Upgraded to High Sierra and seems to run well, but under the Go column in Finder is Recents at the very top...it accumulates documents and doesn't seem to end. How can I delete the Recents item. If I try to delete the files, they go out of my documents. I only want to delete the useless Recents list. Past systems like Sierra were much less annoying.
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015)
ShazeeMaster wrote:
I think there must be a problem with Recents folder on side bar in High Sierra. When I’m deleting the files in recents folder they actually deleted from the original locations file. I don’t want my work to be safe in an easy access folder where anyone who use the same computer can see what work is going on this Mac. How to stop saving files in recents folder in side bar. Please help
There is nothing wrong with Recents (albeit the search criteria is lacking for its purpose). You don't seem to understand the concept of a Search Folder. Just remove Recents from the Sidebar if you don't want it there.
A Search Folder finds all of the files that match its search criteria and displays them in that one window. Nothing is moved or created in that "folder." It just gathers the matched files together. The files that are shown in a search folder act just like the original file, so if you open one, it opens the original file (not a copy of it). If you rename it, it will rename the original file. If you move it, it will move the original file (but it will still appear in the results of the search). If you delete the file, it will delete the original file.
If you believe that showing your recent files is the security problem, you have a lot to learn. The security problem is you allowing someone else to use your account on that Mac. If others need to use that Mac, then create accounts for them to use, or have them use the Guest account if it is only for quick, non-permanent access.
Whether they are shown in a folder in the Sidebar (or not as you can remove it from the sidebar) is completely irrelevant. The person you are trying to prevent seeing those files can create a search folder to find anything you have worked on within a few seconds: Cmd-F, enter "*" in search field, Sort by Date Modified.
If you yield control of your computer to someone else, you have absolutely no security. With separate accounts, you can at least protect your data from other trusted users.
ShazeeMaster wrote:
I think there must be a problem with Recents folder on side bar in High Sierra. When I’m deleting the files in recents folder they actually deleted from the original locations file. I don’t want my work to be safe in an easy access folder where anyone who use the same computer can see what work is going on this Mac. How to stop saving files in recents folder in side bar. Please help
There is nothing wrong with Recents (albeit the search criteria is lacking for its purpose). You don't seem to understand the concept of a Search Folder. Just remove Recents from the Sidebar if you don't want it there.
A Search Folder finds all of the files that match its search criteria and displays them in that one window. Nothing is moved or created in that "folder." It just gathers the matched files together. The files that are shown in a search folder act just like the original file, so if you open one, it opens the original file (not a copy of it). If you rename it, it will rename the original file. If you move it, it will move the original file (but it will still appear in the results of the search). If you delete the file, it will delete the original file.
If you believe that showing your recent files is the security problem, you have a lot to learn. The security problem is you allowing someone else to use your account on that Mac. If others need to use that Mac, then create accounts for them to use, or have them use the Guest account if it is only for quick, non-permanent access.
Whether they are shown in a folder in the Sidebar (or not as you can remove it from the sidebar) is completely irrelevant. The person you are trying to prevent seeing those files can create a search folder to find anything you have worked on within a few seconds: Cmd-F, enter "*" in search field, Sort by Date Modified.
If you yield control of your computer to someone else, you have absolutely no security. With separate accounts, you can at least protect your data from other trusted users.
It is generated by `Spotlight`
(see the second post on this link: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1071627?tstart=0)
You can make it so that nothing shows up (aka deactivating it) by doing the following.
- System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy > +
- then select your `Macintosh HD` (or whatever your HD is called)
- then click `choose`.
Now that should do it.
Ohhh Yeah!
Note:
I am on MacOs High Sierra, and I have only one HD. if you have more than one HD my guess is that you should repeat the process of pressing `+` and selecting each HD.
A less drastic alternative would be to only add the directories that contain files you don't want to show up in the `Recents`.
Menus cannot be edited. It can be removed from the Sidebar.
Recents is a search folder that shows recently used documents. They don't really exist there, are not causing any clutter, and you will deleter your originals if you delete them from Recents.
Just don't use it.
You can't clear out the items that appear in "Recents" for reasons stated elsewhere in this thread. The best you can do under High Sierra (that I've found) is to remove the folder from the sidebar and clear out recently accessed folders.
I have found "Recents" to be highly annoying because somehow it's become the default when I open a new Finder window, and for two key reasons:
1) It's not showing a list of recently accessed or created folders or files. The list I get is over a year old. I'm not following the logic on how it fits any criteria that would consider it "recent."
2) When I want a new Finder window it's nearly always because I'm trying find something in a folder I do work in on a regular basis (like Documents or iCloud).
My solution was to set a new default Finder window. This article was useful:
Good luck!
I finally managed to disable the "Recents" folder/search. I'm running High Sierra 10.13.6 Beta, but it probably is the same on all versions that have the Recents feature.
I haven't seen any side effects, but, of course, you're playing with the system, so the usual caveats apply - make a backup, no guarantee it won't break something or that it'll work for you, make sure you're comfortable at the system level, etc., etc.
1. Disable SIP (Google will turn up lots of sites that tell you how to do it), and reboot.
2. In Finder, "Go/Go to Folder" /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Applications/ and delete Recents.app.
3. Go to /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/MyLibraries/myDocume nts.cannedSearch and delete the copy of Recents.app that's there.
4. Re-enable SIP.
Recents will still show up under the Finder's Go menu, but it'll be greyed out.
open Finder Preferences > Sidebar uncheck Recents.
All the files on your Mac and in iCloud Drive are added to Recents automatically.
No, they are not. Recents isn't "All My Files."
Recents only shows recently used files as defined by having a kMDItemLastUsedDate extended attribute attached to the file.
Only files with that attribute show up in Recents.
Just because the icon looks the same doesn't make it the same search folder as "All My Files."
IMHO, this is wrong on two counts:
1) Files can be removed from Recents - by adding the directory containing the files (or your entire drive) to Spotlight's privacy setting.
2) Recents does not contain "All the files on your Mac".
IMHO Touten's answer is correct.
No, you don't want to delete the actual files, but if you do what Touten told me, going through Spotlight, you can just tell your computer to NOT search for those Recents...whether they be Documents, Downloads, etc. I'm extremely low-tech but was able to follow his instructions through Spotlight and prevent the Recents from being generated.
Careful, if I am correct, the first response was wrong. If you open finder and seen on the left side a list ie: air drop, applications, recents",documents, desktop etc. And if you go to Recents and delete any docuement file by right clicking, it does delete from it also from the folder Documents.
Just thought I share from bad experience.
recents is not a folder that has contents it is an alias/ shortcut to the contents of other folders such as documents etc
on your mac
You can clear it by going to the Apple Logo -> Recent items -> Clear Menu.
Dear !
Barney
I have created an empty folder on the desktop , opened finder and dragged the folder in recents .
They can be used to attach folders , the untitled folder will be both in recents and in documents .
If untitled folder is to be removed from documents then right click on it and move to trash .
They will not delete originals from recents , but the originals could be deleted if they are deleted from Documents into the trash and emptying the trash .
I have created an empty folder on the desktop , opened finder and dragged the folder in recents .
No, according to your screenshot, you dragged it into the Sidebar, below the Recents entry.
But that is all completely irrelevant.
I think there must be a problem with Recents folder on side bar in High Sierra. When I’m deleting the files in recents folder they actually deleted from the original locations file. I don’t want my work to be safe in an easy access folder where anyone who use the same computer can see what work is going on this Mac. How to stop saving files in recents folder in side bar. Please help
Recents in Finder Go Column Can't be Deleted
