I have a related problem with a folder containing 240 sub-folders and 2800 tiff files of around 50MB each. Opening the folder is slowish, about 10 seconds. I was able to open the subfolders until I started using one of the tiff files for an icon. I did that with 3 of the 240 sub-folders, and then Nautilus started crashing each time I tried to enter a sub-folder.
I have a related problem with a folder containing 240 sub-folders and 2800 tiff files of around 50MB each. Opening the folder is slowish, about 10 seconds. I was able to open the subfolders until I started using one of the tiff files for an icon. I did that with 3 of the 240 sub-folders, and then Nautilus started crashing each time I tried to enter a sub-folder.