How to Remove Media Players From Ubuntu Sound Menu
In this section, I will demonstrate how to remove unwanted media players from Ubuntu/Ubuntu MATE's sound menu in the 'top bar' or panel area. As you can see in the image below, I have two Pithos icons and a Firefox Web Browser icon that I want to remove from the drop-down menu.
Starting in version 20.10, Ubuntu switched from the indicator-sound to ayatana-indicator-sound as its default system sound indicator. "Ayatana Indicators are currently available for desktop environments like MATE (used by default in Ubuntu MATE), XFCE (used by default in Xubuntu, LXDE, and the Budgie Desktop)." If you are missing the sound icon in the top panel then enter the following in your Terminal:
sudo apt-get install ayatana-indicator-sound.
You will need to have the Dconf Editor tool installed on your system in order to remove unwanted media players from Ubuntu Sound Menu in the Top-Panel Bar. (Open your Terminal and enter: sudo apt install dconf-editor -y) Once installed, open Dconf Editor via your menu or Terminal. If you've never used the Dconf Editor then think of it as Linux's version of regedit found in MS Windows.
sudo apt-get install ayatana-indicator-sound.
You will need to have the Dconf Editor tool installed on your system in order to remove unwanted media players from Ubuntu Sound Menu in the Top-Panel Bar. (Open your Terminal and enter: sudo apt install dconf-editor -y) Once installed, open Dconf Editor via your menu or Terminal. If you've never used the Dconf Editor then think of it as Linux's version of regedit found in MS Windows.
You'll be greeted with a message to warn you to be careful using Dconf Editor because it may break your applications. Click the "I'll be careful." button to continue.
The top bar will display the location of your last setting or location. Click the icon in the upper left icon to start at the beginning or same starting point. Next locate and click on the org folder.
Next, locate and click on ayatana.
Next, locate and click on indicator.
Next, locate and click on sound.
Next, locate and click on interested-media-players.
You should now see a screen similar to mine (below). You will remove or delete the applications you no longer want in your sound menu within the Custom value section. Since I no longer want the second Pithos icon and the Firefox Web Browser icon in my sound menu, I will delete 'io.github.Pithos.desktop' and 'firefox.desktop' from the list.
Click the Apply button when you're finished.
Below is a couple of screenshots of the Before (Image A) and After (Image B) images to use as a comparison or reference to ensure you don't mess up your system.
Please make sure that each application is surrounded by 'quotation marks' and that each app is separated by a comma and the string of apps contain brackets on each end. Brackets ( a.k.a. "square brackets") are used to index into an array.
Check to see if your applications are gone from your sound menu. If not, reboot your system and check again.
The sound menu now looks nice.
You will notice that ayatana-indicator-sound shows three control buttons of the last used media-player in your list. In my case, Celluloid seems to be last used media-player in the list. I would have to open another media-player and play some media in it to make it last used.
You will notice that ayatana-indicator-sound shows three control buttons of the last used media-player in your list. In my case, Celluloid seems to be last used media-player in the list. I would have to open another media-player and play some media in it to make it last used.
I hope this works for you.
Take care!
Take care!
May 2, 2022