The default sort order in KDE / XDG file picker is by Name - for good reasons.
This default feels basically appropriate, but picking the newest file is also a commonly used requirement (for me).
On first click, the order by Date will bring the oldest file to top. So i have to click twice.
Is there any way - by development or configuration - to change the default sort order by Date to: newest first on first click ?
There is no way built-in currently.
Dolphin has a way to save ordering and columns view.
KIO FileWidgets would need the same kind of setting.
This is tricky to implement, it would be best to store those settings in extended attributes.
And maybe share dolphin settings even.
But KIO does not have any logic regarding view-settings or the extended file attributes reading.
Please open a feature request for frameworks-kio component and link it here for reference.
at bugs.kde.org ?
at bugs.kde.org ?
Yes, that’s the only place to report bugs and feature.
Your credentials on discuss.kde.org should work there.
I’d love to see this in Dolphin. I just automatically doubleclick date columns by now. I feel like a computer could automate this task somehow 
While I’m all for souping it up in the long term, I’m not sure it needs options and settings and metadata. Short term, I think it should be the default behaviour. It seems intuitive that the most recent files are the ones you’re more likely to need, no? We don’t need an option to sort alphabetical data in ascending order, either 
I’m not sure about storing a preference in extended file attributes. It would be inconvenient to have the most-used behaviour be folder-specific, so it has to be set manually once for each folder. It would kinda defeat the purpose of preventing the need to make extra clicks when we want date order.
Let me teach you some Dolphin features, you didn’t know it had.
Dolphin has view settings per-folder, it is built-in behind a setting in settings > display > Save view properties per-folder (not the exact term).
It might become the default option at some point.
It all depend just as in Date Sort order on first click in file picker @chartmann said the default felt appropriate.
It always depends on workflows of users. There isn’t a solution fit all, like often.
Individual opinions and feeling are weak arguments, you have to think broadly and putting yourself in others shoes.
It is easy to imagine that in a folder you want to access an old file, knowing only its name or its approximate name, for instance.
That boat has left with dolphin 24.12, it took about a three years effort, and it was positively received by users modulo a couple of bugs.
This kind of use-case is the purpose of extended file attributes.
With per-folder view settings, we still have default view setting that can be set.
And some folders (downloads, images) have different default view properties built-in.
And you can set view setting recursively for some folders it you want them to have a non-default one. This isn’t easy to find though, you have to got to the More section of the hamburger menu.
I think you might have misread. OP said that sorting by name seemed appropriate, which I agree with…
… but what I’m saying (and I understand so is OP) is that it is most appropriate when sorting by date, to sort most-recent-first.
Of course, but the most common by far is surely most-recent-first. Try as I might, I can’t imagine that oldest-file-first is more commonly required.
So, why is the least-used configuration the default? It seems that it is only because sorting in ascending order is the default, regardless of the content of the column. I guess the ‘big picture’ of what I’m saying is here is that "ascending order first, always’ is not the best implementation.
I did not assume, I asked this question:
As I’ve said, I don’t believe that oldest-first is the most common use case. I am pretty much convinced that an average user on an average day doing an average task, will want most-recent files shown first, most of the time… Pretty much. But I am open to education, so I asked.
Of course, this is easy to imagine. What I find harder to imagine, is that most users want all folders treated this way most of the time.
I am aware of this feature but it doesn’t serve this purpose. The purpose is to show the most commonly used sort order for dates (most-recent-first) without further interaction.
With per-folder view settings, we still have default view setting that can be set.
But even without per-folder settings, just, normally, the default for dates, should be most-recent first, if that’s what most people use the most. If we do use per-folder settings, when we first sort that folder by date, it should be descending-first.
I think that it would be nice to have it be optional and per-folder (because obviously, it makes sense to see the oldest files first, sometimes), but, in addition to just doing it the sane way by default.
So like, in bugzilla ‘desired behaviour’ type notation:
I install a brand new copy of KDE Neon, boot up
Click the dolphin icon in the panel to start dolphin as normal
Click the toolbar button to show detailed view
Click the header of the date column to sort by date
New files should be at the top.
(bonus round to add, after the above basic functionality)
Open Dolphin settings, Change to per-folder view settings
Change to a folder with no existing per-folder view stored
Click the header of the date column to sort by date
New files should be at the top.
Maybe I’m totally wrong. Maybe, most people, most of the time, want to see the files which they have not used recently, first. Maybe. But I doubt it
just two additional cents, when talking about the most natural …
in any directory on command line:
$ ls -l
v.
$ ls -lt
on short run: switch the default behavior to newest at top
if we are talking about workflows … for me this baby depends mostly on the file type, not directory. in ~/Downloads i’m using a sort order by date when looking for new files(!), but when looking for directories in it by name. said that, neither a .directory to setting nor attributes based solution might fit this.
so it boiles down to one or two clicks. sounds familiar … right?
Familiar!
This is one of those things that doesn’t bother me much. It’s a long way down on my queue of things to mention, so I’ve had KDE for years and haven’t brought it up, yet… but it’s been bugging me, just a little, the whole entire time. One. Click. At. A. Time. 
Mate have you filed that bugzilla yet? I’m kinda chillin here waiting for that link
I agree that sorting by date should have most recent files at the top in the first click.
Similarly, when sorting by size, I think it should have the biggest files at the top in the first click (currently it puts the smallest files first, but if I’m sorting by file size it’s usually because I’m trying to find the biggest disk space hogs).
But I guess some people prefer the earliest files first, or the smallest files first.
I tried to suggest a solution for this which would keep everyone happy in 471331 – Have each column able to remember its previous sort order