In modern versions of Dolphin, anytime you're browsing any directory within your homedir, the "folders" panel hides every directory that is NOT inside your homedir. (Even your homedir itself isn't even shown there!!!!)

Is there any way to revert to the old behavior of *always* showing the full tree? It was FAR more practical and less disorienting for me.

Secondarily, it would be even awesome-er (though I'm guessing "no") if there's a way to have a merged, preferably customizable, Folders/Places panel that can show both content in the same frame. I know I can show them both simultaneously as separate frames, but I find the reduced screen real estate for each to be quite cramped. Currently, my closest "solution" is to have them set up as tabs, but I'm constantly needing to swap back and forth between them, which really gets in the way. Having one unified panel with a customizable list of "places" (mainly just drives, in my case) at the top, and the filesystem tree after it would be ideal for me, and really help me get things done with minimal friction. Is this by any chance something that currently exists, and I just haven't found it?

Did you try Split View instead? I use this since years and don't miss the Tree View on the left at all

Hmm, you know, now that you mention it, Split View is tantalizingly close to what I'm looking for. But the thing I like about the Folders side panel though (and this is something that, for me, has been a deeply ingrained part of my workflow, and even just the way I think, since the 90's) , I rely heavily on the direct relationship between the Folders panel and the main view. Specifically, how the selected directory on the left is automatically always the same directory the right side is "rooted" on. And that invariant is always maintained regardless of whether you use the left side or right side to change directories. So in effect, the right side is my workspace, and the left side is the full, complete context surrounding my workspace.

So, unless I'm missing something (entirely possible - I haven't spent much time with Split View), I'm not seeing a way to get that relationship between the two panels using Split View. But an option for that *would* very nicely solve my problem (and in a brilliantly clean, orthogonal way). Especially if there were also an option to make one of the panels hide files and only show dirs.

If I understand you correctly, I can get the behavior you want by right-clicking in the left panel and un-checking "Limit to Home Directory" (running Dolphin 19.12.3).

Section_8 wrote:If I understand you correctly, I can get the behavior you want by right-clicking in the left panel and un-checking "Limit to Home Directory" (running Dolphin 19.12.3).

I got all excited because that sounds EXACTLY like what I'm looking for...

Strange thing is though, that's exactly the same version of dolphin I'm running (verified with both the about dialog and my package manager), but that option still isn't showing up for me when I right-click the Folders panel (or the Places panel or the main view, for that matter). I tried it both while it was limiting to home and also when it wasn't. Either way, the only two items in the right-click menu for the Folders panel are "Show hidden files" (which doesn't "un-limit" it to home, I tried), and "Lock Panels".

Maybe it's a distro difference? Or a patch revision difference? I'm running Manjaro, everything's up-to-date, I resync-ed the package lists just now and nothing has any new updates. The *exact* revisions I have installed are: "dolphin" 19.12.3-2, and "dolphin-plugins" 19.12.3-1. If it matters, "plasma-desktop" is 5.18.4.1-1 and "plasma-framework" is 5.69.0-2. Maybe it's part of some additional plug-in I don't have installed?

Oh, I see now...for some reason the option only shows up when right-clicking an actual directory in the panel, and not when right-clicking empty space in the panel. Seems like a bug. I'll file it...

EDIT: Filed: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=420587

Thanks, Section_8!