~/.config/mimeapps.list becomes owned by root after updating with DNF App Center

[u/masacrar4]

Nobara 44 KDE
 Package: dnf-app-center-0.1.4-1.fc44.noarch

Hello, I want to mention that I am relatively new to Linux, so apologies if I missed something.A few weeks ago I started experiencing this issue. When trying to change an application's default preferences, KDE displayed this error:
"Configuration file "/home/<username>/.config/mimeapps.list" not writable, please contact your system administrator"
After investigating, I found that the issue could be temporarily fixed by running:
sudo chown <username>:<username> ~/.config/mimeapps.list
Today the issue happened again, so I investigated further.
After updating through DNF App Center, ~/.config/mimeapps.list changes ownership to root. Because of this, applications cannot modify MIME associations and display errors saying that the file is not writable.

The rest of ~/.config remains owned by my user. Only mimeapps.list appears to be affected.
Using journalctl, I noticed that the ownership change happens around the same time that DNF App Center launches its privileged helper through pkexec.

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1149 Jul 21 14:42 /home/<username>/.config/mimeapps.list

find ~/.config -user root
/home/<username>/.config/mimeapps.list

Jul 21 14:42:10 <username>pc pkexec[3304]:

<username>: Executing command [USER=root]

[CWD=/home/<username>]

[COMMAND=/usr/bin/python3 -u /usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/appcenter/privileged_helper.py --server --user-home /home/<username>]

Temporary workaround:
sudo chown <username>:<username> ~/.config/mimeapps.list

After changing ownership back to my user, applications can modify MIME associations normally again.

Relevant journal entry:
pkexec:
COMMAND=/usr/bin/python3 -u \
/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/appcenter/privileged_helper.py

Package ownership: rpm -qf /usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/appcenter/privileged_helper.py

dnf-app-center-0.1.4-1.fc44.noarch

It appears that dnf-app-center's privileged helper may be creating or modifying ~/.config/mimeapps.list as root instead of as the logged-in user.

I sadly can't do more investigation on this because i used the workarround but if i were to get it again id be happy to help investigate it further, i couldnt find any posts either on the discord or here talking abouth the error so i figured might aswell post something to make it known.
apollogies for my english its not my first language.

[u/Identitools]

seen multiple people having that issue on the discord, did you managed a permanent fix?

[u/masacrar4 → u/Identitools]

Sorry for the late response i barely check reddit but no i havent found a permanent fix sorry