Nautilus Not Updating

Problem

I noticed recently that files were not appearing in my Nautilus file browser. This was especially noticeable when I would compress a folder and the zip would not appear. I would have to manually press f5 in order to see the files. I have a feeling this is something to do with the fact that I am running both Seafile and Dropbox.

Solution

We need to increase the max_user_watches in our /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches. Add a line to your sysctl.conf file with:

sudo echo "fs.inotify.max_user_watches=2140000000" | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

Then to apply the change without needing to reboot, run

sudo sysctl --system

Background Info

The Linux kernel offers an interface — called inotify — which allows an application to obtain change notifications for files and directories, if the application has registered watches for the files and directories it is interested in.

The advantage of this is twofold: First, it is not neccessary to perform regular filesystem scans to detect file changes, i.e. the I/O load is drastically reduced. And second, changes can be reported immediately, thus allowing faster responses.

Inotify support on Linux (instantaneous reports, no I/O load)

References

• Medium - Ubuntu change fs.inotify.max_user_watches for IDEA
• Ask Ubuntu - Files in Nautilus stopped updating automatically, how to fix this?
• Ask Ubuntu - How Can I Tell If I Am Out Of Inotify Watches