diff --git a/src/gui/dialogs/file_dialog.cpp b/src/gui/dialogs/file_dialog.cpp
index b2799f668e4..4143fd39db2 100644
--- a/src/gui/dialogs/file_dialog.cpp
+++ b/src/gui/dialogs/file_dialog.cpp
@@ -47,8 +47,10 @@ namespace fs = filesystem;
 namespace
 {
 const std::string icon_dir = "misc/folder-icon.png";
-const std::string icon_file = "";
-const std::string icon_parent = "";
+// Empty icons with the same size as the above to force the icon column to have a
+// specific size even when there are no folders in the list.
+const std::string icon_file = icon_dir + "~O(0)";
+const std::string icon_parent = icon_dir + "~O(0)";
 // NOTE: Does not need to be the same as PARENT_DIR! Use PARENT_DIR to build
 //       relative paths for non-presentational purposes instead.
 const std::string label_parent = "..";