Dolphin sometimes clearing folder cache and rebuilds in incorrect load priority

[obliged056]

Hi,

Most of my folders are set to Sort By → Created → Newest first

Occasionally when I access some of these folders, the folders appear empty, as if the cache has been cleared.
Then Dolphin rebuild the folder.
As it builds, the older files appeared first, then as Dolphin continues loading the folder, the view updates in batches until the newest files eventually appear, like could be 5~10 seconds loading time for a folder with 1632 files

My expected behavior with the filesystem is-

1. it shouldnt repopulate the view(not sure what is clearing the cache/view)
2. during loading, it shouldnt show the oldest files first when the sort order is set to “Newest First”
3. during loading, it should prioritize showing the newest file firsts when the sort order is set to “Newest First”, then populate the rest of the older files in the background

Still bit new to Linux so I dont know what other relevant information to provide, anyone know what is causing the problem, is there anything to configure to make Dolphin behave more like Windows’s File Explorer?

[meven]

@obliged056

Occasionally when I access some of these folders, the folders appear empty, as if the cache has been cleared.

There is a cache maintained, only for local folders currently viewed in Dolphin, never more, that would be costly memory-wise to accumulate any more paths.

@obliged056

As it builds, the older files appeared first, then as Dolphin continues loading the folder, the view updates in batches until the newest files eventually appear, like could be 5~10 seconds loading time for a folder with 1632 files

My expected behavior with the filesystem is-

1. it shouldnt repopulate the view(not sure what is clearing the cache/view)
2. during loading, it shouldnt show the oldest files first when the sort order is set to “Newest First”
3. during loading, it should prioritize showing the newest file firsts when the sort order is set to “Newest First”, then populate the rest of the older files in the background

The order the file appear initial, depends on the filesystem answer. The older files might simply be the quickest files to access by the OS.
Dolphin has no access to this ordering from the get-go, ordering is done as post-processing.
Currently, it prioritizes sorting the folders already in the view which isn’t practical often.

Still he speed will mainly depend on storage type. It seems to be a hard-disk one, or maybe a network filesystem.
The number of column you display or if you load thumbnails will hit performance as well.

If you could share more informations, OS, versions, view mode used (icons, column or details) columns used, filesystem, device, that will allow to give a better answer.

I think current Dolphin behavior could be optimized.

[obliged056]

Hi, yeap, these folders are in my local HDD

OS: Linux 7.1.2-3-cachyos
Desktop: KDE Plasma 6.72, KWin (Wayland)
View Mode: Icons(there isnt any metadata shown i think)
Show Preview : Enabled (i have Previews enabled for any size under the settings)
Filesystem: BRTFS (on a mechanical HDD - Seagate BarraCuda 4TB (ST4000DM004))

Under File Search(balooctl), I also have the whole disk indexed, not sure if that matters
While its a BRTFS drive, I have CoW disabled, though I dont think it affects the read speed