diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2105.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2105.xml
index cd4cb7cce92..2886c4c5f75 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2105.xml
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2105.xml
@@ -989,6 +989,24 @@ environment.systemPackages = [
      PostgreSQL 9.5 is scheduled EOL during the 21.05 life cycle and has been removed.
     </para>
    </listitem>
+   <listitem>
+    <para>
+     <link xlink:href="https://www.xfce.org/">Xfce4</link> relies on
+     GIO/GVfs for userspace virtual filesystem access in applications
+     like <link xlink:href="https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/">thunar</link> and
+     <link xlink:href="https://docs.xfce.org/apps/gigolo/">gigolo</link>.
+     For that to work, the gvfs nixos service is enabled by default,
+     and it can be configured with the specific package that provides
+     GVfs. Until now Xfce4 was setting it to use a lighter version of
+     GVfs (without support for samba). To avoid conflicts with other
+     desktop environments this setting has been dropped. Users that
+     still want it should add the following to their system
+     configuration:
+     <programlisting>
+<xref linkend="opt-services.gvfs.package" /> = pkgs.gvfs.override { samba = null; };
+     </programlisting>
+    </para>
+   </listitem>
   </itemizedlist>
  </section>
 </section>
diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/x11/desktop-managers/xfce.nix b/nixos/modules/services/x11/desktop-managers/xfce.nix
index fc7f7bea4e4..7d2856939c8 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/x11/desktop-managers/xfce.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/x11/desktop-managers/xfce.nix
@@ -151,7 +151,6 @@ in
     services.upower.enable = config.powerManagement.enable;
     services.gnome3.glib-networking.enable = true;
     services.gvfs.enable = true;
-    services.gvfs.package = pkgs.xfce.gvfs;
     services.tumbler.enable = true;
     services.system-config-printer.enable = (mkIf config.services.printing.enable (mkDefault true));
     services.xserver.libinput.enable = mkDefault true; # used in xfce4-settings-manager
diff --git a/pkgs/desktops/xfce/applications/gigolo/default.nix b/pkgs/desktops/xfce/applications/gigolo/default.nix
index b9ff011f3be..4b7c258ca59 100644
--- a/pkgs/desktops/xfce/applications/gigolo/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/desktops/xfce/applications/gigolo/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ lib, mkXfceDerivation, gtk3, gvfs, glib }:
+{ lib, mkXfceDerivation, gtk3, glib }:
 
 mkXfceDerivation {
   category = "apps";
@@ -8,12 +8,7 @@ mkXfceDerivation {
 
   sha256 = "8UDb4H3zxRKx2y+MRsozQoR3es0fs5ooR/5wBIE11bY=";
 
-  buildInputs = [ gtk3 glib gvfs ];
-
-  postPatch = ''
-    # exo-csource has been dropped from exo
-    substituteInPlace src/Makefile.am --replace exo-csource xdt-csource
-  '';
+  buildInputs = [ gtk3 glib ];
 
   meta = {
     description = "A frontend to easily manage connections to remote filesystems";
diff --git a/pkgs/desktops/xfce/core/thunar/default.nix b/pkgs/desktops/xfce/core/thunar/default.nix
index cc94683ddde..e220e29f3ed 100644
--- a/pkgs/desktops/xfce/core/thunar/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/desktops/xfce/core/thunar/default.nix
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 , libxslt
 , xfconf
 , gobject-introspection
-, gvfs
 , makeWrapper
 , symlinkJoin
 , thunarPlugins ? []
@@ -35,7 +34,6 @@ let unwrapped = mkXfceDerivation {
     exo
     gdk-pixbuf
     gtk3
-    gvfs
     libX11
     libgudev
     libnotify
diff --git a/pkgs/desktops/xfce/default.nix b/pkgs/desktops/xfce/default.nix
index 12f487f1784..1b7877cd79d 100644
--- a/pkgs/desktops/xfce/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/desktops/xfce/default.nix
@@ -15,9 +15,6 @@ lib.makeScope pkgs.newScope (self: with self; {
 
   automakeAddFlags = pkgs.makeSetupHook { } ./automakeAddFlags.sh;
 
-  # Samba is a rather heavy dependency
-  gvfs = pkgs.gvfs.override { samba = null; };
-
   #### CORE
 
   exo = callPackage ./core/exo { };