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Somehow the default sort order in open dialogues has changed to be sorted by Modified. It's changed in all programs, not just a specific one.

This forces me to reach for the mouse and click the Name column every time I open a file (maybe I'm nitpicking but this gets annoying...).

How can I set the default sort order back to Name? Nautilus sorts by name by default when I browse into folders.

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Run dconf-editor (I assume that you've already installed dconf-tools package),
then navigate to org->gtk->settings->file-chooser and set value of key sort-column to name
or simple click on "Set to Default" button

dconf-editor

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    Thanks for the answer, it seems that should work but my sort-column is already set to 'name', and I hit set to default just to be sure. When I goto open a file it's still sorting by modified (I've tried several programs).
    – user9097
    Nov 29, 2011 at 14:33
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    I have the opposite problem - it's sorted by name, and I'd like it to be sorted by modified. I tried changing "sort-column" to "modified", but no luck. Any ideas?
    – begtognen
    Jul 15, 2013 at 12:09
  • Thanks. This let me change sort order in gtk2 apps like Firefox to have directories first like the rest of the system uses.
    – Sean
    Aug 12, 2016 at 14:33
  • I know it is an old question, but could you solve the problem? I am having the same issue and I can't solve it.
    – nodarkside
    Oct 2, 2020 at 14:46
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    For the record I just had the same problem with Ubuntu 22.10 (GTK4), folders were not sorted first in my case, as it used to be. I tried installing dconf-editor and updated these keys to no avail. But then I noticed a "gtk4" key under "gtk", in there is "settings → file-chooser" too and changing these worked ! So it looks like there's two similar config trees now (probably the default one for GTK3 and the other for GTK4), make sure you update the right one :)
    – Adrien Rey-Jarthon
    Nov 23, 2022 at 9:11
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If the above dconf-editor answer doesn't work for you, try the method described in this answer. Edit ~/.config/gtk-2.0/gtkfilechooser.ini. Look for the section beginning with [Filechooser Settings] and change SortColumn=modified to SortColumn=name.

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