Delete recent files in finder on MacBook Pro or not?

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Level 1

16 points

Delete recent files in finder on MacBook Pro or not?

I didn’t realize it but there is like 15 copies of each item in my recent folder in finder. Over 10,000 files. Why? Why would there be that many copies? Are they taking up space? I selected all of them and then clicked delete and now they’re all going to the garbage can; it’s taking over an hour. Why do they call it recent if it’s every file I’ve ever looked at over the years? That’s not what recent means.

And for some reason I only have 1/3 of my storage filled but the memory is almost full. Is that why?

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 24, 2019 1:42 AM

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Answer 1

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Barney-15E

Level 10

113,398 points

Jul 24, 2019 5:03 AM in response to CindiApple8

You just moved all of the original documents to the Trash. Stop the Move and when it is done, open Trash, select all of them and use Put Back to move them back where they came from.

Recents is a Smart Folder. It merely searches for all files that match its search criteria and displays them in one place. They are not copies of anything. Those are the original files.

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Answer 2

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,582 points

Jul 24, 2019 1:47 AM in response to CindiApple8

Recent file is not a place, it's a list. It takes up no space.

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Delete recent files in finder on MacBook Pro or not?

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