Preventing groups/folders from auto-expanding when selecting a layer in the group

I'm sure you have probably soved this by now, but if not there is a solution. In the menu circled below, you can deselect 'expand layer group on click' and I think this will solve your problem if I'm understanding it properly. 

It's a feature of the move tool options bar "auto select" checkbox. You can undo the option to auto select layer with the move tool which will stop the auto expansion of groups, but you'll obviously lose the ability to auto select layers with the move tool.

The other option is to leave this feature on, then you can either create an action and insert the layer's panel menu command for "Collapse All Groups" and use the action with an F-Key shortcut:

Or use a script where you can then use custom keyboard shortcuts which are more flexible.

// Collapse all layer groups/sets
app.runMenuItem(stringIDToTypeID('collapseAllGroupsEvent'));

or

var idcollapseAllGroupsEvent = stringIDToTypeID( "collapseAllGroupsEvent" );
var desc358 = new ActionDescriptor();
executeAction( idcollapseAllGroupsEvent, desc358, DialogModes.NO );

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/11/downloading-and-installing-adobe-scripts.html

How to stop groups/folders in the layers panel from automatically expanding when I select a layer in that group.

By @22395791

Just to clarify: The expansion (in the layers panel) of the group (the layer is in) takes place when i select a layer in the document window, not when I select a layer in the layers panel. Just to be more precise.

I did a quick search and did not find any answers on how to stop groups/folders in the layers panel from automatically expanding when I select a layer in that group.

By @22395791

Except posts mentioning to update the software, which I did.