A replacement for dolphin that can look just as pretty?

2026-06-22 15:40 UTC

Moved to using KDE recently and it’s everything I’ve ever wanted in aesthetics and customization. Unfortunately, dolphin doesn’t refresh when files are moved around and while I tried to accept it, I just can’t. Showing me where files are is literally the only job of a file manager. Are there any other file managers that can take all the themes and colors in KDE? I love having a full theme but I can’t stand this manual refresh thing.

Replies (12)

@just_another_person@lemmy.world 2026-06-22 15:47

Is it only happening with folders that are or have symlinks?

Open ##3374789
@KindaABigDyl@programming.dev 2026-06-22 17:31

I like thunar with Arc theme but it’s Gtk based, and you really need to install thunar and its plugins (volman, archive manager, etc)

Open ##3375011
@blackbrook@mander.xyz 2026-06-22 18:08

It updates for me. For example (and I just tested this), if some other process copies a file into the directory I have open in dolphin, I see the file appear pretty instantly.

Open ##3375146
@jimerson@lemmy.world 2026-06-22 16:47

I have the same issue on all four machines that use Dolphin. I’ve accepted having to hit F5 to refresh and I’m not looking to switch file managers, but if there is a fix I’d love to implement it!

Open ##3375806
@onlinepersona@programming.dev 2026-06-22 21:06

Might be this bug. You can add more information to it and possibly help the devs fix it.

Open ##3376256
@hexagonwin@lemmy.today 2026-06-23 14:09

i haven’t used kde for quite a while; but maybe konqueror could work better?

Open ##3381902
@MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml 2026-06-23 14:34

Try Krusader for a different KDE file manager. I quite like how it looks but don’t use it regularly.

Open ##3382033
@NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 2026-06-23 16:41

My dolphin does not behave like that. So there is something else going on for you.

Open ##3382852
@CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 2026-06-23 17:30

Are you using btrfs by any chance? I think copy-on-write can sometimes cause delays in Dolphin. Mine doesn’t always update the free disk space right away when I delete a file, for example.

Open ##3382994
@Admirable_Bagel_0989@lemmy.ml 2026-06-23 22:31

My dolphin takes ~0.5 seconds, I don’t really see any problem, but, if you want try something PCMan file manager updated instantly, I just don’t like the icons but it’s up for you

Open ##3384674
@NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 2026-06-23 22:47

Press F5 to refresh.

Open ##3384958
@mub@lemmy.ml 2026-06-23 23:16

Does this happen when browsing local files or just network shares (SMB or Vs ssh) ?

Open ##3385128