Prevent automatic generate second copy of a file.

++EDITED REPLY, fixed typos

Hi,

When I first started getting familiarized with the mobile app I used to notice that too, and I used to confuse the Recent view of Adobe Acrobat as a file storage location.

I've also noticed that many iOS and Android OS users seem to get confused with the same observation.

Fortunately, the Recent view is just a temporary cache  and it is not an integral part of the actual operating system's folder structure.

In addition, every operating system relies heavily on temporary folders or a temporary cache location to hold copies of executed programs, sub-routines and many other tasks that are consistently loaded into the device's memory area and easily accessible for the application programs that the user may be working with.

In other words, the Adobe Acrobat's Recent view is similar to that of a temporary location, except that it is part of the Adobe Acrobat's working space and it is viewed within the programs own tabbed browsing interface while it keeps a log of symbolic links.

NOTE:

Symbolic links are a reference to a requesting program on where and how to read from, write to, or execute a file.

In this context, symbolic links aid the requesting program(s) with loading into memory a cache of the file directly from the referenced directory paths ( or Folder Paths)  while also  instructing the operating system how to serve it to the requesting program(s).

Just imagine if Adobe Acrobat was trying to figure out on its own how to execute a file type and where to look for it, and then even produce its own search indexing catalogues... it is very time consuming.

The user  on the other hand, just need to worry about clicking on that referenced link and wait for the application program that is requesting for it to load the file into memory and release that unique memory space successfully to the requesting program (also referred to as an entry point in Microsoft OS  slang).

So, the Recent view is just a log that holds bunch of references to symbolic links that point to where the most used files  (or most recently used files) are executed from; it is not an actual copy nor additional copy of the original file.

But anyway, it is very easy to clear all of the Recent files with just two taps and it won't have any impact on how and where the actual files are stored in your mobile device.

However, when you delete some files through the operating system's file manager, you should be aware that many other programs like Adobe Acrobat also don't interact with the operating system's shell as you would expect; and for a good reason:

• File access redundancy.

If, for instance, let's say that the operating system would allow no restrictions for any app or programs to delete any original files each time that the user chooses to clear a temporary folder from within a program or an app, then what would happen if that user is not careful and deletes files unintentionally ??

Those files would be gone permanently!

In short, the user must manually clear the Recent view and handle the actual deletion of files through the operating system's file management system.

This file preservation and redundancy is true for every good-known operating systems out there:

• Linux distributions (Desktop PC's, workstations, fileservers and web servers, mobile devices, etc)
• Unix or Unix-like operating systems such as macOS and iOS,
• and Microsoft Windows.

The user must get in the habit of doing system cleaning and system maintenance, OR,  simply use the provided built-in task managing apps to optimize the computer device and get rid of the excess clutter.