mark "not empty" folders

[rnmerchant]

Is there a way I can make the folder tree distinguish empty folders from folders that have some files in them?

Richard

[nikos]

the best way to discover empty folders is through TOOLS > FOLDER STATISTICS menu command
once you have all the folders, use ACTIONS > EMPTY FOLDERS menu command
this is "smart" enough to find the top folder of an empty branch too

[rnmerchant]

Thanks Nikos:

I see the features that you are talking about and that can be made to work for some things.

However it would be handy to be able to see, on the folder tree, which folders are empty (ie. having the folder icon of a different color?) and/or the size of the folder (which means, I guess, the contents of the folder).

It's interesting in the window that comes up: "empty folders" that there is a column "size" whic contains '0' (as they are empty folders!!!). However on the main program window, the 'size' column says <folder>.... I don't suppose there is a way in which that column, or another, could display the actual size of the folder (ie. the contents)?

Best regards

Richard

[nikos]

you can use CTRL+D to see folder sizes in detailed view (see tools menu)

[rnmerchant]

Oh for pity's sake!!! If I would just open my eyes.

Thanks for pointing out what is truly the obvious and I'm sorry to spend your time this way!

Best regards

Richard

[rnmerchant]

Having said that - I'm finding it is not a perfect solution (sorry!)

The tool is not "sticky" - so that if you do something to a folder - open it and look at the contained files - then go back to the root folder, the sizes are not there.

INsofar as I can tell, one then can't just use the tool - Ctrl-D - as this just shows the size of the highlighted folder (it seems that one folder is always highlighted. One has to select all the folders and press Ctrl-D to have the sizes of all the folders shown.

It would be nice if somehow one could have the size of the contents of the folder always show (rather than the default size <folder> being what is displayed... Could that be a 'toggle'?

Richard

[FrizzleFry]

There is an option in Tools/Options/Advanced (tab)/Calculate subfolders size automatically

I think it basically does a Ctrl-D automatically when you change folders but it does not do it automatically on root folders

Are you trying to find empty folders?
There is a program I use occasionally called Remove Empty Folders that finds empty folders in a folder tree. It has not been updated in a while (2011) but it still works fine.

Another thing I tried was doing a find with a rule on file attribute = D to list all the subfolders and then do a Ctrl-D in the find scrap pane.

BTW: I had not noticed the empty folders command in the folder data window.
I think it would be useful to have expand all/collapse all commands for folder data.

[johngalt]

I have that option that FrizzleFry mentions enabled for all of my Xplorer² profiles.

It does use your system resources a bit more, and when moving to a parent folder that has a lot of child folders, it can take some time, but it works well moving into and back out of child folders, just (sometimes) slowly when there is a lot to process - and all my drives are NVMe, so if you're using really old SSDs (gen 1) or even slower mechanical drives, it might take some time, especially after you first enable it, to start showing data sizes.

[lnbrantley]

I use a color coding rule:
Contents value from 0 to 0

That colors all folders that are completely empty.
It won't color folders containing empty subfolders.

[nikos]

it's not possible to reliably detect emptiness with the contents column, you need to do it with folder statistics as I said

[lnbrantley]

Like I said, it won't color folders that have empty subfolders.

But it will mark folders that have no files and no subfolders, right?

[nikos]

yes it will