Clear Recent Files in Illustrator Issue

[mikejmurphy]

Question:

Is there a fix for this?

---------------------

Goal:

Clear Recently Open Files in Illustrator CC 2017

The First Steps I Took:

In Menu Bar...Illustrator CC>Preferences>File Handling & Clipboard

Change Number of Recent Files to Display from Default 20 to 0

Close Illustrator

Reopen Illustrator

Fixed!

Next Steps (Change Settings Back):

Open Illustrator Preferences

File Handling & Clipboard

Change Number of Recent Files from 0 to Back to the default of 20

Close Illustrator

Re-Open Illustrator

Problem:

The old history of 20 Recently Opened Files is back.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STEP1: Preferences>File Handling & Clipboard

Step 3:

Restart Illustrator (Close & Open Again)

Appears as though problem resolved

What I wanted....but,

Step 4:

Go Back to Preferences...File Handling & Clipboard... Change back to 20

Quit Illustrator

Reopen Illustrator

Problem: All of the old history returns

[Bill Silbert]

Did you have a document window open when making your changes? Any changes to the preferences that need to be global should be made without an open document. Then, as you have already been doing, you should quit the program after the changes have been made and anything that is actually controlled by the preference file should now be part of the preferences globally when the program is reopened.

[mikejmurphy]

Thanks for the reply Bill.

I did not have any Illustrator documents open when I made this post. Just to be sure, I tried again. This time I closed every single application on Mac, restarted my computer and tried again with only Illustrator open and no documents and the same issue occurred.

It clears everything when I set to 0. When I make the changes back to 20 and restart, everything comes back.

Mike

[Ton Frederiks]

Bill, changing global preferences by adjusting settings without a document open work in InDesign, but unfortunately not in Illustrator.

[mikejmurphy]

Good to know and just as an FYI, I did this exact same process in inDesign and it 'stuck'. All of the recent files were cleared when I set to 0 and changed back to 20. When I restarted inDesign, the 20 files did not return.

[Bill Silbert]

Is this a recent thing. I've done it many times over the years (since 1989 in fact) and it always worked to save whatever alterations that I'd made to my preferences. Is it possible that the same would have happened had I had a document open?

[Ton Frederiks]

Bill, it is not a recent thing.

Preferences in Illustrator can be changed with or without a document open.

Many preferences (like units, swatches and default character/paragraph styles) are saved in the startup document.

[Bill Silbert]

Live and learn.

[Ton Frederiks]

[jane-e]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Bill+Silbert  wrote

Live and learn.

Yes, Bill, one of the great things about being on the forums is picking up a new piece of information here and there!

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

mikejmurphy  wrote

Question:

Is there a fix for this?

---------------------

Goal:

Clear Recently Open Files in Illustrator CC 2017

Mike,

If it is imperative that you clear that list, here is one way:

1. Quit Illustrator
2. Relaunch, delelting Preferences as you do.
   Because you are on a Mac, hold down Cmd+Shift+Opt+Ctrl, then Open Illustrator. You won't get a dialog box as you do in ID and PS, but your recent files will be clear.

[mikejmurphy]

Thanks Jane-e. 

I would not say my interest in doing so is imperative or urgent, but probably something Adobe could address as a bug, since it works exactly the same on indesign and not even available as an option in some Of the CC apps.

I'm familiar with that technique as that is how you have to do it with Premier and After Effects. I do appreciate you taking the time to help.

I think my question has been solved/answered, but issue still unresolved.

Thanks all-

mike

[jane-e]

Hi Mike, sometimes when people ask this, they have a document or two that they don't want their boss or co-workers to see!

I agree that it would be nice if it worked the way it does in InDesign. If you want the Illustrator team to see it, the correct way is to fill out a feature request or bug report form. You can do this from the Help menu, I am pretty sure. (I am on my iPad right now.) They read everything that comes in that way.

[mikejmurphy]

Aah...didn't think about that. No, just me. I will submit it to Adobe and I thank you for your help.

Best, Mike.

[kiwidebz]

Hi Mike,

I've discovered a way to do this on a Windows setup, but it's slightly onerous. Be sure to back up your preferences file first if you try this. Steps as below:

1. Ensure Illustrator is closed before starting.
2. Locate Adobe Illustrator Prefs file – in Windows, it's usually in the folder:
   C:\Users\YOUR USER PROFILE NAME HERE\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 23 Settings\en_GB\x64
   (note that your Illustrator version number may be different).
3. IMPORTANT: Make a backup copy of the preferences file before editing the original.
4. Open the original file in a text editor and search for the /FileList tag.
5. Underneath /FileList are items /file0, /file1, etc. (in my case it went up to /file19 because my recent file preference was set to 20) with various data between the curly braces. Remove all the /file tags except for /file0, and remove all the data from within /file0, being careful to make sure there are opening and closing braces for both /FileList and /file0.
   It should look like this:

	/FileList {
		/file0 {
		}
	}

6. Save the preferences file and restart Illustrator. If an error message comes up, copy the backup file over the original and try again.

If you don't change preferences very often, you could save a copy of the preferences file with the clean file list and just copy it back over whenever you want to clear recent files - it would be easier than doing the above steps every time. At least until Adobe deems it a problem worthy of putting a "Clear Recent File List" button on the Home screen!

Hope this helps you, and others.

[joaosp]

I've been looking for that solution since a very long time. You're a genius!!! The only and, obviously, main reason we sometimes wanna clear recent files is the fact we're re-organizing our files, either by changing their names or folders where they were originally saved on. I just can't believe Adobe put a "Clear recent files" option on Photoshop and didn't it on Illustrator. Such an absurd!

Thanks again. I changed illustrator prefs file here and worked like a charm 🙂

[kiwidebz]

You're welcome, sorry for the late reply - I only tend to log in on the forums when I'm having a problem, so it's been about a year! 🙂

[Imransagor338]

Thanks! It worked smoothly!!! I have been looking for this type of solution over years! Thanks again!

[Imransagor338]

Thanks! It worked smoothly!!! I have been looking for this type of solution over years! Thanks again!

[Harikrishnan34586423akvw]

Your, Work was Appreciable

[silk-m]

What you should delete is the "MixedFileList", not the "FileList".

For example, if these six Recent files

Open "Adobe Illustrator Prefs" in a Text Editor,

Search for MixedFileList and delete from "  /MixedFileList { " to " } ".

When deleting, be careful not to mix up the positions of the "/" and "}".

For reference

/name [ 4
302e6169
4 characters, 30 = "0", 2e = ".", 61 = "a", 69 = "i"

0.ai

[BrianMC_1975]

@jane-e What if you're on a PC?

[jane-e]

Hi BrianMC_1975,

From "How to set preferences in Illustrator"

• Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) as you start Illustrator. You are prompted to delete the current settings. The new preferences files are created the next time you start Illustrator.

[Imransagor338]

But, I think it can be harmful for them who created a permanent preset for working!

[chromax]

An Dev at Adobe, please invest 5min für an option to delete the recent list. That can be that complex. 😵‍💫