You can also have this view in the Dock for quick access by dragging the Recents sidebar item to the left of the Trash.ĭo you find yourself often searching for specific types of files that you have recently accessed or edited? It's time you sped up your search with a smart folder.Ī smart folder is a special view that aggregates data based on conditions you set. You can still keep the Recents view handy in the sidebar as long as you enable its checkbox in the Sidebar tab of Finder's settings. To do so, visit Finder > Preferences > General and pick a new folder from the New Finder windows show dropdown menu. If you don't like seeing the Recents view when you open Finder-it does look messy-switch to a different default view. Read our summary of Finder's view options to choose the right view for each search. To reverse the order, click on the attribute again.

For example, to sort in alphabetical ascending order, click on Name. All you have to do is click on the relevant attribute name at the top of the list. In the List view, you can further sort items, such as in alphabetical or chronological order.

Gallery view: To scrub through a zoomed-in version of each item and view its metadata.

List view: To scan details like data type, size, and date modified.

You'll see that both are once again active and populated. As you'll see from the menu options available, this is where you can configure the Recent Items list to display more or fewer than 10 items.Īfter this tweak, open a couple of files and folders, then visit the Recent Items and Recent Folders lists. To re-enable them, go to System Preferences > General and select any option except None from the Recent items dropdown menu. If you're lucky, your search will end in one of these two places.Ĭan't see the Recent Items menu option? Or does the Recent Folders menu item appear grayed out? You might have disabled them both in the past. There's a 10-item limit for this menu also. The Recent Folders list: For the most recently used folders, look under Go > Recent Folders.The list displays 10 items of three types: applications, documents, and servers. The Recent Items list: You'll find this under the Apple menu, which lives behind the Apple logo at the far left of the menu bar.Your first two stops to locate a recently used file or folder should be:

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