"Recents" folder in Finder is empty

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"Recents" folder in Finder is empty

Since the answers I found on Apple Community are all older and you can't update the posts, I've created a new one because again, this slight bug has returned after the latest macOS 15.4 update. The solution I found simple (not all the terminal changes and things most novices with macOS shouldn't be playing with.) If this occurs not long after having installed a new update, shutdown the MAC and start it again.

Voilà! The folder was populated again as normal after I did this. So, I'm thinking that this might have to become SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) to do for the majority of small macOS bugs after encountered after updates, particularly major ones like 15 > 16 or 15.x > 15.x₁.

Hope this helps someone else!

iMac 24″, macOS 12.3

Posted on Mar 24, 2022 3:20 AM

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Answer 1

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Barney-15E

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Mar 24, 2022 5:26 AM in response to JEL888

Recents is a Smart Folder that is dependent on spotlight to populate. When you install an update or an upgrade the spotlight index is rebuilt on first power up. If you go look at a Recents while it’s still rebuilding the index, you won’t see anything.

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Answer 2

JEL888 Author

Level 1

75 points

Mar 24, 2022 6:50 AM in response to Barney-15E

Hi and thanks! Definitely adds some knowledge and thus light to the issue; however, in my case, the update was completed days ago, but I hadn't turned off my MAC since the update. So once I did and let is shutdown and then I turned it back on, everything populated immediately. Before doing this, I had gone into the "Recents" folder several times over two or more days (that I noticed) and it was empty (and remained so).

So thanks! I understand now what impacts it, Spotlight, so your contribution helps in case my simple solution doesn't work for someone else. They'll know to check Spotlight and perhaps force a re-indexation.

Community, gotta love it!

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"Recents" folder in Finder is empty

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