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)
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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`.
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
If some people are making a project on a computer on which many people work, then what will you say. From where it comes to security, I just want to know is there a way to disable "Recents" folder to prevent from collecting information of work going on computer.
Thanks
This is an article Recents - Apple Support
If some folders are deleted from recents the same folders will also be deleted from documents also , so the user must keep the folders in documents .
In finder preferences if the box is unchecked for recents it will only disappear from finder side bar , and some check the box or not ( its optional ) .
If some people are making a project on a computer on which many people work, then what will you say.
Give each person an account and store the project files on a server or shared location on the Mac. It does take a little bit of effort to create a multi-user accessible shared location on the client version of macOS.
From where it comes to security, I just want to know is there a way to disable "Recents" folder to prevent from collecting information of work going on computer.
Sorry, I don't have any idea. The OS constantly tracks what has been worked on. The File System keeps track of modification times. While there may be some way to prevent Recents from tracking the files the way they do, there is no way to prevent the file system from updating the modification date. Therefore, it is impossible for you to "hide" what has been processed without manually changing modification dates when you finish editing the files.
Even if you disable Spotlight, the files can still be easily found using the Find command in Terminal. It does not use Spotlight to find the files.
This is almost the answer, but will work until Apple has a better fix (like a way to edit the search for Recents or a way to clear meta data on recent files in order to prevent them from showing in the search folder)
To quickly access all of your files, click Recents in the Finder sidebar. All the files on your Mac and in iCloud Drive are added to Recents automatically.
You can’t add or remove files from Recents . The folder is updated automatically when you create or get new files, or when you remove files from your Mac or iCloud Drive.
works... you found the simple solution to everyones problem... thanks
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.
Recents in Finder Go Column Can't be Deleted
