when I change settings in okular (eg. view → single page) the options are not saved as general.
I have the change them every time I open a document.
How can I achieve that the options are saved and applied the next time I open a document.
Add the View Mode Dropdown Button to the upper toolbar, and the setting is saved.
Settings->Configure Okular->Show backend selection dialog
Than, chose the view you want in the View Mode dropdown which appeared in the toolbar.
The view->xxx which you have choosen is only saved per document.
I have to correct, it is a per file setting in general.
but how is the default set?
hard to imagine that it is hardcoded
If you search for the issue you will find what i wrote: the view setting is not global but per file by default. It cannot be changed.
This issue goes back way before Plasma 6. The oldest KDE thread i found is from 2010. The view mode was never a global setting but per file. If you change the setting for a file, the setting sticks for this file. But if you open a new file which you never opened before, it will always open in single page view.
wrong: I never had that behaviour before. and I use OS/okular for ages.
okular always opened in single page view until lately in OS 16.
whether a setting is per file or global doesn’t explain where the option is set in the first place. particularly since the behaviour doesn’t apply to all files.
As explained: Okular remembers the settings per file.
That means, when you open pdf xyz, change the view to side-by-side, close pdf, reopen: side-by-side-view. Now change it to single side view, close, reopen: single side view.
But if you open a fresh pdf for the first time, it will always be single side.
When you already had opened document xyz once and changed the view, the next time you reopen this file, it will have the saved view from last time.
as already set out: your explanations are not applicable
(unless suddenly after all these years accidentally I encounter many files which have somehow side-by-side view internally set)
Do you have a directory /home/USER/.local/share/okular/docdata/ and can it be accessed by your user?
> ls -laZ /home/USER/.local/share/okular/
insgesamt 72
drwx------. 3 b1 USER unconfined_u:object_r:data_home_t:s0 4096 8. Jan 2026 .
drwx------. 43 b1 USER unconfined_u:object_r:data_home_t:s0 4096 1. Sep 17:00 ..
drwx------. 2 b1 USER unconfined_u:object_r:data_home_t:s0 61440 1. Sep 09:24 docdata
>
Does the problem persist if you delete (make a backup first!) all files in that directory ?