Is there a way to expand folders without selecting them on the Collections module?

Cikkeo · February 4, 2026, 4:06am

Hello everyone, I’m trying to find a way to expand folders in the Collections module without actually selecting it and loading every photo recursively within the whole directory.

I have a ton of photos and it takes forever to load whenever I try to navigate down the directory because it keeps loading every photo every time I open a “layer”. Darktable often hangs trying to load everything at once.

For example, say I want to open the “26.01.13” folder on the image above.
I would have to click on “Neptune” [loads every photo in that directory],
then click on “Photography” [loads again],
then click on “Import” [loads],
then click on “2026” [loads AGAIN]
then finally on “26.01.13”

I want to be able to expand folders without selecting them by clicking the arrow and only actually select the folder when I click on the folder name. Is there a way to do this currently? I’ve looked everywhere but haven’t found it.

Thanks!

paperdigits · February 4, 2026, 4:09am

Hi! You can try changing the view to Film Roll or filter on some other metadata to show the photos you want.

Terry · February 4, 2026, 5:20am

I am on windows 11 DT 5.4 and navigation is super quick through the folder structure. I wonder if your system is trying to generate new thumbnails each time. It might be worth checking your preferences for thumbnails. I am not an expert of this forum and will defer to more knowledgeable people, but just suggesting what idea pops into my head after testing on my system.

rvietor · February 4, 2026, 5:41am

For me, a folder isn’t loaded unless I use a double click. Single clicks allow navigation through the folder tree without loading (or showing) any images. Probably a matter of configuration (system or dt).

Oh, and I use Linux (OpenSUSe, KDE Plasma).

deekay · February 4, 2026, 9:55am

You could check in preferences in the lighttable section, if the option “use single-click in the collections module” is activated.

Cikkeo · February 4, 2026, 2:12pm

Terry thanks for the suggestion, I do have caching enabled.

@rvietor @deekay That definitely helped! Thanks!

I still think that clicking on the arrow shouldn’t automatically load the folder even with single click enabled, it would be a nice little UX update. But with this setting at least it doesn’t hang anymore. Thanks again for the help.

Terry · February 4, 2026, 3:43pm

so was single click selected in your preferences? In my screen shot and system single click is not selected.

Cikkeo · February 4, 2026, 5:01pm

I changed that setting some time ago because I didn’t want to double click on folders, but I didn’t know it affected the behavior when expanding folders. I don’t think it should, a click on the arrow and a click anywhere else on the folder should be treated differently.

mino · February 4, 2026, 5:19pm

I agree with you. Maybe put in a feature request on github?

Masterpiga · February 4, 2026, 6:26pm

Actually, I had already reported something related:

github.com/darktable-org/darktable

Double click on directory name in collection panel should not expand/collapse

opened 05:51PM - 02 Oct 25 UTC

masterpiga

no-issue-activity

### Is there an existing issue for this? - [x] I checked and did not find my is…sue in the already reported ones ### Describe the bug The action of double clicking on a directory name in the "folder" view of the "collections" panel has two side effects: 1. It populates the lighttable with all the images in the folder (desired) 2. If the folder contains one or more subfolders, it will also collapse/expand the folder (unexpected) Point (2.) is unexpected because subdirectories already have a "|>" indicator on their left that can be clicked to expand/collapse. ### Steps to reproduce 1. Go to "collections" view 2. Select "folder" from the list of filters 3. Double click on a folder which contains at least one subfolder to view all the images in it ### Expected behavior The images in the selected folder should be loaded in the lighttable and the double clicked folder should not change its collapsed/expanded state ### Logfile | Screenshot | Screencast _No response_ ### Commit _No response_ ### Where did you obtain darktable from? darktable.org / GitHub release ### darktable version 5.2.1 ### What OS are you using? Mac ### What is the version of your OS? MacOS Tahoe 26.0.1 ### Describe your system _No response_ ### Are you using OpenCL GPU in darktable? Yes ### If yes, what is the GPU card and driver? M4 pro ### Please provide additional context if applicable. You can attach files too, but might need to rename to .txt or .zip _No response_

Cikkeo · February 4, 2026, 11:40pm

Thanks, I left a comment over there as well.

deekay · February 6, 2026, 11:16am

I tried to fix this and came up with an idea:

github.com/darktable-org/darktable

Collection module: Separate expanding/collapsing from selecting

master ← deekayhd:collection_expand

opened 11:10AM - 06 Feb 26 UTC

deekayhd

+17 -13

This is a proposal for issue #19452. In the collection module, clicking on a ro…w both selects all images in the clicked hierarchy branch and expands/collapses the hierarchy tree. As a consequence, when navigating to a row deep down in the hierarchy, all images in the hierarchy above are unnecessarily loaded to the light table, especially when the setting "use single click in the collections module" is active. The expected behavior is that expanding and selecting are separated: Clicking the expander triangle only expands/collapses the level, and clicking on the row text only selects the images. The idea in this fix is to determine from the click position, if the click was on the expander or anywhere else in the row. Due to the indentation of lower hierarchy levels, the expander area in a row is not fixed. Thus, the indentation is calculated from the hierarchy depth and the basic indentation. The behavior changes as follows: - Expanding/collapsing only happens when clicking on the expander triangle - Images are only selected for display when clicking on the row text. - clicking left of the expander does no longer select or expand/collapse. For the calculation of the indentation I assume a hard-coded expander width in pixels. I do not know if this value could be determined at runtime, as it may be changed by css customization. closes #19452

Cikkeo · February 6, 2026, 2:24pm

Thank you so much for your work on this deekay.

Quick question about the solution; Is the folder now only selectable by clicking on the text itself or anywhere right of the expander button?

deekay · February 6, 2026, 3:00pm

anywhere to the right of the triangle. Somehow, I automatically click on the text.

Cikkeo · February 6, 2026, 3:05pm

Perfect, I was worried for a second that it would have to be clicked precisely on text but you got it. Again, thanks!

deekay · February 6, 2026, 6:33pm

Just to make this clear: There is no guarantee that this will be merged into the codeline.