Extract text from Folder view settings files (DIRECTORY)
To convert DIRECTORY Settings files to another format, you need KDE Dolphin or other Settings software.
To convert other file formats to the "Folder Configuration File" file type, you need software like KDE Dolphin or a similar tool.
.directory files are system configuration files generated by the KDE Dolphin file manager on Linux desktop environments. They function identically to DS_Store files on macOS or desktop.ini files on Windows, storing folder-specific metadata such as custom icon sizes, sorting preferences, and background images.
Non-Linux users frequently encounter these files when opening a shared USB drive or network folder, where the file appears as annoying, unusable clutter. Because it is an OS-specific hidden file, Windows and macOS do not know how to handle it natively. Standard online document converters fail to process it because they mistakenly attempt to treat it as a media or rich document format.
In reality, a .directory file is structured as a plain text file using standard INI formatting. Converting it to typical image or PDF formats is impossible because it contains no visual data. However, the best conversion targets are TXT or INI if you want to explicitly read or edit the configuration syntax. If our analysis detects the supported underlying text format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your DIRECTORY file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted ZIP, FKT, SGRD, MOOD, ISO and FILE files.
If you want to convert DIRECTORY file to ZIP, ISO, FILE, INI, CFG, CONF, CONFIG, JSON, XML, YAML, YML or TOML, you can use KDE Dolphin or similar software from the "Folder Display Configuration" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert ZSHRC, CONF, RCFILE, GITCONFIG, RC, PLIST, BASHRC, CONFIG, PROFILE, INI, PREFS or CFG files to DIRECTORY, try KDE Dolphin or another comparable tool in the "Folder Display Configuration" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our DIRECTORY converter.