Hi HGT,
Panels can be configured and populated with items and these configurations
are also stored in
$HOME/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-panel.xml
but when xfce4-panel is restarted, as with logout and new login,
this configuration is lost!
Try!
Accessing Configuration Data
xfce4-settings-editor - Settings Editor
Monitoring Channel Changes
XFSETTINGSD_DEBUG=1 xfsettingsd --replace --no-daemon
xfconf - Configuration Storage System
Xfconf is a hierarchical (tree-like) configuration system where the immediate child nodes of the root are called “channels”. All settings beneath the channel nodes are called “properties.”
Accessing Configuration Data
Settings stored in Xfconf can be accessed in numerous ways:
From within applications of Settings Manager. Most of the time, settings stored in Xfconf and configuration options presented in the GUI are tightly coupled. It means that any action of the GUI settings is automatically and immediately propagated to the configuration system and vice-versa. See also: Settings Daemon.
From Command Line Interface (CLI) using xfconf-query.
From GUI. Settings, which are not exposed in configuration dialogs, can be browsed and manipulated using Settings Editor.
If everything else fails, settings can be edited manually. Xfconf stores all its data in XML files, which can be edited when Xfconf is not running. Be very careful when using this option, as it is easy to make the file unparseable or inconsistent.
https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfconf/start
xfce4-settings-editor - Settings Editor
The xfce4-settings-editor is a tool for editing ALL settings within xfconf. It is the graphical counterpart of xfconf-query. Both xfconf-query and the xfce4-settings-editor can be used to perform maintenance on the xfconf property database.
[..]
Monitoring Channel Changes
If you right-click a channel, you can Monitor... a channel for changes. This is useful for debugging in some cases and gives you some insight in the activity of a channel.
https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings/editor
xfce4-settings - Settings Daemon
Debugging
If you have problems with settings and wonder which and if the settings are applied, you can run the daemon in debugging mode. You can do with with the following command in a terminal:
XFSETTINGSD_DEBUG=1 xfsettingsd --replace --no-daemon
https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings/xfsettingsd
