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When I am typing for a file in any folder it searches for that file and gives results of the text I entered instead of just searching in the current folder.

How do I get nautilus 3.4 feature of finding a file in current folder on type instead of searching?

Any Help will be Appreciated!

daboross
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Deepen
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2 Answers2

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Enter this into the terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.preferences enable-interactive-search true

(From this answer)

Community
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falsePockets
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  • Wow, that worked like a charm! I wonder why this isn't exposed in any graphical settings interface. – DaVince Jul 12 '17 at 12:47
  • I am getting No such key “enable-interactive-search” error. How do I add this key? I tried reinstalling gedit. Still it did not add this key. I am using ubuntu 20.04 LTS. I had upgraded from 18.04 ubuntu 2 years back. After upgrading many software were not working and I had to reinstall them again. – ABN Aug 31 '22 at 06:03
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3 working solutions, in order of difficulty:

  1. change the options of any version of Nautilus using gconf-editor:
    1. apps -> Nautilus -> preferences;
    2. visit org.gnome.nautilus.preferences;
    3. check (enable) enable-interactive-search;
  2. replace any version of Nautilus with another file manager (GUIDE / HOW-TO);
  3. install a patched version of Nautilus 3.6 (GUIDE / HOW-TO) and remember to update it frequently;

After following these instructions you should reboot your computer to replace the running instances of Nautilus.

Lorenzo Ancora
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    enable-interactive-search key does not exist in my ubuntu 20.04 nautilus preferences. How do I add this key? – ABN Aug 21 '22 at 10:22
  • Hi @ABN , after browsing the path named in point 1.2, you can add a new key by right-clicking on the right pane and selecting New key.... You need to create a key named enable-interactive-search of type Boolean with value True. In alternative, some users have reported that reinstalling gedit creates the key automatically. – Lorenzo Ancora Aug 22 '22 at 11:30
  • Hi @Lorenzo, I am using dconf. It has a single pane where the existing attributes are listed. I purged edit and installed it again. It did automatically add enable-interactive-search. – ABN Aug 31 '22 at 05:49
  • I am using ubuntu 20.04 LTS. I had upgraded from 18.04 ubuntu 2 years back. Search as you type feature is fine in small directory. If you do that in the home directory, it goes on continuously, slowing down the system. – ABN Aug 31 '22 at 06:23
  • @ABN the slowdown depends on the speed of your hard drive and on the amount of files for which Nautilus can generate thumbnails. Consider transitioning to a hybrid HDD or directly to SSD. If you can't, reorganizing your files in hierarchy of subfolders will reduce the issue considerably. – Lorenzo Ancora Sep 17 '22 at 18:37
  • I have ssd drive on my system. And my files are organised in hierarchy of subfolders. The problem is that the Nautilus search just keep on searching in all folders. Even after finding the files I require. Also in my earlier comment i wrote reinstalling gedit added enable-interactive-search key. Reinstalling did not add this key. – ABN Sep 18 '22 at 19:40
  • @ABN the search algorithm doesn't know what you need so you'll always need to open the file and then stop the search. However, it is likely that your system has a performance bottleneck. I think this specific search function isn't fit for your specific needs, so you may want to use another specialized program to find the files: try Catfish or FSearch, maybe they are more intuitive for the task at hand. If your system is still slowed down, execute them using the nice (or directly ionice if you feel skilled enough) command line utility. – Lorenzo Ancora Sep 21 '22 at 18:26