Default Open File Location

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1

I just got a new laptop and installed OpenSUSE 16.0, after having used 15.x for the past couple of years. I use both Firefox and Chrome browsers, each with a dozen different profiles. I noticed a difference in the “open file” behavior, and since it started in both browsers at the same time, I think it’s an operating system change.

In OpenSUSE 15.6, when opening a file to upload, the default location the first time after startup would be the home directory, after that it would be the previous location I uploaded from, regardless of which browser or profile. It seems OpenSUSE 15.6 uses one single storage place for the location. (In OpenSUSE 15.5 and before, each browser had its own location, but that was still shared between all profiles within that browser).

In OpenSUSE 16.0, the location seems to be profile specific. Each profile defaults to the last open location for that profile, regardless of whether it was in the same session or a previous session.

Does anyone know if I can get back to the previous behavior, where the file open dialog is essentially shared between all applications, rather than each application having their own history? It would fit my workflow better.

2

Which desktop environment are you using?

3

Sorry, should have mentioned. KDE, I guess Plasma 6? Whatever the default KDE is with 16.0.

4

Comment deleted…i misread the initial post.

5

Also, in case it matters, my computer is an HP Envy laptop.

6

The hardware is irrelevant to this discussion. I don’t use Chrome, but for Firefox at least check about:config > widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.file-picker as that will influence the behavior you observe. On my Leap 16 install it is set to “true”, which means it uses desktop integration. KDE Plasma itself remembers last-used directories per application, not globally. AFAIU, browsers can store last-used directories per profile inside the browser, on top of KDE’s behavior.

7

Thanks, I am trying changing that setting from 1 to 0, see if that makes a difference.

8

Test out these two sets of settings:

widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.file-picker 1
widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.location 2
widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.mime-handler 2
widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.native-messaging 0
widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.open-uri 2
widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.settings 2
browser.download.dir /path/to/Downloads
browser.download.lastDir /path/to/Downloads
browser.download.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir false
browser.download.useDownloadDir true
browser.open.lastDir /path/to/Downloads

You can use a search engine to search for what they do.

9

Thanks for those who responded. I found that changing the widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.file-picker does not seem to be making any difference.

I have concluded that the behavior where every browser profile has it’s own “last file picker location”, independent of the other browsers and profiles, is probably the intended behavior, and that the “feature” I had in Leap 15.6 with one global “last file picker location” may have been a bug. So I am getting used to this behavior.