how to clear recent items from Preview's menu in Dock

1. Open Preview

2. File > Open Recent > Clear Menu

3. Quit Preview

4. Drag Preview icon from Dock (goes poof) or option remove from Dock

5. Open Preview from Applications folder or Launch Pad option>Keep in Dock

Scroll to the bottom to see the clear menu option

I think people might be confused about what the OP wants. He/she is not talking about clearing  --> Recent Items, or even the Recent Items menu in that particular app. Rather, when you right-click on the Preview icon in the Dock, they want it to be empty. I have the same problem with TextEdit, and I've had it since the El Capitan upgrade last year. When I open documents in TextEdit, it is not reflected when I right-click on the icon in my Dock. I could open 20 documents right now, close them all, right-click on the TextEdit icon and see none of those 20 documents show up. I've tried all of the aforementioned suggestions to clear it out so I can start all over again, and none of them work.

R.W.R wrote:

Got it (I think). Evidently I had deleted the image files before closing them in Preview.

my solution: move "com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist" from ~/Library/Preferences to trash then reboot

then put it back in ~/Library/Preferences

Some how Preview or Launch Services or Dock can't resolve aliases for absent files and doesn't update the list

This Solution or some variant thereof should resolve the problem for any Apple application ie TextEdit, QuickTime...

Good computing R.W.R !

R.W.R wrote:

Got it (I think). Evidently I had deleted the image files before closing them in Preview.

my solution: move "com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist" from ~/Library/Preferences to trash then reboot

then put it back in ~/Library/Preferences

Some how Preview or Launch Services or Dock can't resolve aliases for absent files and doesn't update the list

This Solution or some variant thereof should resolve the problem for any Apple application ie TextEdit, QuickTime...

I'll give this a try and see if works. I've tried everything else, might as well give this a go. 🙂

Works for me! 🙂 R.W.R, why don't you stick around and answer more questions, collect valuable points and challenging merit awards?

Wish I could award you the Solved "Greenie".

EDIT: Only thing is I don't think you meant "put it back in ~/Library/Preferences. That would overwrite the fresh pref you created.

System Preferences > General > Recent Items set to None but that will effect all apps.

Well, I tested both methods and neither seems to work anymore, so you are not alone.

Hi..

Restart your Mac then try Open > Recent > Clear Menu

It worked for me on v10.11.5.