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By default Pantheon Files, the file manager in elementary OS, uses a single click to open files and folders. How can I change this to double click, similar to Windows?

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  • Any idea how to do this in Odin ?
    – draeron
    Sep 22, 2021 at 20:59

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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Choose one of the following methods, restoring the old behaviour works similarly:

elementary OS 5.0 Juno (current version)

GSettings (recommended)

Run the following command in terminal

gsettings set io.elementary.files.preferences single-click false

(To enable single-click again use true instead of false.)

Dconf Editor

Start Dconf Editor (not installed by default) from Slingshot or by running dconf-editor in terminal. Navigate to io.elementary.files.preferences. Disable the checkmark on single click.

elementary OS 0.4 Loki (old version)

GSettings (recommended)

Run the following command in terminal

gsettings set org.pantheon.files.preferences single-click false

(To enable single-click again use true instead of false)

Dconf Editor

Start Dconf Editor (not installed by default) from Slingshot or by running dconf-editor in terminal. Navigate to org.pantheon.files.preferences. Disable the checkmark on single click.

elementary tweaks (not recommended)

If you have elementary tweaks (an unofficial, unsupported, 3rd party elementary configuration software) installed you can change the behaviour in System Settings > Tweaks > Files (left sidebar) > Single Click.

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  • 3
    Beware that installing elementary Tweaks is not recommended elementaryos.stackexchange.com/questions/1/…
    – Gabriel
    Jun 30, 2015 at 19:54
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    Hm, I'm not sure it's super valuable to include instructions for an app that is: not maintained, not available without installing potentially unsafe sources, and overall not recommended because it contains switches that break things. Why not just exclude that and keep gsettings and dconf?
    – Daniel Foré
    Jul 3, 2015 at 1:05
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    "contains switches that break things" Which exactly? Also it's still quite popular and the only accessible way to change some settings which elementary fails to implement. (I know we disagree on the recommended degree of customization in elementary.)
    – quassy
    Jul 7, 2015 at 18:45
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    Almost all 3rd party stylesheets break some UI component, just to name one. But I'm not sure this is the appropriate place to make an exhaustive list of everything that's wrong with tweaks.
    – Daniel Foré
    Jul 8, 2015 at 0:12
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    "Almost all 3rd party stylesheets break some UI component, just to name one." So it has nothing to do with Tweaks itself because changing the theme / stylesheet via gsettings or dconf would surely break the UI as well.
    – quassy
    Jul 8, 2015 at 23:23
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If you prefer a (reversable) GUI option. You can install "elementary tweaks" to be able to toggle settings like this through the "System Settings" App.

To install in Freya (0.3):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mpstark/elementary-tweaks-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install elementary-tweaks

Or to install in Loki (0.4) or Juno (0.5):

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:philip.scott/elementary-tweaks
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install elementary-tweaks

In System Settings you will see a new icon "Tweaks".

Settings

If you click this you'll be able to navigate to toggle between single and double click as shown below.

Tweaks

update: I have not tested this install on the newest version of elementary OS Juno (0.5) but this appears to be supported by the same PPA as Loki according to the elementary-tweaks repository on GitHub.

Disclaimer: Note that the elementary OS developers do not approve of the use of tweaks. Some of them may break your system and at least led it to look very different to how elementary OS is intended. However, in my experience, using to configure double click and minimise (among the most commonly used features of tweaks) has been relatively stable in Freya and now Loki.

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Elementary 6.0 (Odin)

Double click mode is no longer supported in Files - the two previous modes have replaced by a single mixed mode where single clicking on a folder navigates and single clicking on a file selects it. Double clicking on a file opens it. There are several other ways of selecting a folder if required. Further discussions arising from this change can be found at https://github.com/elementary/files/discussions/1729

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    This is a such a poor decision by the developers. Choice should never be taken away from users -- that is disempowering. I would recommend installing Nemo on Elementary 6.0. It is mostly the same as the old Pantheon Files except without the annoying/weird "single-click for directories but double-click for files" behaviour. Nemo doesn't have the column view but everything else is there.
    – Andrew Bate
    Nov 12, 2021 at 0:06
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In eOS 7.0 (Horus) the name of the key has changed from single-click to singleclick-select:

  • gsettings set io.elementary.files.preferences singleclick-select false
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