Recents in Finder Go Column Can't be Deleted

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)

Posted on Oct 28, 2017 9:15 PM

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35 replies

Jan 1, 2018 8:21 PM in response to ShazeeMaster

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.

Oct 30, 2017 10:17 PM in response to Bob Foss

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.

Oct 31, 2017 12:05 AM in response to Bob Foss

Yes they will accumulate ,You can try this method see if it works , select the contents ( press command and A ) in Recents , copy them ( command and C ) .

Take cursor on top menu bar , click on file > New finder window paste ( command and V ) in new finder window .

Insert a usb stick in the computer and once the usb stick image is on the desktop , paste the items in it , then right click on the usb stick and eject it .

Recents column will empty .

Some will suggest about reindexing the complete hard drive .

Jan 28, 2018 6:34 AM in response to Barney-15E

This is right, theoretically. Thank you. Unfortunately, not everything is black and white.

It is hard to deny a person of general trust (family, boss) short access to your account in use and at the same time wishing to keep a couple of things private (latest research for birthday present or a surprise vacation or career site). For that reason it had always been nice to be able to delete recent files and folders from the Apple menu (or application File/recents) as a quick fix, usually good enough. That's missing in High Sierra, now.

Still, thanks for your systematic answer.

Jan 28, 2018 6:59 AM in response to Macintosk

.. oh, of course the delete folder and files in the apple menu is still there. What is annoying is the new smart folder "Recents" which can NOT be RESET, this is the deterioration in High Sierra, isn't it?

There is nothing to "Reset" as it doesn't work that way.

The "recent items" menus are created by making a list. The list can be deleted, thus removing the items in the menu.

Recents is a search folder which searches the file system for certain metadata and displays files that meet that criteria.

If you can find a way to edit the Recents search criteria, that would prevent it from finding anything, but there is no certainty that Apple will not reset that criteria in an update if they decide to change the criteria.


You could also use some program or script to delete that particular metadata (kMDItemLastUsedDate) on all files in Recents.

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Recents in Finder Go Column Can't be Deleted

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