On one of my Plasma 5.16.4 systems, clicking a shortcut icon in the Task Manager bar causes it to disappear and expand as a named running instance to the right. The shortcut icon will ONLY reappear when all current instances are closed. The desired behavior, and one which I believe is the default as this works correctly on all of my other systems, has the icon remaining in place and NOT disappearing while one or more instances are running. The frustration that I'm having is that I want to run a second instance of a browser or terminal but have to shift click on the open instance rather than the icon (which has disappeared).

I was unable to find a solution either on my own or through a web search. I'd greatly appreciate someone pointing me to the proper setting.

Thanks much.

I deleted my three shortcuts, then restored them by dragging them from the application launcher while being careful to add them to the space BETWEEN the application launcher and task manager (I saw the task manager shift over to the right). This solved the problem. They somehow must have been added to the task manager instead of the panel. I hope this helps someone.