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Bug 751649 - Don't allow changing the sort order of search results
Don't allow changing the sort order of search results
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: nautilus
Classification: Core
Component: File Search Interface
3.17.x
Other Linux
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: Nautilus Maintainers
Nautilus Maintainers
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2015-06-29 13:35 UTC by Allan Day
Modified: 2017-08-29 07:46 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---



Description Allan Day 2015-06-29 13:35:47 UTC
There are a couple of reasons why changing the order of search results is problematic:

 1. There's no way to return to the default sort order.
 2. If you change the sort order and new results arrive, the list ends up being shuffled (which is hard to follow). It is also hard to identify new results.

In list view we'd either have to hide the column headers, or make them insensitive.

This issue is similar to bug 751336, and it would be good to have a coherent approach for both issues. Also, we should make sure that the solution for this bug is appropriate for the file chooser.
Comment 1 Allan Day 2015-07-07 14:18:55 UTC
This change has now landed in the file chooser - it would be good if nautilus were consistent.
Comment 3 Daniel Boles 2017-08-28 15:19:19 UTC
*** Bug 778484 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 Daniel Harvey 2017-08-28 23:43:08 UTC
I have stopped using Nautilus due to this change (removing sort from search).

My classic use case:
1. Search for  item of interest.
2. Click date modified column to show most recently modified files first.

I use this a lot, most of the time in fact, and I could not survive without it.

Please consider restoring this regression.
Comment 5 António Fernandes 2017-08-29 07:46:09 UTC
(In reply to Daniel Harvey from comment #4)
Hi Daniel, thanks or the feedback.

Just a tip: did you know you can filter search by last modified or last used for any given time period? Not saying it's a replacement for sorting, but maybe it helps in your use case. This blog post has got some screenshots demonstrating how it works: https://csorianognome.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/nautilus-3-20-and-looking-forward/ I hope it helps.

It would be nice to also take the sort order into account when searching (bug 682902).