dolphin used to have a bar on the bottom that showed disk usage / size and filesize, how do i get it back? the window sjust cuts off there now
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Settings - Configure Dolphin - Interface - Status & Location bars - Status Bar - Full Width / Show zoom slider
Additionally, the current default small status bar appears quite awkward in Detail mode view. Since the small status bar blocks the filename at the bottom, the space it saves doesn’t seem particularly useful.
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Actually this new partial bar by default is simply tacky and was unnecessary. Time and energy could of been better spent on other things.
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In non-Detail mode views, the small status bar may still serve a purpose, functioning similarly to how web browsers display link previews, though I personally find little use for it in my daily usage.
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Then it would make sense to offer an option to get rid of / hide this little bar.
thanks, not sure why it was changed and overrode my existing settings
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I’ll say it again it was ridiculous to change this when so many other things need attention.
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First off, sorry about the confusion this change has caused. We do need to iterate on this statusbar change further. I have few ideas already how to make it better, such as moving it to the right side so it’s not in the way in details view. Details view allows you to scroll past the statusbar with the last item, though.
What I would like to know is why is seeing space available all the time so important? Personally I am not opposed to adding it back, I was the one that implemented the smaller bar anyway, I am rather unopinionated on this. I think I would have kept it initially but we came to conclusion its likely not needed.
However maintainers may not see it the same way, so I’d like to know your reasonings so I can share and discuss it going forward. 
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Actually, I think for new users, whether it’s the compact or full status bar might not make much difference. But for long-term users, this change is noticeable.
Personally, while I do monitor disk space (and I often use the status bar to directly access Filelight for folder size analysis), as I mentioned earlier, what initially drew my attention to this status bar change was the awkward display in Detail view mode. For the last line entry, it shows up like:
Full_file_name_here_is_1.txt 10KB Text 2024.05.01
Full_file_name_here_is_2.txt 10KB Text 2024.05.01
[xx dirs, xx files]_is_3.txt 13KB Text 2024.05.01
It truncates most of the filename, rendering the space-saved information (size, type) less useful. Therefore, for me, simply using the full status bar would be preferable.
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I do know that the last file can be displayed properly when scrolling to the bottom. However, from a user perspective, while the small status bar saves space for the file list compared to the standard status bar, the saved space itself doesn’t provide complete file information. Therefore, I would prefer to use the space saved by the small status bar to display other information, such as disk usage.
The small status bar reminds me of the link preview feature in web browsers. However, browser pages are inherently more content-rich, and the size of link previews is smaller relative to most elements on the page, making them feel more natural compared to Dolphin’s small status bar.
To clarify, I’m just sharing my personal experience with this new feature — I’m not opposed to it. In fact, after noticing the change, I found the option to revert it in settings within a minute. For new users, this might not even be an issue.
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Yeah, I am definitely thinking of just moving it to the right. I’d also like to expose the statusbar width setting when right clicking the statusbar.
Feedback like yours is helpful and helps us iterate more on the current design, so thanks!
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That’s not the issue in my book. The issue is the tiny bar looks tacky and out of place. Good thing with this though at for now is that we can fix it with a option in settings unlike so many things where there should of been an option for the old way or the new way and the old way on something simply got remove without getting input from those running Plasma.
For what it’s worth - KDE projects are, in my experience, very open to collaborative contributions. While developers are generally looking out for user feedback - as you’ve seen Akseli and others do many times across these forums - if you want to have more direct input into the direction those projects take, you could also:
- Constructively contribute toward KDE software design decisions - Get Involved/design - KDE Community Wiki
- Help with hands-on maintenance of features and options that you’re passionate about, but that might not have anyone with the time, ability, and interest to continue supporting - Get Involved/development - KDE Community Wiki
Edit: And understanding that not everything can be covered by ad hoc forum discussions, there is also ongoing work to improve developers’ abilities to directly learn how KDE applications are being used - see the “Telemetry” section here: Notes from the Graz Plasma sprint – Adventures in Linux and KDE
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Hi,
back when Peter wrote Dolphin, there were discussions about the size slider and the free space display. I was one of the voices wanting both of them there. … … And I did not change my opinion about this.
When the status bar shrunk for me last week, I shook my head about these young folks who always want to do this “change stuff” that makes the world how it is supposed to be (i.e. how it was when I was 30) complicated. (/s) Then I googled how to get it back and went on with my life.
I constantly check the free space when I work with Dolphin. I know my space and I can spot irregularities, e.g. if something took a dump on my hard disk (or on the wrong partition), I can wonder about it and check on it. … If I do not see it, I have to check it somewhere else. … And I do not use desktop widgets because I use my application maximised.
The size slider I use way less frequently these days as I only used it for browsing image folders and use Gwenview for this nowadays.
Anyway, I wonder why the default was not kept the way it was. There is the option to have the full-size bar, so why not use it and tell people about the new option so they can use it if they want to? I mean, porting all users’ settings to the new setting format the new bar might be having introduced can be fiddly and it is easy to assume that users can just set it back to how they want it, if you are tech-savvy, but there are also people who just use KDE, because I installed it for them when Microsoft pushed them in front of a bus one time too many. My 80 years old mother uses KDE and is happy about it. But changes like these make her thinking something might be broken and then she calls me to have a look.
I am not sure what I want to say. Maybe something in the line of “I know change is important but I still sometimes don’t like it”. 
… Well, at least I use the free space display all the time.
Cheer
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One vote in favor of the new small status bar option. I like it, @akslelmo
Perhaps when using the Details View, it could automatically switch to a different format?
To me, drive space used is already visible in Places. If I need a more precise value, I’ll hover over the icon.
Again, that is just me. But I am used to, and enjoy the little changes here and there, even after 25 years. (except for double-click-by-default 
j/k).
In a way, these sorts of things are a stealth way of encouraging discovery and exploring settings and options. Which I heartily approve of, despite the grumbles it brings.
Heck, looking at the settings for the new status bar settings, I discovered the background double-click option settings, which I have somehow overlooked for as long as it has existed. When did that nice feature happen?
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That’s nice if you keep Places open all the time. I for one have Dolphin set to a specific size so I can have multiple instances open without overlapping. I keep Places closed til I actually need it. For me if I open places I have to scroll to see the drives cause of Dolphins height I set. Much less steps to just have the full status bar. I am of the school you inform about the new features and let the enduser decide if they want to switch to them. In my book it’s simply rude to just mess with someone’s workflow.
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While I’m not a fan of the change (simply unnecessary), I do feel compelled to point out that they followed the design playbook on this one by changing the defaults. That seems to be more the issue for most users than the design change itself.
The idea is that most users won’t deep-dive into their settings every few months to look for new things. Presenting a new default advertises the change but allows the user to revert.
This only works if allowing a fallback option, which was provided this time. For the other workflow-breaking changes based on bad design decisions that I manually build Plasma to revert, this luckily isn’t one of them (the last Dolphin design change is though, and y’all know which one that is…).
When an end user can cleanly roll back a change like this with a native options dialog, it’s a much less painful refinement while feedback is gathered. Really, I hope they do this more often instead of just cutting out the old option entirely.
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I think I can elaborate on this. It’s not so much seeing space as it is dividing the UI in clear visual units. The middle section shows files only, the bottom bar shows info about them (such as free disc space, number of files and folders, etc. This divide makes it obvious what is what and feels (at least to me) more aesthetically pleasing. Mixing them like this gives a more cluttered look. Having a full separate bottom bar also matches how most other software such as Inkscape or the Calligra suite uses such a bar. I would rather see its functionality expanded, for example showing active file transfers. Either way, as long as there is an option to switch it back I’m fine either way.
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Ah interesting! I can understand your meaning.
Personally I’m fine with either. I eventually hope we can reach something that fits for all: I think statusbars in general are not really that useful these days with large monitors, where they can be small and hard to see. But thats just my opinion ofc.
As for why the slider bar needs to be there; I believe free space a available matters to be able to see inside a folder/window (I have multiple hard drives which serve different purposes) without going to search for it. The little tab showing how many folders I have in a window I already have open where I can see the folders is a little less important. I can only see the value in someone who has a gazillion folders.
As a side note, the little tab also blocks/intermingles with text from the folder name in icon view as well.Thanks for information on how to switch it back. This was really bothering me.