I'm using Caja 1.10.3 in Linux Mate.

If I go to a folder and search for a file, for example I search for cutter and it finds The-Woodcutter.epub, then I can double-click or open with E-Book Viewer (the default application) and this works fine. OTOH, if I right-click and select 'Open parent location' then the correct directory is opened with vlc instead of with caja.

Presumably I have changed a setting somewhere because it behaves as I would expect and how I want for a different user on the same laptop.

Where do I change this setting? If I am outside 'search' and press alt-up then it behaves normally and caja moves up the directory tree.

VLC has registered itself for opening folders.
this can be useful to open dvds copied to hard drive, but it shouldn't have become the default.

try something like this:
right-click on any folder => properties => Open with... => choose caja as default.

It's not that simple. Right click on a folder and I find it opens with caja. Search for a folder name and I find it still opens with caja within the search results. It's only 'open parent location' within search that triggers VLC.

nobody said it was going to be simple.
see what you can find out; unfortunately i use neither mate nor vlc.
maybe this can help some more:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=linux+file...t+location+vlc
2 good-looking results:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=133343
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1395...he-places-menu

1 members found this post helpful.

Jackpot! It was one of the search results that gave me the clue. (I had done a search, honest, your search was better than mine)

Anyway, I had to edit file ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list and remove the entry

inode/directory=vlc.desktop;

and now it works as I want.

Thank you.

It happened again to me, but this time "open parent folder" opened with emacs.

It needed a different solution and I've copied from "https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/caja-open-parent-location-opens-rhythmbox/17939" ...

Control Center> Preferred Apps (down at the bottom in Personal)>third tab (System), File Manager should display “Caja”. If not, change it to Caja.