Clear "Open Recent" list

[jordanp82600412]

I've moved some locations of catalogs and renamed some catalogs over the last year and would really like to clean up this list so that only the ones that I actually use show up in that list. There have been a few occasions where I accidentally imported into one of the "old" catalogs by clicking the wrong most recent option.

[Just Shoot Me · Accepted solution]

If you shut LR down then move the catalogs you don't want to show up to some other drive, preferably an external drive and then Disconnect that external drive, then restart LR they should be removed from the list.

[ObservationsInTime]

Yes, but if you reconnect the drive with the unwanted catalog (in my case they are backups on an alternate drive) will they reappear? And, if so, how do you clear them from the list?

[Just Shoot Me]

Delete the catalogs you no longer want or use.

[ObservationsInTime]

They are backups

[Rob_Cullen]

Version 6 of Lr saves Catalog Backups in ZIP files which are not recognized as 'working' catalogs (unless extracted)

Are you using an older version of Lr? Compressing 'old' catalogs to ZIP will 'hide' them from the "Recent" list.

[Just Shoot Me]

Backups of your main LR catalog never appear in the Open Recent list. That is unless you opened them.

If these are old catalog that you don't ever plan on using or even backups of your main current catalog there is no reason to keep them. Just Delete them and be one with it.

AFAIK the only way to clear the Open Recent list is to delete or move the catalogs that are in that list.

May I ask why this list bothers you. It is only shown when you do File > Open Recent.

[ObservationsInTime]

These are manual drag & drop backups

[ObservationsInTime]

I have two catalogs and use them regularly. If there are duplicates in the mix with identical names there's a chance I'll be opening a backup accidentally and the whole system fails.

[jordanp82600412]

Problem was solved some time ago, but the reason it bothered me is because when LR did its updating, it left me with Version 2 of all of my catalogs, creating a massive list. It was simply annoying and in the way and I no longer wanted my active catalogs to be labeled as version 2.

[Just Shoot Me]

You can name your catalog anything you want. And you can place it in any folder you want on any drive you want.

When I installed LR CC/6 and it updated my LR 5 catalog, which was named Lightroom 5 Catalog, it named it, IIRC, Lightroom Catalog, No number, and placed it in the same folder as the original LR 5 catalog.

I made a new folder called Lightroom 6 Catalog and copied the newly created created LR 6 catalog to the Lightroom 6 Catalog folder then changed the name of it to Lightroom 6 Catalog. 

[spinningstill]

Is there an update on this to clear recent catalogs?

[NYNC]

To clear Recent Catalogs, you have to edit the two Lightroom Preferences files. Follow these steps.

Close Lightroom.

Navigate to C:\Windows\Users\YOURUSERNAME\App Data\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom|Preferences\ where "YOURUSERNAME" is your own username.

In that directory, you will find two files "Lightroom Classic CC 7 Preferences.agprefs" and "Lightroom Classic CC 7 Startup Preferences.agprefs". These are labeled for LR Classic 7 even though you are using a much later edition of LR.

Consider backing up these files to another directory so you can restore them should something go amiss.

Open one of these .agprefs files using Notepad. Toward the bottom, you will find two the two headings "recentLibraries20" and "recentLibraries20_missing". Under these headings, the Recent Catalogs will be listed. Under both, delete the entire line for any recent catalogs you want to clear. Save the file.

Next, open the other .agprefs file and do the same thing. Under both headings, delete the catalogs you want to clear and then save the file.

Restart Lightroom, and the entries will be gone. 

[Greg27427918bu7b]

Excellent response thank you NYNC! Just one small note, "Users" is not a sub directory of Windows, it is in the root directory of "C:"

[NYNC]

You are correct. Users is in the root directory. On my PC--like many others--the system drive is named Windows. So, it appears as Windows (C:) in Explorer, hence my erroneous listing of the path. The correct path is C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\App Data\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences\