bythecshore
Level 1 (25 points)

Q: Change "Recent Places" to more than 5 items?

I really like the "recent places" dialog box when saving items across applications. But I wish I could see more than five items in the list.

 

Is there a way to change it to 10 or 15 places?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), MacBook Air, iPhone5

Posted on Jul 22, 2013 6:59 AM

Close
bythecshore

Q: Change "Recent Places" to more than 5 items?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by macjack,

    macjack macjack Jul 22, 2013 7:09 AM in response to bythecshore
    Level 9 (55,709 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 22, 2013 7:09 AM in response to bythecshore

    System Preferences > General > Recent items.

  • by bythecshore,

    bythecshore bythecshore Jul 22, 2013 7:18 AM in response to macjack
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jul 22, 2013 7:18 AM in response to macjack

    Thanks, but that's not what I'm looking for.  Recent Items, that you suggested, increases the number of ITEMs that show up in dialog lists. 

     

    I'm trying to increase the number of recent PLACES, i.e., when I go to save a document, it's the list that appears at the bottom of the folder selector in the "Save" or "Save as" dialog box. 

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jul 22, 2013 12:07 PM in response to bythecshore
    Level 9 (73,421 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 22, 2013 12:07 PM in response to bythecshore

    Not a direct answer to your question, but try clicking the arrow to the other position - down or up, which should allow you to see your entire Finder.

     

    Screen Shot 2013-07-22 at 3.04.13 PM.png

  • by VikingOSX,Helpful

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Jul 22, 2013 1:12 PM in response to bythecshore
    Level 7 (21,314 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 22, 2013 1:12 PM in response to bythecshore

    The recent places referred to is located on the folder selector in the Save/Save As... dialog.

     

    There is a system setting for this in GlobalPreferences called NSNavRecentPlaces. You can see this from the Terminal as:

    defaults find recentplaces

    In Leopard and Snow Leopard, one could issue the following command to increase the recent places array -- and it would take effect immediately.

    defaults write .GlobalPreferences NSNavRecentPlacesLimit -int 10

    When I ran this on my 10.8.4 system, the command returned without error. Xcode showed the resource and value written in the .GlobalPreferences file, as did the above defaults find command. However, even after a reboot, there was no change. Still stuck at five recent places entries. The other notable was that the recent places locations were not changing after several Save/Save As... cycles --- deliberately to new destinations.

     

    So, unless anyone else has additional tweaks, you may have to settle for five entries, and hopefully for you, they do change.

     

    Here is the reference article.

  • by bythecshore,

    bythecshore bythecshore Jul 22, 2013 2:34 PM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jul 22, 2013 2:34 PM in response to VikingOSX

    VikingOSX,

     

    I copied the command from the article you referenced "defaults write .GlobalPreferences NSNavRecentPlacesLimit -int 12" and pasted it into terminal.  It was accepted - and worked! 

     

    I saved an additional 4 files and now have a list of 9 to choose from.  I'm assuming it'll go to 12 as noted in the command line.

     

    Thanks.

  • by VikingOSX,

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Jul 22, 2013 3:46 PM in response to bythecshore
    Level 7 (21,314 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 22, 2013 3:46 PM in response to bythecshore

    Glad it is working for you.

  • by fnye,

    fnye fnye Mar 31, 2014 10:47 AM in response to bythecshore
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 31, 2014 10:47 AM in response to bythecshore

    I tried this too on Mavericks and it worked for me! Thanks, VikingOSX! (sorry for the late post, but I just came across this thread) --F.

  • by DavidM3,

    DavidM3 DavidM3 Apr 9, 2014 4:20 PM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2014 4:20 PM in response to VikingOSX

    This is really helpful. I was hoping to have a recent folders smart folder or shortcut in either the dock or the Finder sidebar to quickly access all of the recent network folders I've been saving to. Anyone been able to do this?

     

    Thanks.

  • by fnye,

    fnye fnye Apr 9, 2014 5:04 PM in response to DavidM3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2014 5:04 PM in response to DavidM3

    Create a new smart folder (save it anywhere convenient) by selecting "This Mac", "Kind is Folder", and "Last opened date is within X days" --F.

  • by DavidM3,

    DavidM3 DavidM3 Apr 10, 2014 9:09 AM in response to fnye
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 10, 2014 9:09 AM in response to fnye

    Fnye, that won't do the trick for me because it will open all of the folders on the network drive that anyone has opened within X days, which is such a long list, it's not useful for me. I'm really trying to replicate the folders in the "Favorite Places" drop-down in the OS X save as dialog boxes.

  • by moomin-mama,

    moomin-mama moomin-mama Oct 27, 2014 4:42 PM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 1 (26 points)
    Oct 27, 2014 4:42 PM in response to VikingOSX

    Awesome – the terminal command worked here in 10.9.4 – thanks!

  • by klipp86,

    klipp86 klipp86 Apr 17, 2015 7:43 AM in response to DavidM3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 17, 2015 7:43 AM in response to DavidM3

    DavidM3, any luck?

     

    Wondered if you ever found a solution to this, or if anyone can direct me to a thread revolving around this conversation in particular?

     

    I've been searching for an answer to this functionality for months with no avail, and with not being able to find anyone even asking the same questions as me. I like that you are able to expand the recent places drop down with the aforementioned Terminal command, but that's only in the Save As / Open dialogs. I'm interested in that same functionality for a basic Finder window (not within an application). What's interesting is that in the image below, you can see that Apple has included a feature similar to what we want, but only contains the breadcrumb trail to what folder we are in currently. As you know, that is what composes the top half of any drop down menu in Save As / Open dialog windows. But the bottom half is recent folder locations, including network (server) AND local folders. This is crucial and would be a super speedy improvement to my workflow. I know people say to use Smart Folders/ Smart Searches but that doesn't include network locations—only local.

     

    If anyone has any knowledge of how to maybe get a Finder hack or 3rd party app to create this functionality, I would be eternally grateful! Maybe this is a feature I could request of the noble people behind the app XtraFinder (a great little app for those looking for expanded Finder functionality).

     

    Screen_Shot_2015-04-17_at_9_36_12_AM.png

  • by bpcmemorial,

    bpcmemorial bpcmemorial Mar 11, 2016 2:39 PM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Mac App Store
    Mar 11, 2016 2:39 PM in response to VikingOSX

    The terminal command (defaults write .GlobalPreferences NSNavRecentPlacesLimit -int 10) works in Yosemite, took effect after a reboot.

     

    I am running 10.10.5