"Recent items" in System Preferences/General keeps resetting to "None"

Please back up all data before proceeding.

This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership, permissions, and access controls to the default. If you've intentionally set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it, but you do need to follow the instructions below.

Step 1

If you have more than one user, and the one in question is not an administrator, then go to Step 2.

Triple-click anywhere in the following line on this page to select it:

sudo find ~ $TMPDIR.. -exec chflags -h nosappnd,noschg,nosunlnk,nouappnd,nouchg,nouunlnk {} + -exec chown -h $UID {} + -exec chmod +rw {} + -exec chmod -h -N {} + -type d -exec chmod -h +x {} + 2>&-

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.

You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.

The command may take several minutes to run, depending on how many files you have. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear, then quit Terminal.

Step 2 (optional)

Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1, if you prefer not to take it, or if it doesn't solve the problem.

Start up in Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select

Utilities ▹ Terminal

from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open. In that window, type this:

resetp

Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:

resetpassword

Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not going to reset a password.

Select your startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.

Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.

Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.

Select

 ▹ Restart

from the menu bar.

Step 1 helped me, but you must restart your Mac after this.

Please notice that Step 2 will not work if you have your startup volume encrypted.

Your solution worked for me a few times, but now I'm thinking as I apply this fix for the 5th time, 2nd in 10 days -- any idea what is causing this problem?

I recently upgraded from Mavericks to El Capitan 10.11.4 and found this problem with no Recent Items, and then found that changing the System Preferences > General value did not work - it showed None again if I reopened the Preference panel. But after doing some more searching, I found a discussion that just suggested that you had to Restart after changing the Recent Items count. I think I probably had not restarted since the El Capitan upgrade. After changing the Recent Items count in System Preferences and then restarting, the Recent Items seems to be working now for my apps, and the System Preference no longer says None. Hopefully, this will keep working and won't be affected by future restarts. I'm glad I tried the Restart before using the terminal command suggested by Linc Davis.

If you're trying step 2 from Linc's solution and you're not seeing any drives in the Change Password screen it's probably because you're using FileVault disk encryption on your drive. Here's how to solve that:

1. Quit the Change Password application and the Terminal to go back to the start screen and launch the Disk Utility

2. Select your drive from the list on the left and click File -> Unlock... in the menu bar

3. Enter your main account password to unlock the drive

4. Quit the Disk Utility and now try to follow Linc's steps again, the drive should show up in the Change Password screen this time

edit: got this solution from this thread

Thanks Debrisc. This worked for me.

Step 1: Go to System Preferences > General. Change 'Recent Items' from 'None' to the value of your choice.

Step 2: Resist the temptation of closing and opening the System Preferences window to check if the value is still there, (in my case it went back to 'None') and just restart the computer.

Step 3: Check the value in System Preferences > General. It's now set to the value you chose. It can be changed again and it seems it's working!

None of these fixes are permanent. They work for a day or two, then next thing you know the Recent Items menu setting has reset to "None," without any warning, of course.

Does anyone know if this is fixed in Sierra?

Thank you! This solved the problem without any tedious mucking about with terminal commands. Perfect.