How To Clear Your Search History On Macbook Air

It's so strange how hard it is sometimes to find answers for some simple and often asked questions on the internet. For instance, if you want to find out how to hide files from the Recents folder in the Mac Finder, Google will return hundreds of blog posts, which totally miss the point.

Anyone who follows their advice will either fail to achieve the goal or lose the documents in the worst case.

So, I decided to fix the issue. I personally tested every method I described below, so everything I suggest works in macOS Mojave, Catalina, and Big Sur.

I encourage you to read the entire post because it contains a lot of information most Apple users don't know. But if you are short on time and need to hide Recents quickly, let me give a quick tip.

Click on the Apple logo, and then in a drop-down menu click on Recent Items -> Clear Menu item to clear recent documents and apps from the Apple menu. While this does not clear recently accessed documents in the Mac Finder, excluding the startup disk from the Spotlight Search does.

What is the Recents folder on Mac?

There is a little bit of confusion about what the Recents folder is. The truth is that it's not an actual folder on a physical disk. It is a so-called smart folder.

If you read my article "How to Find Any File on Mac (Guide with Pics)," I explained in great detail what a smart folder is.

In short, a smart folder is a saved search, a query, sometimes with parameters.

For instance, you can search for all PDF files on your disk created last year and save this search (or query) in the Finder, so the next time when you search for the same files, you can open a smart folder and get the list instantaneously.

The Recents folder works exactly the same way.

If you need proof, just open the folder in the Finder.

Then click on the Settings icon (looks like a cog). In the dropdown list, click on Show Search criteria, and you will see something like this.

As you can see, the Recents folder is a Raw query that returns all files you have touched recently.

Now, I know what you are thinking.

Can I remove the query or delete it?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. At least not from the Finder window.

You can change the raw query and even click on the minus icon and then click on the Save button, but changes will not persist. They only affect the currently open window.

But don't worry, below are the best methods of clearing Recents folder results.

4 Ways to Clear Recents Folder in Mac Finder

There are several ways to achieve the result. Some of them are easy, and some require some technical skills. Some are better than others.

Following are four ways to delete items from Recents on Mac.

Hide entire startup disk from Spotlight Search

This method is the fastest, and I mentioned it at the beginning of the article. There is an app that runs on the background all the time and tracks all file modifications.

It's called the Spotlight Search. In a nutshell, it creates an index of all files on the disk, and it knows which files have been changed recently.

If you are looking for a specific file, all you need to hold the Command button and hit the space bar to bring up the Spotlight Search.

In the search, window type the name (or part of the name) of the file, and it quickly populates the list that fits the search criteria.

Now, if you want to clear the Recents folder immediately follow these steps:

Use Spotlight Search to open System Preferences
Click on Spotlight icon
Click on the Privacy tab
Click on "+" icon which will open a Finder window
Hold Command key and click on Up Arrow button
Keep Pressing arrow button until you see Macintosh HD
Select Macintosh HD and click on Choose button
Click Ok on the warning message

Now open the Recents folder in the Finder, and you can see it's absolutely empty.

However, there is a huge downside to this approach. Removing the entire disk will exclude all its contents from the Spotlight Search, i.e., you will not be able to find any file with the search function in the Finder.

On the plus side, this will reduce CPU usage because there is no need for Spotlight Search to keep building its index. Sometimes, people even suggest doing this when the Mac has performance issues.

Hide files from appearing in Recents in a folder

In my opinion, a better approach is to create a folder and exclude it instead of excluding the entire disk.

For example, I have some images which I don't want to appear in the Recents folder, but I don't mind other non-sensitive files to appear on the list.

In this case, all I need to do is create a folder. Add it the same way as I explained above, but this time instead of the entire disk, add this folder (or multiple folders) in the Privacy tab under System Preferences -> Spotlight.

Every file I place in this special folder will be hidden from Spotlight Search and Recents folder in the Finder.

This method, however, does not clear the entire Recents folder. It will only remove the files you moved (not copied) to the special folder.

Here's how to move the files or folders from one folder to another on Mac:

Find the original file in the Finder, select it, and click Command+C.
Open the new folder in the Finder
Use the Option+Command+V key combination to move the file. Using Command+V will copy the file and keep the original in the old folder. As a result, the original file will still appear in the Recents folder.

Rename the file to hide it from Recents folder

There are many system files on Mac, and to hide them, macOS uses a special technique: it appends '.' (dot) in the front of the filename. Files with the dot are usually hidden in the Finder and the Recents folder.

It is very easy to display hidden files. All you need is Command+Shift+dot key combination (dot as '.', not a three-letter word). This key combination hides and unhides hidden files.

The Finder in Mac does not allow to add a dot symbol at the beginning of the filename, so you have to use a Terminal. If you are new to Terminal, check my full tutorial here.

In the Terminal, go to the folder where the file is located and use the mv command. For instance, if the filename was MyPic1.png, then the command would be

mv MyPic1.png .MyPic1.png

As you rename the file, it will be gone from the Recents folder.

Move files to an Encrypted Drive

The steps are the following:

Launch Disk Utility app
In the top menu click on File->New Image->Blank Image
Choose where the drive will be stored
Give it a name
Set the size
Choose the Encryption method and enter the password
Set Image format to "read/write disk image"
Hit Save

The Disk Utility will create a DMG file. To open the drive, double click on its icon and enter the password. Moving the file to the encrypted folder will remove it from the Recents folder in the Finder. When done working with the file, eject the DMG.

This is my favorite method. Besides hiding the files from the Recents folder, this method hides files from anyone who doesn't know the password. By the way, this is only of the 7 techniques I teach in my post and most of them will help to hide Recents on Mac.

4 Popular Methods That Do Not Work

Multiple solutions were floated around on various sites.

I believe that most bloggers just copy them from each other without even bothering to test them.

As a result, none of the methods they describe work. And here is the list of solutions that do not clear the Recents folder on your MacBook.

Using Recent Items, Clear Menu

Click on the Apple logo at the top left corner (usually if you didn't change the location of the Apple menu), and then click on Recent Items. In the dropdown list chose Clear Menu. The menu in Recent Items will be cleared, but the Recents folder will remain.

Why?

Let me repeat – Recents folder is not a real folder, it's a smart folder that displays all items that were modified recently, and unless the file modified date has changed to very old time, the item will not be gone from the list.

Using Clear Menu in the Finder

Activate Finder. In the Apple menu, click on Go -> Recent Folders -> Clear Menu.

Same result. The items in Recent folders in the Finder will be cleared, but the Recents folder in the Finder remains untouched.

Using CleanMyMac app

I reviewed the CleanMyMac app before. There is a function called "Recent Items List" under the Privacy section in CleanMyMac.

They claim that it clears the Recents folder, but in reality, it only does two things I mentioned above: Clear Menu for Recent Items and Recent folders.

Deleting items from the Recents folder

This is by far the most dangerous thing one can do.

What happens if you delete the file from the Recents folder on Mac?

Deleting files from the Recents folder will move items to Trash. Instead of hiding items from the list, this will delete the file from the disk. And if you clean the Trash after that, the file in most cases will be gone forever. So, don't do it unless the goal is to delete the file.

And finally, I wanted to answer some questions related to the topic.

How to remove the Recents folder from the Finder sidebar?

As you understand, hiding the folder from the Sidebar is not the same as deleting it. If you don't want the Recents folder (or any item really) to appear in the Sidebar, just right click on the folder, and then click Remove from Sidebar menu item.

How to change the Finder default view?

By default, Finder opens the Recents folder. In order to change the default, first, activate the Finder. Then use Command+comma key combination to open Finder Preferences. Click on the General tab. Under the New Finder windows show section choose another folder in the dropdown, e.g., Desktop.

A Word of Caution

In case if you are trying to hide images you were opening on your Mac you should know that each application has its own list of recent documents.

So, none of the methods described above will clear the Recent Items in the Preview app (in case of images), or Word (in case of .docx files). You have to remove the Recent documents list in each app used to open the files.

The method with encrypted drives will prevent you from accessing the file, but will not prevent you from seeing the name of the file.

That's it. I hope you learned a thing or two today.

If you want to learn more I suggest to read my article:

How to Find Any File on Mac (Guide with Pics)