Settings and Trash

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Settings and Trash

Open Decky → FileExplorer → Settings. Settings stay inside the compact Decky sidebar. Reopen or refresh the file manager to see changes in its listings.

B or ‹ Back returns to FileExplorer's menu with Settings selected. About and Update return to their respective menu entries in the same way.

With a setting focused, press X to show or hide its explanation. Moving up/down closes the description. Help stays collapsed by default, leaving the full row width for the setting. Panel opacity, interface scale, extraction limit and controller legend use controller-friendly sliders; left/right changes their value.

SteamOS PC	SteamOS handheld

Sorting can also be changed directly through Options → Sort by… in the file manager. It updates both panels immediately. See dates and sorting.

Settings reference

The first setup offers Handheld and Steam PC starting profiles. The defaults below describe those profiles; older installations keep their existing values until a profile is saved.

Setting	Behavior	Default
Show hidden files	Include dot names and SMB files with the hidden attribute	On in both profiles; Off on a fresh installation before saving a profile
Folders first	Group folders before files	On
Remember folders	Restore each panel's last path; when off, open both at Home	On
Startup update check	Check GitHub and notify about a newer release once per OS boot; manual Update checks remain available when off	On
Sort by	Name alphabetically, Size largest first, or Date modified newest first	Name
Extraction limit	Maximum unpacked archive size: 10, 50, 100 or 500 GiB; the rightmost slider position is Unlimited	100 GiB
Accent color	Cyan, blue, green, amber, violet or rose	Cyan
Panel opacity	Background opacity: 70%, 85% or 100%; text stays opaque	100%
Interface scale	100%, 90%, 80% or 70% for controls in the file manager, editor, image viewer and media player; the window keeps its size	Handheld 70%; PC 100%
Text size	Small, Default, Large or Extra large in file rows and the editor	Default
Controller legend	Slider: Panel only, Steam bar only, Both or Hidden; both surfaces use the same active hints and order	Handheld: panel; PC: Steam bar
Hide toolbar	Start the file manager with its top button bar hidden; L3 changes and remembers this choice	Handheld: On; PC: Off
Splash screen	Show the centered startup image for three seconds on each launch; the first launch shows it once regardless	Off
First-time setup	Reopen the three-step profile chooser; nothing changes until Save	-
Reset appearance	Restore color, opacity, interface scale, text size and controller legend	-
Saved connections	Forget stored SMB profiles and their login details	None

Unlimited removes the archive size cap for whole and selected extraction, including downloaded SMB archives. Unsafe paths and links are still rejected. The extraction limit is not a reservation of disk space. Make sure both the destination and any temporary local storage have enough free space.

SteamOS PC	SteamOS handheld

SteamOS PC	SteamOS handheld

Appearance settings apply to both file panels and the text editor. Reopen a panel after changing them. Background opacity leaves the text and icons fully opaque. Reset appearance only resets these appearance options.

For more room on a handheld, try Interface scale → 80%, then reopen FileExplorer. Scaling affects buttons, headers, legends and content together. Text size adjusts file rows and editor text separately. In the editor, L3 hides or shows the toolbar without closing the keyboard.

Compare the 100% and 80% handheld screenshots.

Reset appearance, Empty Trash and Saved connections have separate spacing. Focus a saved connection and press X to read what forgetting it does. Saved SMB passwords are encrypted without a wallet unlock prompt. The Forget confirmation also shows whether the password uses TPM, the system key, or is kept for this session only. Storage or migration failures appear as an explicit warning. See Network shares for fallback and recovery details.

Move local files to Trash

Select local files or folders, then choose Options → Move to Trash and confirm. You can restore them from Trash in Desktop Mode. If Trash is unavailable for that location, the operation stops instead of switching to permanent deletion.

Items on a direct SMB connection use Delete permanently instead. The confirmation explains that this cannot be undone. FileExplorer provides no restore operation for those deletions.

Empty Trash

Choose Empty Trash… from Settings or the file manager's Options menu.

SteamOS PC	SteamOS handheld

This also empties your Desktop Mode Trash, including your Trash on connected drives. FileExplorer and the desktop use the same Trash; this is not a separate plugin-only bin. Confirming permanently deletes the trashed items. Choose Cancel to leave them there.

Emptying is available during unrelated transfers. If an earlier operation is using Trash, emptying waits until that operation finishes. Inaccessible system partitions are skipped when locating Trash; errors deleting items from an accessible Trash are still reported.

Controller legend

Choose panel hints, the Steam bar, both or neither. Hiding both leaves more room for files; closing FileExplorer restores Steam's normal controls.

SteamOS PC	SteamOS handheld