Restore Missing "Settings" (gnome-control-center) Icon in Ubuntu 18.04

Question

I have been running Ubuntu 18.04 for a couple of weeks. I upgraded from 16.04 and all went smoothly.

I am not sure what I changed, but this morning I noticed that the "Settings" Icon that launches gnome-control-center is missing from "Show Applications" and the applications menu as well. When I searched from "Show Applications" for gnome-control-center or just settings, nothing showed up.

So, I figured I must have accidentally removed it and figured a reinstall of the package would resolve the issue. I have searched and found several postings where this worked. I tried:

sudo apt install gnome-control-center

And then rebooted - which reinstalled the gnome-control-center and I could then launch it from the command line. However, there was still no Settings Icon in any of the menus.

I also tried many other suggestions including:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall gnome-control-center
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop --reinstall
sudo apt-get install unity-control-center

However, none of these has been successful in restoring the icon into "Show Applications" or any applications menu.

Anyone have any suggestions on something I haven't tried? Would be much appreciated. Or, is there a way to just manually recreate the icon?

Output of locate gnome-control-center.desktop:

/usr/share/applications/gnome-control-center.desktop 
/home/dccrens/.local/share/applications/gnome-control-center.desktop
/home/dccrens/.gnome/apps/gnome-control-center.desktop

I am running Ubuntu 18.04 desktop on kernel 4.15.0-45-generic.

Answer 1

In my case I just ran

sudo apt-get install --reinstall gnome-control-center

rebooted the system, and it was restored. It is now working fine again.

Answer 2

Call me dumb, but I was "missing" settings in gnome-control-center because it opened in a submenu (Devices). Reinstalling didn't work. Googling didn't work.

All I had to do was click in the top left...

Answer 3

Shortcuts in "Show Application" menu is shown by the Desktop Entry of the corresponding app. According to output of locate gnome-control-center.desktop, there are two extra gnome-control-center.desktop located in /home/dccrens/.gnome/apps/ and /home/dccrens/.local/share/applications/ which are creating the issue. Delete that files using Nautilus or rm /home/dccrens/.gnome/apps/gnome-control-center.desktop /home/dccrens/.local/share/applications/gnome-control-center.desktop.

Answer 4

I was suddenly missing Settings in my Ubuntu18.04.3LTS; not in the Launcher nor in the Applications anymore. did re-install "gnome control center" from the Ubuntu software center and now Settings is working fine again, and the icon is back in Launcher and Applications.