How do I clear the "recent" user account pictures in Mountain Lion?

Select them individually and press cmd+X.

Then just cancel.

I don´t know if this is the solution for your problem, but I use CCleaner from the Mac App Store. It does a good job at clearing a lot of caches. And it´s free.

That's a good one. Didn´t know about it.

To completely remove the files, from the desktop click Go>Go to Folder and type

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.ImageKit.RecentPictureService/Data/Library/Images /Recent Pictures/

Then move the files you don't want to trash.

Make sure to empty trash and restart before viewing your recents again, or they will reappear.

You can also select them and press cmd + delete.

Thanks! I always wondered where they were stored.

I will warn all readers NOT to use CCleaner for Mac, there are many reports of issues up to and including the removal of OSX system files erroneously, a reinstallation of OSX can be needed to fix the problem.

The Windows version is fine however

would you show me step by step maybe with some screen shot. I'm still can't do this 😟

Tks

This thread was awesome... thanks everyone.

Do you know where these recent photos are stored in OS X Yosemite??

Not in the folder you shoed for Mountain Lion...

Should be the same folder. There's a formatting issue(?) in NewRogue13's path though. It should read...

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.ImageKit.RecentPictureService/Data/Library/Images/Recent Pictures/

...without the space after "Images ".