Nemo bug list view not sorting by name

[artopal]

On day 1 of my installation I changed the preferences so nemo always use list view. I also chose from the preferences to sort the files by name. Every time I open nemo the list view is sorted by modified time instead, regardless of what I've set on the preferences. I can change it clicking on the name column, and every child instance of nemo keeps my preference (sort by name), but if I open a new instance of nemo it's always sorted by modified time by default.

As I said, the preferences correctly show sort by name, it just doesn't apply for new instances of nemo.

I tried dconf-editor, but the error keeps happening.

Any ideas?

By the way, my system is Linux MInt 18.1 Cinnamon 64 bit. Up to date but for the kernel, which still is 4.4.0-53-generic.

[Cosmo.]

What is your version of Mint and what is the desktop environment? If you don't know open a terminal and enter:

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inxi -Sz

Paste the output here.

Try this: in the view menu select the entry to reset to defaults after selecting the questioned folder.

[artopal]

What is your version of Mint and what is the desktop environment?

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System: Kernel: 4.4.0-53-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Cinnamon 3.2.7
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.1 Serena

Try this: in the view menu select the entry to reset to defaults after selecting the questioned folder.

This didn't work (like, nothing changed and files are still sorted by modified time).

By the way, the error applies regardless of folder.

Thanks for answering and giving ideas, though.

I suspect, maybe nemo config is somewhere on some file that I could just delete and start over? But as I know linux, it's probably scattered in many such files...

[austin.texas]

Check to see if you have any files in your /home that are owned by root instead of the user:

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find $HOME -not -user $USER -exec ls -lad {} \;

[artopal]

Check to see if you have any files in your /home that are owned by root instead of the user:

Checked. You were right:

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~ $ find $HOME -not -user $USER -exec ls -lad {} \;
drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Jul 20  2016 /home/rafo/.cache/dconf
find: ‘/home/rafo/.cache/dconf’: Permission denied

What do I do? Change ownership with chown?

[austin.texas]

You do not have any important files owned by root.
The .cache/dconf file is inconsequential - it can be deleted or ignored. It is just a .cache
I know - I have deleted mine more than once, just to see...

[artopal]

I went ahead and changed the ownership anyway, but it had no effect. Preferences still showing sort by name, but the app is still defaulting to sort by modified time. :/

[austin.texas]

I don't know what is causing that glitch. I would be tempted to re-install nemo, to see if that helps. I can't say that it will... It is just a shot in the dark.

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sudo apt-get install --reinstall nemo

[artopal]

I don't know what is causing that glitch. I would be tempted to re-install nemo, to see if that helps. I can't say that it will... It is just a shot in the dark.

In the dark, indeed. Didn't help.

And now I'm really out of ideas...

It's just so annoying that every time I open nemo I have to click on the name column again.

[Cosmo.]

One question, one advice:

You wrote, that the folders are sorted by date. By default this is not the case, so I wonder, if you had changed it once to that or if this appeared for you from the very beginning.

Create a fresh new user account and check the problem there,

[artopal]

Well, that was interesting, even though I'm not the wiser.

Created the new user. Logged in. Started nemo, changed the preferences to list view and... sorted by name by default! Worked with every window I opened.

Then tryed clicking on sort by modified time. Opened a new window (not a child) and low and behold: sorted by modified time! Even though the default in the preferences is still sort by name.

Click on the Name column and new opened windows are sort by name. Click on the Modified Time column and new opened windows are sorted by modified time. The default set in the preferences doesn't matter, it seems.

Back on my user, every new window is sorted by modified time, regargless of where I clicked or how I sorted the files on the previous nemo window.

Weird.

[Cosmo.]

That means, that the problem is account-related ( I did not expect anything else).

Please reread and answer my question in the last post.

[artopal]

That means, that the problem is account-related ( I did not expect anything else).

Sort of. As I said, using the new accout also has unexpected and unwanted behavior, because the setting on the preferences appears to be ignored. What is not ignored is when I click on a column on the list view, the sorting, which I would expect to be set just for that window, works as if I had changed the default sorting behavior for any new window.

But it's true that my account shows even weirder behavior, because regardless of what I do with the preferences or clicking on the list view columns, new windows are always defaulting to being sorted by modified time.

I'll try removing the modified time column from the list view and seeing how the files are sorted then.

[artopal]

I'll try removing the modified time column from the list view and seeing how the files are sorted then.

Well, that didn't go well. New windows still appear to be sorted by modfied time, even if there's no modified time column on the list view anymore. The little triangle that appears on the column title to indicate the sorting is just not there anymore. I still have to click on the name column to sort the files by name (and then the little triangle appears).

[Cosmo.]

As I said, using the new accout also has unexpected and unwanted behavior, because the setting on the preferences appears to be ignored.

Once a folder has been opened in Nemo, Nemo saves and remembers the specific settings, so that this folder gets displayed afterwards in the last display setting. you can change that in the preferences -> behavior -> activate to ignore the folder specific settings.

Besides that: What is so complicated to answer my question?

[artopal]

Once a folder has been opened in Nemo, Nemo saves and remembers the specific settings, so that this folder gets displayed afterwards in the last display setting. you can change that in the preferences -> behavior -> activate to ignore the folder specific settings.

Yes, I have this setting active, so the behavior is double unexpected and unwanted. It goes against the default being sort by name and it goes against the setting 'Ignore per-folder view settings'.

What is so complicated to answer my question?

If you refer to this:

I wonder, if you had changed it once to that or if this appeared for you from the very beginning.

I really don't rememeber, being this so long ago, but I usually need to check a file that I modified recently, so I click on the mtime column to sort them this way. After work is done, I click again on the name column. That happens every few weeks or months, so I'm pretty sure that I did it back in the day, and judging by the behavior I observed with the test account (sort by name being the default at the beginning), I can asume that this was the case on my account, too.

So the answer is: I believe I changed it once to that. And now it doesn't let me unchange it.

[artopal]

I tried the new test account and saw that the "Ignore per-folder view preferences" was not set. I set it and the behavior was as expected: sort by name was the default, and even if I clicked on the mtime column, new windows didn't inherit this change.

So: new accounts work flawlessly. You're right, the problem lies somehow with the settings or config files of my account.

[Cosmo.]

I assume, that the ownership problems are still resolved. As austin already wrote, ignore the entry for .cache/dconf; this is a bug in Mint 18.x (more precisely in the update manager) and will quickly reappear, if you correct this.

Open the file manager and make hidden files visible (ctrl-h). Goin your home into .config and rename the folder dconf there to dconf.bck. Attention: Don't mix this with the dconf folder in .cache! Immediately after that log out of your account and back in. Does this help?

[artopal]

Open the file manager and make hidden files visible (ctrl-h). Goin your home into .config and rename the folder dconf there to dconf.bck. Attention: Don't mix this with the dconf folder in .cache! Immediately after that log out of your account and back in. Does this help?

I tried what you suggested, but it didn't help. New nemo instances still show files sorted by mtime.

By the way, thanks for all the help and ideas you're giving me for narrowing this glitch down.

[Cosmo.]

We have to dig deeper.

At first undo the renaming action. You will find a new folder dconf inside of .config, it has been created with default values. You have to delete it before you can undo the renaming.

Now rename both folders .config and .local in your accordingly. Log out and back in. Test.