I have this same issue on 3.12.2-1 and found that if you use dconf-editor and navigate to org.gnome.nautilus.preferences you can change the value of 'sort-directories-first' to get it to work.
Thanks On Thu, 21 Aug 2014 16:31:00 +0100 Z <b...@theloosespoke.org.uk> wrote: > Package: nautilus > Version: 3.12.2-1 > Severity: normal > > Dear Maintainer, > I launched nautilus, and wanted the folders arranged before the files, which I > find makes it much easier to find folders (I think it used to be, and should > be, default). I launched 'preferences', and ticked the box labelled 'sort > folders before files'. Nothing changed, either straight away, or when I closed > preferences, went to a different folder, or even closed and reopened nautilus. > I then discovered that it forgets me ticking that box as soon as I have closed > preferences, so that if I reopen preferences, it is unticked. I haven't noticed > any other issues with different options. What should happen is behaviour > similar to the 'show hidden and backup files': when ticked, this preference is > instantly applied, and continues to be applied, even when you go to other > folders, or even quit the program and restart it. This means of course that > when you next go onto preferences the option should be a s you left it. I have > not always had this issue, I am not sure when it started happening, possibly > with gnome 3.12 - I reinstalled debian due to another issue at the time, and > noticed the problem straight away. > > > > -- System Information: > Debian Release: jessie/sid > APT prefers testing-updates > APT policy: (500, 'testing-updates'), (500, 'testing') > Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) > Foreign Architectures: i386 > > Kernel: Linux 3.14-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores) > Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) > Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash > > Versions of packages nautilus depends on: > ii desktop-file-utils 0.22-1 > ii gsettings-desktop-schemas 3.12.2-1 > ii gvfs 1.20.2-1 > ii libatk1.0-0 2.12.0-1 > ii libc6 2.19-7 > ii libcairo-gobject2 1.12.16-2 > ii libcairo2 1.12.16-2 > ii libexempi3 2.2.1-2 > ii libexif12 0.6.21-1 > ii libgail-3-0 3.12.2-1+b1 > ii libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 2.30.7-1 > ii libglib2.0-0 2.40.0-3 > ii libglib2.0-data 2.40.0-3 > ii libgnome-desktop-3-10 3.12.2-2 > ii libgtk-3-0 3.12.2-1+b1 > ii libnautilus-extension1a 3.12.2-1 > ii libnotify4 0.7.6-2 > ii libpango-1.0-0 1.36.3-1 > ii libpangocairo-1.0-0 1.36.3-1 > ii libselinux1 2.3-1 > ii libtracker-sparql-1.0-0 1.0.2-1+b1 > ii libx11-6 2:1.6.2-2 > ii libxml2 2.9.1+dfsg1-4 > ii nautilus-data 3.12.2-1 > ii shared-mime-info 1.3-1
