Have you ever been transferring lots of files and walked away from your computer, only to come back later and find the transfer stopped? If you use KDE Plasma, this might have happened because your computer went to sleep (suspend) or hibernated right in the middle of the file transfer job.
That's pretty annoying, right? It could interrupt long transfers and even cause problems, especially with moving files.
Well, we have great news! This problem, which has been around for a while (it was first reported back in 2016), has now been officially fixed in the latest KDE Frameworks 6.15.
Table of Contents
The Problem: Transfers Interrupted by Sleep
Imagine you're using Dolphin, the file manager in KDE, to copy a huge amount of data to another part of your computer or a USB drive.
You start the copy and think, "Okay, this will take a while, I'll just let it run". But your computer's power settings are set to automatically go to sleep after a certain time of inactivity.
When the screen goes dark and the computer enters suspend mode, the file transfer gets interrupted. When you wake the computer up, the copy might continue from where it left off, but sometimes unexpected things can happen. This was flagged as an usability issue.
The technical challenge was getting the part of KDE that handles file transfers (called KIO) to talk to the part that manages power (called PowerDevil).
KIO needed to be able to tell PowerDevil, "Hey, I'm busy here, don't go to sleep yet!" Initially, there wasn't an easy way for them to do this without creating technical issues.
FYI, It was a long-standing issue within the KDE environment. It was reported 9 years ago (i.e. 1 May 2016).
The Fix: Keeping KDE Awake for Transfers
Now, thanks to recent work within KDE Frameworks, the foundation that many KDE applications are built upon, this issue has been officially Resolved and Fixed. A specific change was made to the part of KIO that handles file transfers.
What happens now is that when you start a copy or move operation in KDE apps like Dolphin, the system is told to inhibit suspend.
This means your computer will stay awake until the transfer is finished. No more unexpected interruptions or cancellations because the computer decided to take a nap.
This fix was committed by developer Kai Uwe Broulik on 4th May 2025.
What Does This Cover?
The fix specifically addresses copy and move operations. While the initial description of the fix mentioned "CopyJob", it has been clarified that it also covers move transfers because they use the same underlying process.
This is particularly helpful for move operations, as an interruption could potentially be more difficult to recover from than a simple copy.
There has been a question raised about whether this fix also extends to archiving or unarchiving files (like creating or extracting .tar or .zip files).
Users wonder if these operations, which can also take a long time, especially on slower CPUs, will also keep the computer awake.
But, this point is not explicitly confirmed to be included in the current fix.
Better Usability and Reliability
This important fix is part of KDE Frameworks version 6.15. This improvement makes using KDE for file management more reliable and user-friendly.
You can now start a long transfer with confidence, knowing your computer won't unexpectedly go to sleep and stop it halfway through.
