Places Menu items don't open with nautilus

[doas777]

Update 2011-02-25:

Solution:

there are two major solutions to this problem. The first is the easiest for novice users, so start with it:

1) Create a new folder on your desktop.
2) Right click the file, and select "Open with Other Application...".
3) Ensure that the "Remember this application for "Folder" files" checkbox 
at the bottom of the window is checked.
4) From the main pane, select either "Open Folder" or "File Browser"
5) Click "Open".
6) There is NO step 6. 
7) Test to make sure folders and the places menu now open with nautilus 
(the gnome file manager) correctly.
8) Delete the new folder on your deskop
9) Enjoy!

If that does not work for you, then you will have to manually remove the association from your user profile. when this thread started, there was a bug with the Open With... applet, which prevented us from using the process above. that issue appears to be fixed in modern versions of ubuntu, but every once in a while, it's still required.

1) Navigate to and open ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list with 
the text editor of your choice. if this file does not exist, see below.
2) locate the line that starts with "inode/directory="
3) Delete the rest of the line, and add "nautilus-folder-handler.desktop;"
4) Save and close the file.
5) Test to make sure everything works as expected.

Since this thread started, some users have reported that the mimeapps.lst file is not where they expect it.
To find the cuplrit initially, gasco uninstalled the app that was giving him problems, and then scanned his home directory to find any references to the application.
here is he command he used:

find . -name '*' -print0 | xargs -t -0 grep -l <Application Name>

this approach should allow you to find the problem even if ubuntu changes the way it stores file-> app associations.

Hope that Helps

[doas777]

Places Menu items don't open with nautilus

My Places Menu "Desktop" and "Home Folder" and all my bookmarks open with the Mirage image viewer instead of opening with nautilus.

Does anyone know where gnome stores it's "file type associations" for the places menu?

Please note, this thread is a refinment of http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1147873 . if an admin sees fit to delete the original, I would be much obliged.

Some Background on the issue:

I installed Mirage opened a folder of images with it, by selecting open with other application, and selecting it from the list. After that the problem began.

The Places -> Computer link, Desktop folders, and Windows opened via nautilus work just fine (but for the last, i have to get an instance of nautilus open first, which is obviously lame).

I've selected folders and told them to open with "open folder" from the "Open with Other Application" list, and even tried supplying 'nautilus' as the command, but it has no effect.

I've seen references to an "open with..." tab in file properties, but I do not have one. likely related to this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...63/+viewstatus

If i install mirage, the problem goes away, but as soon as i reinstall it, the issue resumes.

[s_g_robertson]

I'm having a similar problem in that mine all open with VLC. Again on 9.04(which was an upgrade from 8.04 to 8.10 to 9.04) My desktop icons open up File Browser ok. Strange...

Thanks
Stephen

[doas777]

well, I gave up and installed gqview, and uninstalled mirage.

[gasco]

I had the same problem with totem: it opened Places menu (Documents, Music, Videos ...).

When I add a new user to test, and this user did not acquire the effect, I suspected that the problem was local to my user.

So I found the command executed (with gnome-system-monitor). It was totem-gstreamer

Then I typed in a terminal:
$ find . -name '*' -print0 | xargs -t -0 grep -l totem-gstreamer

The text was find in the file:
.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

When I opened the file, I found the next:

[Added Associations]
inode/directory=totem-gstreamer;nautilus-folder-handler.desktop;mirage.desktop;

I deleted the problematic association, and then everything was right.

[doas777]

thank you! that is exactly the trick it would seem. and thanks for the algorithm as well. I tried searching for all files that contained mirage, but it didn't turn up anything useful. the grep must be the trick.

thanks again,
franklin

[unkilbeeg]

This is not solely an Ubuntu problem. I've had this problem on two of my Gentoo machines as well. One started using Konquerer (unpleasant, but not completely ridiculous) and one started using Easytag. Huh?

As near as I can figure out it had to do with a Gnome version upgrade, probably from 2.24 to 2.26.

I solved it by uninstalling the new "file manager" and then re-installing it. Your way is simpler.

[gasco]

you are welcome
The funny thing is that the problem appeared a week ago, and googled everywhere, finding this thread.

I took the idea of adding a new user, from a problem with the other SO than only occurs with some users.

When I corrected the problem this night, first thing was to register here to share solution.

Javier

[viuks]

I had the same problem with totem: it opened Places menu (Documents, Music, Videos ...).

When I add a new user to test, and this user did not acquire the effect, I suspected that the problem was local to my user.

So I found the command executed (with gnome-system-monitor). It was totem-gstreamer

Then I typed in a terminal:
$ find . -name '*' -print0 | xargs -t -0 grep -l totem-gstreamer

The text was find in the file:
.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

When I opened the file, I found the next:

[Added Associations]
inode/directory=totem-gstreamer;nautilus-folder-handler.desktop;mirage.desktop;

I deleted the problematic association, and then everything was right.

Thank you! I had same problem, it was opening VLC on Jaunty. I just deleted mimeaps.list file, and that was all solution!

[ogromano]

Hello...

I had a similar problem... I couldn't change the preferred apps of any media files... every video and audio file wanted to open with Mplayer and every image file with EOG regardless of what changes I made with the open with or other application list. Nautilus, email and chrome were selectable from the preferred applications window and did hold when changed.

I found my .local/share/applications/mimeapps.list but I didn't have the entry you had... it looked like this...

[Added Associations]
video/x-theora+ogg=vlc.desktop;
image/jpeg=eog.desktop;mirage.desktop;firefox.desktop;gimp.desktop;
image/png=eog.desktop;firefox.desktop;mirage.desktop;gimp.desktop;
image/gif=eog.desktop;firefox.desktop;mirage.desktop;gimp.desktop;
x-content/video-dvd=vlc.desktop;
video/x-msvideo=totem.desktop;vlc.desktop;
video/x-matroska=totem.desktop;gnome-mplayer.desktop;mplayer.desktop;vlc.desktop;
audio/mpeg=totem.desktop;gnome-mplayer.desktop;vlc.desktop;mplayer.desktop;banshe e-1.desktop;audacity.desktop;banshee-1-audiocd.desktop;
application/octet-stream=gedit.desktop;

My only solution was to move the apps I wanted (Mirage, Vlc, and Banshee) to the beginning of the list, saved and instantly upon right clicking on a media file I had my preferred app as the first option...

Thanks for the tip on where to look!

The question still remains whether this is a bug or not.