Total Commander

There is a very old thread from 2003
https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=18446&hilit=flat+view+tab#p18446
with a still existing issue:

When switching back to a tab with flattened view (Ctrl+B), the view is no longer flattened.

Back in 2003, ghisler argued that this is for performance reasons ("reading Ctrl+B can be very time-consuming").
With modern systems/SSDs this problem is no longer that big.

Thus: How about an option to keep the flattened view when switching tabs?

Support++

FWIW, it's sticky in Directory Opus.

Support++

Currently, you can create a view mode that just execute the BranchView (cm_dirBranch) and keep filters and selected files. TC now keep per Tab information about filters and view (not the case in 2003).
When you are back, the custom view and the BranchView will be back. What you can do is to assign a hotkey to enter to BranchView mode and another to return to default.
Christian point about performance is not anymore as valid as it was.

It's true that hardware has been getting faster, especially with SSDs. However, performance is still a consideration due to large or huge directory trees with lots of files, and of course the ever present slow network connections, not so much locally but certainly via VPN, cloud and so on.

Regards
Dalai

Tabs don't usually store any file lists, just the location. The only exception is when using Search - Feed to listbox. The main reason is that the lists are always up to date this way when you switch to a certain tab.

ghisler(Author) wrote: ↑2022-11-02, 16:06 UTC Tabs don't usually store any file lists, just the location. The only exception is when using Search - Feed to listbox. The main reason is that the lists are always up to date this way when you switch to a certain tab.

Well, of course it's desirable to have up to date information whenever tabs are switched.
However, if I explicitly activate the flattened view in a tab, I would like to keep that view even when switching tabs.

In this case, leaving branch view (as it is now) does not show up to date information either -- at least not for the branch view.
Instead, the current behavior even destroys the information I need by replacing it with something else (i.e., the non-flattened view).