Set default visible columns for Files

The option to set the default view unfortunately is not anymore exposed in the user interface starting with Files 40. It can however be set using dconf.

• The names of the available colums are listed in another setting:

gsettings get org.gnome.nautilus.list-view default-column-order

• Knowing available column names, you can then define your custom default list view order with a command, for example

gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.list-view default-visible-columns ['name', 'size', 'date_modified']

Custom settings are remembered per folder using the gvfs-metadata system. You therefore eventually need to manually adjust any folder that you have set differently from the defaults. However, there is a way to reset gvfs-metadata:

nautilus -q
systemctl --user stop gvfs-metadata.service
rm ~/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home*

This stops nautilus, the gvfs-metadata service, and then selected metadata that gets updated when you change the column view is deleted.

When you restart nautilus, the service will also be restarted. Now, any of the folders on your file system should adopt the default settings you defined before.

The answers here didn't work for me on Ubuntu 20.10:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.list-view default-visible-columns ['size', 'date_modified', 'name', 'type']
Usage:
  gsettings [--schemadir SCHEMADIR] set SCHEMA[:PATH] KEY VALUE

Set the value of KEY to VALUE

Arguments:
  SCHEMADIR A directory to search for additional schemas
  SCHEMA    The name of the schema
  PATH      The path, for relocatable schemas
  KEY       The key within the schema
  VALUE     The value to set

However, if I added quotation marks around the options, it works:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.list-view default-visible-columns "['size', 'date_modified_with_time', 'name', 'type']"
$ gsettings get org.gnome.nautilus.list-view default-visible-columns
['size', 'date_modified_with_time', 'name', 'type']
$