#989833 thunar: Thunar does not auto-refresh when directory contents are changed

Package:
thunar
Source:
thunar
Description:
File Manager for Xfce
Submitter:
sudoer
Date:
2026-01-25 21:29:04 UTC
Severity:
important
#989833#5
Date:
2021-06-14 13:13:11 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

After updating from Debian Buster to Bullseye, Thunar has had major
issues with its auto-reloading feature. If I select a file in Thunar and
delete it, it will be deleted, but Thunar will still show it as there
until I click the reload button on the right side of the location bar.
Likewise, if a file is created by another program in the current
directory, Thunar will not display it until the reload button is
pressed, or if I switch to another directory and then switch back.
Thunar worked properly under Buster, where any change in the contents of
the directory would automatically and immediately be reflected in
Thunar, but now Thunar won't display any changes unless the directory is
manually reloaded.

Seeing as there are no other bug reports for an issue this big, it makes
me think that only my system is affected. I can record my screen to show
the behavior of this bug, if needed.

#989833#10
Date:
2021-06-15 13:26:15 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

indeed, it looks that something is odd on your system. I assume you're testing
on a regular, local filesystem and not on a remote filesystem?

Thunar relies on gio/gvfs for all filesystems operations, so maybe there's
something fishy here.

You can try to quit all thunar instances (run thunar -q) then run Thunar from
a terminal in case something is shown on the output.

Regards,

#989833#15
Date:
2021-06-15 21:02:02 UTC
From:
To:
You are correct; I am using only a local filesystem. I am unfamiliar
with gio/gvfs, so if the issue is with them, I'll have to look into how
they work.

I tried the test you suggested: I ran 'thunar -q' from a terminal, then
ran a new thunar instance from the same terminal. I then navigated to an
empty directory, created an empty file using thunar, then deleted said
file using thunar. The results are the same; the file still appears
until the reload button is pressed. Unfortunately, there was no terminal
output, so it seems we're still in the dark.

I may dig through the source code to see if I can pinpoint what's going
on, but it's been a long while since I've done any programming, so I
might not be able to figure it out.

#989833#20
Date:
2026-01-25 21:08:35 UTC
From:
To:
Hey, were you able to investigate? Does this still happen?

Regards,