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I'm trying to figure out how to navigate the Files app using the keyboard, and so far have had little success.

I'm completely unable to select anything in the sidebar as far as I can tell, so I can't use any of my favorites, access other volumes, or network shares. Looking through the keyboard shortcuts I came across the ambiguously named "Ctrl+L Enter Location", and thought that it'd allow me to at least type in a path that I want to open, but when I hit Ctrl+L nothing happens whatsoever.

What does "Enter Location" mean? What is Ctrl+L supposed to do?

I have often had the same problem in the system settings app, where the inability to select anything from the sidebar (using any combination of tab and arrow keys) makes it impossible to navigate the application with a keyboard.

Once in a blue moon when the apps feel like it the sidebar actually does get keyboard focus, but that's entirely unpredictable from my perspective. If you have a solution on how to actually navigate these apps using the keyboard it'd be welcome.

Andreas
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2 Answers2

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What does "Enter Location" mean? What is Ctrl+L supposed to do?

A location means a directory or an URL (the actual name of this is "URL bar"). The default it shows after control+L should be /home/$USER.

F6 toggles main window and sidebar. Arrow keys up and down to select an item, enter to activate it.

Rinzwind
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    F6?? I wouldn't have figured that out in a million years. Although when I try F6 while keyboard focus is in the file view, nothing happens; arrow keys continue to navigate among the files. – Andreas Apr 28 '23 at 00:11
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    I did not know it either and was surprised about it as well. I ran over all the letters before I thought ... hmm maybe it is a function key ;-) – Rinzwind Apr 28 '23 at 06:30
  • To add: you would use Ctrl + L also to access FTP locations, by entering `ftp://user@ftpserver.example.com/path`. – Jos Apr 28 '23 at 08:39
  • @Andreas for what it is worth F6 has a similar function in many programs on many platforms going back quite a long time(although the precise function is not always the same). So if you are trying to discover keyboard shortcuts in programs, it is often worth trying to see what it does (actually goes for F keys in general). – Tim Seguine Apr 28 '23 at 11:05
  • @TimSeguine Thanks for the tip! I think throughout my life games have bound some function key to *quick load* far too consistently for me to ever have developed that habit. Just like video players regularly bind the keys *right above the space bar* to some non-undoable action, like *next item*. It never fails. – Andreas Apr 29 '23 at 07:35
  • I still can't make F6 work the way this answer describes (it has no effect here?), but it's accepted since it answers the title question. A clarification of when F6 works as described would be preferrable, especially since Ctrl+L turned out to be context sensitive. – Andreas May 09 '23 at 19:57
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For me, it works as described. The standard view shows buttons at the top.

The buttons "Home" & "Desktop" are shown at the top of the folder path

But Ctrl+L turns this into an editable path, into which I can type or paste any path, and then hit Enter to navigate to there.

The path /home/frontend/Desktop is shown

TRiG
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    To add to this, this is a common shortcut in similar navigation apps. It works in the most common web browsers too. I do not use the GNOME file manager that this question seems to be about, so cannot say anything specific about it, but in general I would expect this to work in most file managers and web browsers. – wonderbear Apr 28 '23 at 11:52
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    In their infinite wisdom the developers appear to have made Ctrl+L context sensitive, meaning it won't work if you've typed something into the search bar, which itself of course doesn't resemble the address bar in any way and is therefore an unthinkable state to be in by the time you look up the keyboard shortcut in question . I guess I'm just a bit tired of every little thing requiring detective work. I wish there was just a button, or an actual address field. – Andreas Apr 29 '23 at 07:43