Chromium Snap WebApps stop working after Chromium update -> Bug! (No fix yet)

Question

After having fiddled around and finally fixed my WebApps with Chromium Snap on Ubuntu 20.04, today I discovered that all my WebApps were missing from the dock and no longer available when searching for them.

The issue is related to the Snap package and the way the WebApp shortcuts are created.

When looking at the .desktop files in ~/.local/share/applications, you'll notice the Chromium binary is called for that specific Snap version for which it was created:

Exec=/snap/chromium/1123/usr/lib/chromium-browser/chrome --profile-directory=Default --app-id=<yourappid>

So in the example above, version 1123 is called. Now this works fine, until a new Chromium Snap version is released. This new version, i.e. 1143, is then installed in a new dir: /snap/chromium/1143/usr/lib/chromium-browser/chrome. Now as soon as the old version (1123) gets automatically purged, all the .desktop files break.

Answer 1

EDIT: Unfortunately, as per this bug, WebApps are a total disaster on Chromium Snap currently: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bug/1732482

Please subscribe to this bug and mark yourself as 'This bug affects me' to increase the heat.

----OLD info below----

The 'fix' for the above problem is to edit all affected .desktop files and replace the obsolete Chromium path (1123 in the example above) with current, which always refers to the latest Chromium Snap version installed.

So Exec=/snap/chromium/1123/usr/lib/chromium-browser/chrome --profile-directory=Default --app-id=<yourappid>

becomes Exec=/snap/chromium/current/usr/lib/chromium-browser/chrome --profile-directory=Default --app-id=<yourappid>

When done, save the .desktop file and your WebApp should be working again. Of course this process will have to be repeated for every WebApp you create, so I suppose a definitive fix would have to be implemented by the Chromium Snap team.