Clearing all the files in the "Recents" Finder

[ChrisA]

.... Not so good if trying to hide a holiday surprise, or latest guitar purchase, etc.!

Oh, so you have a Mac that is shared by several people? If so then the "proper" thing is to have one login account for each person.

There is no way at all to hide anything from a person who has you same account. Even if you make the recent folder go away, they could still read a list of files sorted by date of access in the terminal window.

Why would you not have made one account per person? How do you handle email and iMeasages?

OK there might be some data you want to share, You can set that up my opening permissions to people who are members of some group.

Apple got it right, or rather they inherited the right answer when they decided to use UNIX as the underlying OS for macOS. Always the rule is that a login account is for one person, if two people are to see different things then there are two accounts. It is hard to believe, but UNIX is about 50 years old now. They used to have a kind of contest where if one person could do something from their login account that affected another person, they pay them something like $100. In fact Apple til pays this bounty but the top category bounty is now a million dollars. Accounts are VERY secure. These big payouts for finding loopholes and the fact that this has been going on for decades has resulted in pretty good security. BUT ONLY IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE IT. It seems you choose not to, so don't complain.

 

[imacken]

Oh, so you have a Mac that is shared by several people?

The holiday and guitar quote was just a light hearted moment. Quite unusual for this thread!
For the 4th or 5th time, I will say again, I am not concerned about my privacy, and nor do I allow others to log into my account. However, I do recognise that others might want the ability to preserve the privacy of their files history. My reasons for wanting to clear Recents were stated in my first post, which no one seems to have read.
Anyway, this thread has deteriorated into an irrelevancy, which often happens.
Thanks to the one or two people who did actually try and help answer my question, but I'm off this thread now.
I hope you all enjoy campaigning for the removal of other privacy settings for those who want to use them. I'm thinking of browser history, app recent lists, Netflix etc. history clear, clearing Windows Recent files list, in fact everything I can think of except MacOS Recent Files. All of these invlove being logged into a private account.

 

[ItWasNotMe]

Looking at my Mac, 'Recents' only seems to contain items on the boot volume. There appears to be nothing in there from the other volumes, which is where I store all my data, reserving the boot for the system and apps only

 

[bogdanw]

Hello!
Not at all sure that I have posted this in the correct place, but I am running a few Macs, each with Sonoma 14.5 and I could not find any related threads on MacRumors.

How to disable recent folders https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-disable-recent-folders-on-finders-right-click.2278537/

 

[MacCheetah3]

I too am really surprised that there does not seem to be a way of clearing this out, especially considering how keen Apple is on Privacy.
I had to do some OneDrive stuff the other day, and my Recents list on finder is now full of hundreds of irrelevant files in the Recents list.
Surely there must be way of clearing this.

For the 4th or 5th time, I will say again, I am not concerned about my privacy, and nor do I allow others to log into my account. However, I do recognise that others might want the ability to preserve the privacy of their files history. My reasons for wanting to clear Recents were stated in my first post, which no one seems to have read.

I read your root reason. And, I think, you’re overlooking something: a clear Recents (folder) option will provide you with little or no benefit. The currently irrelevant OneDrive files are cluttering up your Recents folder, which would cause you to scroll to find whatever you may be interested in re-opening. Basically, added time and effort, nullifying the convenience of the Recents folder. Well, if you clear the Recents folder (or browser history, list-style Recent Items menu, etc), for at least a brief period, you will similarly be without the convenience, needing to expend time and effort to search for or navigate to the original file/app, thus re-adding to the Recents folder. Ultimately, whether you clear out the gallery/list of recents or allow those items to be systematically pushed out of the way, a similar inconvenience briefly exists.

That said, I’m not opposed to having the option to clear the Recents folder. I just understand why it’s not a priority UX addition.

Looking at my Mac, 'Recents' only seems to contain items on the boot volume. There appears to be nothing in there from the other volumes, which is where I store all my data, reserving the boot for the system and apps only

Mine also displays files I’ve recently viewed on iCloud Drive. It’s the same if you have other cloud service apps (e.g., Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, MEGA) installed as they (also) cache files on the local drive.

 

[ChrisA]

How to disable recent folders https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-disable-recent-folders-on-finders-right-click.2278537/

Even if you somehow were able to convince Apple to remove the feature, anyone using your account could list the most recently used files from a terminal window. It is trivially easy.

Maybe the best way to say it is that anyone who knows your username and password has the same access to the data as you do.

 

[Allyance]

I have been poking around and found that "Recents" in the Finder/Files(iPhone) are photos that are NOT in the "Photos" app. I have alot of older photos from Windows machines and scans that have not been imported in to the "Photos Library. The Photo "Library" has it's own Recents folder for photos opened in the app. The 'Recents' found in the Finder are photos, videos, movies and PDF files opened or viewed. Again I warn you Deleting files in the "Recents" will delete originals where ever the are saved. I believe they are some type of link to original files and any action on them will be the same as doing the action on the original.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Even if you somehow were able to convince Apple to remove the feature, anyone using your account could list the most recently used files from a terminal window. It is trivially easy.

It's easier than that. You can use a Finder window search.

Someone wants a window that shows a list of recent files and wants to clear the list. Also, that user wants the current Recents folder, the way it is now, to be eliminated from macOS. Additionally, that user is unconcerned that it's possible to search for recent files in multiple ways.

I give up! It must be a macOS bug.

 

[andrit]

Try the following (it helped me today after hours of f...ing with it):

1. Cleanup all extended attributes from the files you want to clear: xattr -cr <dir | files>
2. Rebuild Spotlight/mds index: sudo mdutil -E /System/Volumes/Data/Users