How to set visible columns default for the 'Files' file manager?

Question

I can't find the global settings to fix visible columns in the 'Files' file manager. I repeat: Global settings for the whole system thus NOT per directory.

Thanks for helping out.

score 16 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 05 '18 at 14:50

16

For Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS Bionic

Open Terminal with Ctrl-Alt-T
Install dconf-tools:
```
sudo apt-get install dconf-tools
```
Open dconf-editor using dconf-editor command.
Go to org/gnome/nautilus/list-view/default-visible-columns. There you can edit the custom value field with the name of the columns you would like to be as the default view for all your folders.
Also, you can go to org/gnome/nautilus/list-view/default-column-order and set the default order the columns will appear as per your desire.

edited Nov 05 '18 at 14:50

David Foerster

36,264
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answered Aug 06 '18 at 10:48

privateoneuser

447

Oddly enough, this seems to work except for the mime_type column ("Detailed Type" as it shows up in the UI.) – Attila O. May 01 '22 at 10:46
This was the answer that I found most useful/straightforward, thanks! – Mike Lawrence Aug 12 '22 at 13:14
1

Still working on Ubuntu 22.04. The possible names for the columns are name, size, type, owner, group, permissions, detailed_type, where, date_modified_with_time, date_modified, date_accessed, date_created, recency, starred. – user171780 Jan 01 '23 at 10:57

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 24 '21 at 07:38

12

This works in ubuntu 21.10 :

sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt update
sudo apt install dconf-cli dconf-editor

And then open dconf-editor and go to org gnome nautilus list-view

answered Dec 24 '21 at 07:38

alEx

261

1

I don't know why this got downvoted. It is the best (only) solution for Ubuntu 22.04. – josephwb May 04 '22 at 16:56
3

In case someone wants the name of the columns, from the nautalius project they are: ```{ "name", "size", "type", "owner", "group", "permissions", "detailed_type", "where", "date_modified_with_time", "date_modified", "date_accessed", "date_created", "recency", "starred",
};``` also, in my case I also had to set the key in dconf as I didn't have it before using gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.list-view default-visible-columns "['name', 'date_modified', 'type', 'size']" which sets it with some default values.
– coder Aug 02 '22 at 10:06
Perfect for 22.04. – Danijel Jan 16 '23 at 11:24
1

Was the line sudo add-apt-repository universe neccessary? – Danijel Jan 16 '23 at 11:25

Byte Commander · Answer 3 · 2015-12-21T18:17:52.627

9

In nautilus (the 'Files' manager), open the Edit menu and select Preferences.

In the appearing configuration window, navigate to the List columns tab. You should see a list of checkboxes like the one in my screen shot below:

Simply select your preferred default columns you want to see here.

However, if you ever manually changed the columns for a single folder only, that folder got its own configuration, which has a higher priority than the global defaults this method has set. Therefore it won't take effect in these directories.

You must reset the view settings for those directories manually using one of these methods:

In the View menu, click Reset view to defaults to reset the current folder's view.
Right-click on the column headlines of the current folder, then select Use defaults.
To reset all folder-specific view settings everywhere, delete all files in /home/YOUR_USERNAME/.local/share/gvfs-metadata.

You should do this from a terminal using the command
```
rm ~/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/*
```
Then restart Nautilus (there's a daemon running in the background as well!) using the command
```
nautilus -q ; nautilus -n & disown
```

edited Dec 21 '15 at 18:17

answered Dec 21 '15 at 17:26

Byte Commander

107,489

1

Thanks for your prompt effort however this is not the settings changing invisible/visible columns for the whole system but for the currently open directory. :) --- In the past I have been able to set the default setting but forgot how. So what I mean is how to set the default invisible/visible columns settings. – user232365 Dec 21 '15 at 17:48
1

@user232365 See my edit. The method I described sets the default, but it gets overridden by the custom, folder-specific settings you made once. – Byte Commander Dec 21 '15 at 18:00
@JacobVlijm I found out how to reset all view settings. It's described here: http://askubuntu.com/q/164551/367990. I also edited my answer. – Byte Commander Dec 21 '15 at 18:19
That's it! Unfortunately, it makes the question a dupe. Not the answer however :) – Jacob Vlijm Dec 21 '15 at 18:23
@JacobVlijm No, the question is about how to modify the global default column settings and how to reset all folder-specific configurations to the global ones. The linked question only covers the second half. – Byte Commander Dec 21 '15 at 18:27
@Matsmath I guess you could just search anything and then drag the columns around there, like you would do for any other single directory. Did you try that already? – Byte Commander May 23 '19 at 21:37
@Matsmath Yes, just right-click the column headers while a search is open and enable all the columns you want to see. Just like you can do it in any other place. The settings dialog described in the answer is for the global default columns instead. You want to change those for a single location only, which can be done in the header's context menu. – Byte Commander May 25 '19 at 21:40
2

@Matsmath Well, I tried it on 16.04. Maybe the functionality got (re)moved. I think you should ask a separate question, the comments here are not meant for extended discussions. – Byte Commander May 26 '19 at 11:12
Option not there in 22.04 version. Please update answer accordingly – Sagar Sep 22 '23 at 04:57
@Sagar my answer was posted 7 years ago and worked back then. I am not surprised that things have changed since, but I also don't have a setup and chance to check how it might work right now. If you figure anything out that isn't already listed in this or the other answers, please post a new answer to share your findings. – Byte Commander Sep 25 '23 at 12:34

Elder Geek · Answer 4 · 2023-09-22T23:58:20.433

0

In 18.04 GUI method Click Files then Preferences and you'll get this:

Check the boxes for the information you'd like to see in list view and close the Preferences dialog box.

edited Sep 22 '23 at 23:58

answered May 01 '19 at 15:47

Elder Geek

36,023
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4

This option does not exist for Ubuntu 22.02, so you should remove the "and beyond" from the title. – josephwb May 04 '22 at 17:01
Yes, this option doesn't show up any more in 22.04. Please update your answer – Sagar Sep 22 '23 at 04:57
@Sagar My apologies. Feel free to post your own answer – Elder Geek Sep 22 '23 at 23:59

How to set visible columns default for the 'Files' file manager?

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