Give One Dolphin Folder Its Own Permanent Sort Order Without Customizing Everything Else

Yes. Dolphin can pin a permanent, folder-specific sort order — for example, keep Downloads sorted by modified date, newest first, while every other folder stays on name, ascending. The mechanism is the Apply to scope selector in Dolphin's view properties: you enable Remember display style for each folder, but scope the change to the current folder only. Dolphin then stores the override in a hidden .directory file inside that one folder, and all other folders continue to use your global default.

Two layers of settings — and why the checkbox is unavoidable

Dolphin keeps display settings in two layers. The first is your global configuration: the sort order, view mode, grouping and other properties that every folder uses unless told otherwise. The second is a per-folder override: a small, hidden file named .directory that Dolphin writes into a folder to record that folder's own view properties.

Because of this structure, a single-folder exception is itself a per-folder setting — Dolphin has no separate rules layer that exempts one directory without the remembering mechanism. The good news is that enabling Remember display style for each folder does not scatter settings across your folders on its own. It merely makes the override layer available; which folders actually receive an override is decided by the Apply to scope of each change. That is why you can end up with exactly one customized folder and a clean global default everywhere else.

Applying the override to Downloads only

1. Switch the remembering on first. Open Dolphin's settings and enable Remember display style for each folder (look in the View section; the exact page name moves between releases, and recent versions also expose the relevant controls from the settings button in the toolbar). The order matters: with the option off, any sort change you make becomes the new default for all folders.
2. Navigate to the Downloads folder.
3. Open the View Properties dialog — the configuration button in the toolbar or the matching entry in the application menu.
4. Set the display style for this folder: sort by date modified (labelled Date or Modified Date depending on the release), order Descending.
5. The step that is easy to miss: in the dialog's Apply to section (labelled Scope in some versions), select Current folder and apply. Dolphin now writes a .directory file inside Downloads — and only there.
6. Verify the rest. Open a few other folders; they should still show name, ascending. If one changed unexpectedly, it picked up its own override — see below.

What gets written to disk — and how to undo it

The override lives in a hidden, plain-text .directory file inside the customized folder. Because the name starts with a dot, it is invisible in Dolphin's default view and will not clutter the listing unless you have Show hidden files switched on. To put a folder back on the global default, delete its .directory file:

rm ~/Downloads/.directory

Then reopen the folder. Alternatively, open the view properties dialog in that folder, set the default values you want, and apply them with the scope set to Current folder — that overwrites the old override.

The same selector also offers Current folder including all subfolders, which pushes the settings into every subfolder (each gets its own .directory file), and All folders, which applies the chosen display style everywhere at once — handy for bulk cleanup.

Keeping every other folder clean

One caveat: the remembering toggle is global. While it is on, a casual change in any folder — a quick re-sort, toggling groups — will also be saved for that folder, which is the proliferation you wanted to avoid. Two habits keep this in check:

• Make view changes deliberately. When you do want a system-wide default change, use the view properties dialog and choose All folders as the scope, rather than nudging the current view.
• Watch for stray overrides. If a folder starts behaving differently, look for a .directory file inside it (enable hidden files briefly) and delete it to restore the default.

If overrides have already spread, open the view properties dialog in any folder, configure your preferred default (name, ascending), and apply it with scope All folders. Note that .directory files can also hold other per-folder properties, such as a custom folder icon, so prefer targeted deletion over mass-deleting these files if you have customized icons anywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does enabling "Remember display style for each folder" change my other folders right away?

No. Nothing is written until you change view properties somewhere, and the Apply to scope of that change decides which folders receive an override. Existing folders stay untouched until you modify them.

How do I put Downloads back on the default sort order?

Delete the hidden .directory file inside it, or open the view properties dialog there, set Name and Ascending, and apply with the scope set to Current folder.

Does the per-folder override cover more than sorting?

Yes. View properties include the view mode, sort field and order, grouping, hidden-file visibility, previews and additional information — all saved together in the same per-folder file.

Can I apply the custom order to a folder and everything below it?

Yes — choose Current folder including all subfolders as the scope. Each affected subfolder gets its own .directory file, so undoing it later means clearing those files as well.

Is there a way to do this without the remembering option at all?

No. Dolphin has no rule engine for per-folder view settings. The remembering mechanism combined with a narrow Apply to scope is the supported way to give one folder its own sort order while everything else follows the global default.