Displaying folder size

Help & Support
1

When I open a lister file sizes are displayed but folder sizes are not.
How do I switch on and off the option to display the folder size automatically.
Thanks

2

Preferences / Folders / Folder Behavior: Calculate folder sizes automatically for...

You might not like having this option on all the time since it can slow down with folders that have lots of files.

You can also make a button that runs:

GetSizes

Works on selected folders. Or all folders if none or selected.

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3

The Calculate Folder Sizes Automatically guide also has more, if you need it.

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4

If you want the ability to turn the 'Calculate Folder Sizes Automatically' behavior on and off withOUT having to go into Preferences every time - then you might find my 'SmartGetSizes_Handler' script useful as well.

<shameless_plug/>

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5

Is there a way to trigger a consistent display of folder size, for instance, showing all the sizes in MB or all in KB or all in GB? Currently, the only option are in bytes (Edit - Toggle Size Format), or in a combination of GB/MB/KB. I find the latter display is sometimes disorientating:

If the folder is sorted by name, it gets even more disorientating:

6

There are a few different size columns, Size (auto), Size (bytes), Size (KB)... However I find a good solution to that is to enable the Relative graphs behind size and date fields. Check here File displays.

Also you might find this button and script helpful. Its similar to @steje script, but has some differences. calcfoldersizes-setting.
Edit, just realized @steje was over a year ago, not not really what your were asking about.

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7

Thanks for the link. I suppose the bar behind the size shows the relative size of the file vs the size of the current folder, right? Ok, that should work. Still wishing for a consistent display though, unless there is a reason behind mixing them.

8

Not quite, the bar is relative to the max size in the list of files. Since version 12, the bars for files and folders are related separately, folders are relative to the max folder size, files to max file size.

You can use the Size (kb) column to give a consistent display, but I never liked it. You end up with small files being rounded and large folder having too many numbers to be read easily.
Give the Size (kb) a try it might be what you are after. The relative graphs can be displayed behind any size (or date) column.

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9

Yeah, I think it's time to standardize on MB instead of KB. The smaller size can be just 0.1MB for 100KB. Even smaller could just round down to 0.01MB, I suppose.

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10

You could use scripting to add a custom size column which formats the sizes differently if none of the built-in ones are right for you.

I find auto + graphs works well, though. You can tell which files are tiny/huge based on the graphs, which makes it even easier to read the size numbers/units. (I prefer the graphs in a separate column to behind the main size numbers, but that's a matter of taste.)