setting the default file manager back to nautilus

**restofactor** · August 30th, 2011

wow dude, this also freaked me out for days!!! exo-preferred-applications also sorted it out for me

**HarrisonNapper** · August 31st, 2011

I know this is solved, but for posterity, does this preserve pcmanfm as the default file manager in lxde?

**rocuan** · October 19th, 2011

Originally Posted by nitstorm

Ok found the solution. No matter what I did nothing worked, until I installed ubuntutweak. There under file type manager i looked up folder and it said PCFileManager and I changed it there to nautilus file browser and now it's all good

UbuntuTweak worked for me too!
If you're interested, here's the story.

BACKGROUND:
I was organizing my Main Menu on Lucid and accidentally deleted something critical.
So, when I clicked my home folder icon it failed and randomly opened VLC not nautilus.

TROUBLESHOOTING:
I checked the entries in .local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
found the line causing the mayhem

Code:

inode/directory=nautilus-browser.desktop;vlc.desktop;

deleted the vlc.desktop;
but now my home folder opened with Thunar not nautilus.
Searched the forums, found this thread.

SOLUTION:
UbuntuTweak -> File Type Manager -> All -> folder
click edit
click add
change to Nautilus ( also called File Browser )

RESULT:
UbuntuTweak modified the .local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

Code:

inode/directory=nautilus-browser.desktop;nautilus-folder-handler.desktop;

Now nautilus is the default again.

**Kabbo** · December 1st, 2011

I seted marlin default from it's default. I was looking for days how to set nautilus default! Did this with exo-preferred-applications.
I wonder how it did. Tried changing the .local/share/applications/mimeapps.list file as rocuan said but didn't work!

**pakopako** · December 2nd, 2011

It really helps to keep nautilus! I really liked PCman, but it wouldn't work well with Trash Applet. Also, it just died on me after I tried going to a non-existing directory (/etc/fstab) and just wouldn't start back up. (No error messages when executing pcmanfm from terminal either.)

**youlikeicecream** · December 13th, 2011

sudo dpkg-reconfigure nautilus

Worked for me.

Also:

gconf-editor -> apps -> nautilus -> preferences -> always_use_browser (check mark)

This setting enables the browser style view in nautilus rather the windows 98 style "open a window per click" view setting.

**karmila** · January 13th, 2012

Ubuntu-tweak also helped me revert default file manager from marlin to nautilus

**kbrodenhau** · November 8th, 2012

12.04 Precise

Login to Gnome session.

Open a Terminal with CTRL-ALT-t.

Execute:
zulu:~> exo-preferred-applications &

Choose Utilities tab.
Select Nautilus for File Manager.
Select GNOME Terminal for Terminal Emulator.