Firefox ignores Thunar as default File Manager

firefox-download-folderSymptom:
– Your default File Manager is e.g. Thunar but Firefox uses Nautilus when saving files which is driving you bananas.

Solution (for XFCE):
1. Firstly make sure that your default Applilcation for that particular mime type (in this case it is the ‘inode/directory’ mime type) is actually setup properly. Open the “Preferred Applications” applet from “All Settings” and verify that the File Manager application is the one you want.

xfce-whisker-menu-highlight-All-Settings

Depending on your Linux distribution and desktop it may be called “Default Applications” or something similar.

2. Associate the mime type with Thunar (or whatever other app you want):
Find and edit one of these files. Editing one of them should be enough, whichever one you find first, keep searching in this order until you find it, one of them should be present on your system:

  • ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
  • /usr/local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
  • /usr/share/applications/mimeapps.list

Obviously for the file in /usr (and possibly in /usr/local) you will need sudo or root access to edit.

Inside the file locate the entry associated with the “inode/directory” type and set it to:
  inode/directory=Thunar.desktop
    OR
  inode/directory=org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop
    OR
  whatever your heart desires.

Done.
🙂

2 thoughts on “Firefox ignores Thunar as default File Manager

  1. Still goes to nautilus and more irritating nautilus freezes up. I need nautilus for photo editing but thunar is my default and I edited ./local/share/applications/mimeapps.list to be this

    [Default Applications]
    inode/directory=Thunar.desktop

    • I also tried the /usr/share/applications fix and logged out, no change nautilus is all firefox will do

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *