{"id":45227,"date":"2024-01-16T12:10:41","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T12:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=45227"},"modified":"2024-01-16T12:10:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T12:10:41","slug":"disable-recent-files-ubuntu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2024\/01\/disable-recent-files-ubuntu\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Disable Recent Files in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This simple tutorial shows how to disable (or auto-delete) “recent” files tab in left side-bar of file manager in Ubuntu 24.04 & 22.04.<\/p>\n

GNOME Files, aka Nautilus file manager, has a “Recent<\/b>” tab in left side-bar, which include all the recent opened photos, videos, and documents.<\/p>\n

It’s useful for user or applications to quickly re-open recent edited files. However, when working at a public place, it can be better to disable this feature since it may contain sensitive data.<\/p>\n

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NOTE: This tutorial is written for the default GNOME Desktop<\/b>, not only for Ubuntu, but also works in Fedora, Debian, Arch, etc with GNOME.<\/p>\n

Option 1: Single command to disable Recent files<\/h3>\n

For those who are familiar with Linux commands, or want to bind to a keyboard shortcut to do the job, the thing can be done via a single gsettings<\/code> command.<\/p>\n

To disable Recent files<\/b>, simply press Ctrl+Alt+T<\/code> on keyboard to open terminal and run command:<\/p>\n

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.privacy remember-recent-files false<\/pre>\n
The command will hide the “Recent” tab from Nautilus file manager, next time your open it, however, all the files in the tab were cleared immediately after running the command.<\/p>\n
To re-enable Recent files<\/b>, open terminal and run command:<\/p>\n
gsettings reset org.gnome.desktop.privacy remember-recent-files<\/pre>\n
Also, you need to re-open the file manager window to make the “Recent” tab visible again.<\/p>\n
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For choice, you may run the command below instead, to automatically delete<\/b> (clear) recent used files older than given days (3 days for example):<\/p>\n
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.privacy recent-files-max-age 3<\/pre>\n
Tips 1<\/b>: By replacing gnome<\/code> in last commands with cinnamon<\/code> will do simply job for Ubuntu Cinnamon or Linux Mint (Cinnamon Edition).<\/p>\n
Tips 2<\/b>: By going to “System Settings -> Keyboard -> View and Customize Shortcuts -> Custom Shortcuts”, you can bind the commands to keyboard shortcuts.<\/p>\n
Option 2: Use ‘Privacy’ Settings to Disable Recent Files.<\/h3>\n
For the graphical way, Gnome Control Center (aka System Settings) has an option to do the job in Privacy<\/code> or Privacy & Security<\/code> page.<\/p>\n
1.<\/b> First, open Settings from top-right corner system status menu (Quick Settings):<\/p>\n
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2.<\/b> When it opens, navigate to Privacy (or Privacy & Security) -> File History & Trash.<\/p>\n
Finally, either turn off “File History” toggle button to disable the “Recent” files, or change “File History Duration” to auto clear them when older than given days.<\/p>\n
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That’s it. Enjoy!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This simple tutorial shows how to disable (or auto-delete) “recent” files tab in left side-bar of file manager in Ubuntu 24.04 & 22.04. GNOME Files, aka Nautilus file manager, has a “Recent” tab in left side-bar, which include all the recent opened photos, videos, and documents. It’s useful for user or applications to quickly re-open […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[689,2131],"class_list":["post-45227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howtos","tag-gnome","tag-privacy"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}