I haven't managed to figure out the logic but most of the day I have Netbeans running to develop programs. Since 15.04 it has been happening fairly frequently that my desktop shortcuts to programs disappear from the desktop.
If I look in Nautilus, under Desktop, I can clearly see them. However on the desktop itself they are gone. If I log out and then back in, they reappear as expected. It is as if I need some sort of refresh on Unity. There is no right click on the open area of the desktop so it isn't clear how I could refresh Unity.
Of course if I knew what was causing the icons to disappear in the first place, that would be even better. The log out/in is a bit annoying but it is guaranteed to fix the problem. Any suggestions?
Thanks, Ilan