemd/user/dbus-org.kde.kdeconnect.service

cat /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.kde.kdeconnect.service 
[D-BUS Service]
Name=org.kde.kdeconnect
Exec=/usr/bin/kdeconnectd
SystemdService=dbus-org.kde.kdeconnect
cat /etc/systemd/user/dbus-org.kde.kdeconnect.service 
[Unit]
Description=Kde Connect service
After=graphical-session.service

[Service]
Type=dbus
ExecStart=/usr/bin/kdeconnectd
BusName=org.kde.kdeconnect
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=graphical-session.target
Alias=kdeconnectd.service

Then simply using systemclt to manage it

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user start dbus-org.kde.kdeconnect.service
systemctl --user status dbus-org.kde.kdeconnect.service 
● dbus-org.kde.kdeconnect.service - Kde Connect service
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/user/dbus-org.kde.kdeconnect.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/user/dbus-.service.d
             └─00-uresourced.conf
             /usr/lib/systemd/user/service.d
             └─10-timeout-abort.conf
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2026-03-17 03:07:04 CET; 3s ago
 Invocation: 4499818d43844cf68f21d9688cf4978a
   Main PID: 535511 (kdeconnectd)
      Tasks: 7 (limit: 18835)
     Memory: 19.5M (peak: 20.7M)
        CPU: 240ms
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/app.slice/dbus-org.kde.kdeconnect.service
             └─535511 /usr/bin/kdeconnectd

Mar 17 03:07:03 vmfedora systemd[1420]: Starting dbus-org.kde.kdeconnect.service - Kde Connect service...
Mar 17 03:07:04 vmfedora systemd[1420]: Started dbus-org.kde.kdeconnect.service - Kde Connect service.

This solution is working fine for now, I really want to know your opinions about how safe is to disable services in /etc/xdg/autostart and if this new solution has the same configuration, resources allocation and security, and doesn’t break anything from the default fedora setup.

Thanks

2

I would just uninstall it

3

Are you asking to have kdeconnect removed?
Or are you asking to unly have it running when you choose?