SUMMARY Recently i had upgraded to dolphin 25.08.1 and noticed weird new behavior where a newly created folder didnt show up, turns out it was created in the selected folder (which did not happen in 25.04.X). After a bisection it came out that https://invent.kde.org/system/dolphin/-/commit/65bb95f50ed591c8e5c7b07b9ef6072dfcecf89e was the issue and had https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=508196, where it turned out to be fully intentional. As i dont like the new behavior and some others seemingly also dont like it (or at least find it confusing to be now happening), could it be made into a option? STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Open dolphin 2. Create a new folder 3. Select that new folder 4. press CTRL+SHIFT+N (or whatever configured shortcut) to create a new folder 5. observe the dialog including the newly created folder in its path 6. create the folder 7. observe it actually being created in the selected folder OBSERVED RESULT If a folder is selected and the "create new folder" shortcut is pressed, the new folder is created *inside* the selected folder EXPECTED RESULT To be created in the current location (as shown in the address-bar) SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Operating System: Manjaro Linux KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.6 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.18.0 Qt Version: 6.9.2 Kernel Version: 6.12.48-1-MANJARO (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core Processor Memory: 15.5 GiB of RAM Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon Graphics Manufacturer: ASUS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION re: https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/1nv7bat/dolphin_how_do_i_disable_creating_new_folder_in/ re: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=508196#add_comment This is especially annoying as my workflow is moving around with the arrow keys and/or renaming files&folders, which keeps the selected, now requiring a extra ESC to de-select it.
Alternatively, i would also be happy with a new shortcut that is for creating a new directory *in the current* directory, regardless if something is selected or not.
I feel this pain as well. In my opinion, a right-click of a folder to create a new folder inside that directory does make at least some sense. At the exact moment of right-clicking, the context is "the thing I just right-clicked." But when using a keyboard shortcut, it feels like the most appropriate context is the window (and therefore the current directory you are looking at, not whatever is selected). If my knowledge includes "Ctrl+Shift+N" makes a new folder inside what is selected, what am I to assume will happen when I have multiple folders selected? It is not immediately clear. Where I think this design could go either way, though, is in the Details view. If I'm using arrows to navigate around a couple layers deep, what should Ctrl+Shift+N do? Is the context A) the root address that is in the address bar at the top, or B) the directory where my selection resides? I would lean towards option B because it gives more functionality. But then, if the goal was consistency, that would conflict with what feels more appropriate in the first paragraph of this comment. We can get close to consistency in all views by placing the new folder either in the current directory with no selection or in the same directory as your current selection (but not within it). In Icons view, there would be no difference between the two. In Details view, this would allow you to place new folders some levels deep, but you would not be able to create a new folder inside an empty folder because there are no selections to put you within that directory first. The only other solution I can come up with is to expose the options after pressing the shortcut, somewhere within the New Folder popup. If a folder is selected, perhaps prefill the path with the name of that folder with only the name of the new directory highlighted, so that 1) what is going to happen is presented immediately, in case you were not aware of a selection, and 2) you can change/fix it even before creating the folder. With a Dolphin window open to the directory "Receipts" and "October" highlighted, the new folder popup would show "October/New Folder" with just New Folder being highlighted. At this point if you realize that you didn't intend to create the new directory within your selection, you can Ctrl+A to highlight all and start typing to put your folder directly in Receipts. In the Details view, this path could be qualified all the way from the Window context to the new folder. "Work/Finances/Receipts/October/New Folder" This is all a lot more work than a checkbox though. If the preference suggested by hasezoey is created, it should act on all methods of creation, whether right-clicking or keyboard shortcuts. "Ignore highlights/selections and place new folders in current directory" would be wonderful.
There are multiple cases where, at the end of the intended actions, Dolphin is left with selected folders. Like when you delete or create a folder. There is no intentional context in this cases, it's not me who selected those folders, thus I need to fight Dolphin, which needlessly increases my congnitive load. Well, it already did, because I never needed to read the small text on the dialog until now. And - I didn't check if it's really possible to do it unintentionally, but - let's imagine Dolphin ends with all folders selected in a thousand subfolders folder and I press F10 and type 'new-folder' and Enter...
Changing to wishlist, since this is a feature request and not a bug. It's worth considering, given that there are multiple people expressing support.
These two bug reports from 2023 ( 472740, 472672 ) seem to be relevant to this thread. I'm experiencing something closely related to this which indicates the behavior is probably bugged or at least unintentional. Under certain conditions, the "Create New > Folder" option fails quietly and does nothing at all. As I've been learning how to use Dolphin I've found myself really enjoying the details view, since I can open all kinds of subfolders without actually navigating to them. This is very handy for keeping a birds-eye view of a complex media library or project with all kinds of branching sub-folders. In comparison, I've found that navigating through the labirynth of files the regular way, by opening the folders directly, feels claustrophobic (if that makes sense). Because of the way I've been using Dolphin's details view, it's intuitive to me that I'd be able to make new folders inside of any directory I want, simply by right-clicking on the folder I want it in and choosing "Create New > Folder" in the context menu. However, when I try to add a new folder in this way, it does not bring up the new folder dialogue; it just fails quietly and does nothing. If I right-click on whitespace or the margins and choose "Create New > Folder" in the context menu, the new folder is created in the directory on the address bar, even if I have a target folder selected. I have also tested this with "File > Create New > Folder", and I get the same behavior. The fact that hasezoey seems to have the opposite problem indicates to me that there is some kind of bug causing inconsistent behavior, or that behavior was changed in the progression from Dolphin 25.08.0 to 25.08.1. It's also worth considering that, to users like hasezoey, this change in behavior is a regression. The interesting edge case brought up by The Ge where multiple selected folders are selected should also be considered carefully when fixing these discrepancies. While Brandon Beaumia's suggestion of a modifier key could work, relegating core functionality to keyboard shortcuts is not good practice when trying to develop a system for regular users. I propose that the simplest solution is to split this into two separate options in the context menu, and two separate bindable behaviors: - The default, "Create New > Folder" (or maybe "Folder In Directory"), should only consider the directory in the address bar. - The new option, called something like "Folder In Selected", should consider the selected directory instead. You could even handle the edge case by displaying "Folders In Selected" instead, if multiple folders are selected, and allow the user to make identical new subfolders in each selected folder (though whether this is more likely to be done by accident than on purpose should be discussed further, and possibly user-tested). --- Operating System: Nobara Linux 42 KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.4 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.17.0 Qt Version: 6.9.2 Kernel Version: 6.17.1-200.nobara.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Dolphin Version: 25.08.0
Hi. It took me a couple of weeks to understand what has been going on and why I keep seeming to lose directories I am sure I created and finding them in unexpected places. The change reported in this ticket and in the Reddit thread essentially capture the problem: I'm frequently navigating with Dolphin and my keyboard. So I am typically looking around my file system and hitting ctrl+shift+n to create a new directory in the present working directory. It is really unexpected that a newly created directory should end up going somewhere that isn't my current view. Even if the intention is to harmonize the behavior with the right click context menu, it really is a different behavior that's been introduced. It's "Create New Folder In..." vs the long-established "Create New Folder..." I'm using Dolphin 25.08.1
Just +1 This is not how Windows Explorer works, how nautilus works... It's not how one expects a file explorer to work, like at all. It took me a lot of time to even find the reason for the missing folders, so probably around a 100 folders somewhere buried in my home directory and NAS. It took me even more time, to realize I will not get accustomed to it and so to file a bug. I am glad I have found this one. Why was this silently pushed and why is there no option to disable it completely, to make it work like all the other file browsers?
I gather from https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=508196#c28 that this has been reversed, and good riddance. It's really horrible, and I still don't know how many "phantom" empty folders I have somewhere on my home dir from the time before I realized this new behavior was happening, with new folders inexplicably ""not being"" created, apparently.
Since the change which caused this feature request to be opened is being reverted, I'm closing this for now. The desired behavior will be in Dolphin 25.08.3.