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duxy

Member

Registered: 2026-05-01

Posts: 13

Thunar won't open remote files directly

(Fresh install of Fedora 44+XFCE with Thunar v4.20.8. fuse v3.18.2 and gvfs v1.60.1 are installed, but gvfs-fuse is not.)

Could anyone suggest a reason why my Thunar refuses to open remotes files directly?

I've connected to a remote share with sftp. Double-clicking any of the files does nothing at all - however, copying the file to a local filesystem, and then double-clicking works as expected.

Am I misunderstanding the intended behaviour?

For comparison, WinSCP on Windows will copy the file to a temporary location, monitor it for changes, and reupload it when a change has occurred. Does Thunar offer something similar?

Thank you!

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 1,006

Website

Re: Thunar won't open remote files directly

Just a guess but it sound like a permission problem. Not being able to view files suggest they don't belong to the user but copying to a local directory would give you permission to view it.
Try this to see the permissions in the share and then try it in the local directory.

ls -la

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duxy

Member

Registered: 2026-05-01

Posts: 13

Re: Thunar won't open remote files directly

Hmm. Remotely, the files are rw/r/r inside a directory of drwx/rx/rx. I'm connecting with the correct credentials, so sftp should have owner access.

Changing a file to rwx/rwx/rwx made no difference.

Where's Thunar's log file? There's nothing in ~/.xsession-errors

bggf

Member

Registered: 2026-04-13

Posts: 35

Re: Thunar won't open remote files directly

Could you just put up a simple text test file on the sftp system and open it with mousepad (in Thunar)?

duxy

Member

Registered: 2026-05-01

Posts: 13

Re: Thunar won't open remote files directly

I created a simple text file, and double-clicked it.

It opened fine with Libre Writer, but not with CudaText or Geany (I don't have Mousepad). Firefox reported 'The address wasn’t understood'.

So... Thunar is handing a URL to applications, but only some of then can load it?

Should I be looking into gvfs-fuse?

CwF

Moderator

Registered: 2018-01-28

Posts: 339

Re: Thunar won't open remote files directly

Should I be looking into gvfs-fuse?

I think so.
I have seen incomplete installs where the file can be read or copied but there is no file meta data retrieved from remote files.

bggf

Member

Registered: 2026-04-13

Posts: 35

Re: Thunar won't open remote files directly

https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=19269

duxy

Member

Registered: 2026-05-01

Posts: 13

Re: Thunar won't open remote files directly

Yes! Thank you!

Installing gvfs-fuse and rebooting solved the issue.

Thank you everyone for your help.