How can I remove any recent files from ‘Recents’ in Finder?

Aitchie101 wrote:

Hi

does anyone have a solution to remove any recent files from the recents folders. I've turned it off in finder/ I've removed it from finder/ and I've asked Chat GPT. they do not show up in icloud either so where are they being downloaded from?

I cannot get my head around the fact that there 'recent' files there from 2022.

that’s because it doesn’t actually mean recent. It is all files you have opened sorted by last open date.

need to clear cache or where they are being stored please?

it’s not a cache or listing or anything like that. It is metadata attached to the file when you open it. You would have to delete the metadata using the xattr command in Terminal. I don’t know if that can be done as a batch or if you would have to do that individually.

APPLE Engineers -

There are no Apple engineers here. We don’t work for Apple. You would have to actually contact Apple and you probably still couldn’t talk to their engineers.

you need to set a time limit of how long they stay in the recents folder. nobody and I mean nobody logs into the recents folder from 3 years ago, thinking 'oh yeah, wait let me check the recents folder' .

You could not look down to the bottom of the list assuming it’s still sorted by most recent usage. I can’t remember if you can group by last use date but if you can, you could do that and then you’d have sections of most recent use by day week month and year I think.

you can remove Recents from the sidebar and create your own smart folder that lists the items you want to see with whatever name you want to call it.

Create or change a Smart Folder on Mac - Apple Support

I'm just imagining some working on a 'confidential' or 'private' file and some knows where to look for files - they just need to look in the recents folder! as one cannot remove it from recents folder as that deletes it from the 'stored folder' -

or they could just type an * in the search field in a Finder window to see all of your documents you have worked on. Why would you let random people have physical access to your computer with your account unlocked?

I can’t remember if you can group by last use date but if you can, you could do that and then you’d have sections of most recent use by day week month and year I think.

You can Group By Last Opened Date, so you would have Groupings of Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days, then by Month, then annually.

I also looked at how you could make your own Recents.

Open Recents, then click on the Action button (…) and choose Show Search Criteria. There is one criteria for a Raw Query. Copy the text in the Raw Query field :

(kMDItemLastUsedDate = "*") && ((kMDItemContentTypeTree = public.content) || (kMDItemContentTypeTree = "com.microsoft.*"cdw) || (kMDItemContentTypeTree = public.archive))

Open your Home Folder and type cmd-F to start a search. Change the "kind" criteria to Raw Query (Choose Other… from the popup menu and search for Raw Query).

Paste in that query string.

Click the + button on the right side of the criteria pane and choose Last Opened Date from the popup menu.

Set it to whatever time period you want.

Click the Save button and check the box to Show in Sidebar.

FWIW, there is nothing stored in the Recents "folder". You can uncheck it in Finder > Settings… > Sidebar.

Aitchie101 wrote:

How can I remove any recent files from ‘Recents’ in Finder?

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