Is this your suggestion for how it ought to/might work? That's not entirely clear, to me at least. Certainly, one should just be able to right click on a file in list or grid in PS Home and hit the delete key to "remove" it, as one does in LR. There would have to be a disconnect or cut-out between PS and one's catalog (LR or CR) in order that the photo not be removed also from the catalog.
Gail, I think it could be easily handled if the right click context menu said something like “Unpin from recents.” Then there is no confusion between unpinning and deleting.
Just here to add another voice to this request. To the good folks at Adobe: After all this time, please do something about it! We all transitioned to your subscription service, instead of owning each version of the application, in the hopes that your more regular updates would solve this exact kind of issue. Your move!
More than happy to add my voice yet again to this request. It's a real irritation to have all those multiple and out of date files in the recents panel. PLEASE fix this, finally.
I hate to be following this thread for this time and no one there cares. It's what happens when you engage in building multiple useless apps on top of those that users actually work with regularly.
Perhaps Adobe can take a page from Microsoft and along with a right-click "remove from list" option we could have a "pin to list" option for files we are currently accessing. One can wish (and vote at the top!).
(This request could pertain to other Adobe apps, but I will request it here in the Photoshop forum.) Sometimes items end up in the thumbnail grid accidentally (such as when you click on a link to a JPG on the web that is coded in such a way that it downloads instead of loading in a browser). Or sometimes you work on multiple drafts, and do not want to end up seeing early drafts in the grid for weeks. Could Adobe add a simple “close” or “delete” icon to the top left (Mac) or right (PC) of each thumbnail, allowing the user to curate their grid of recent files?
Refresh the recent files list by changing the Sort order, and restore your preferred Sort order.
The file should no longer show in your recent files, and you can safely move the file back to the original directory.
I know this is not an ideal procedure, it would be preferred to have a simple button, or option in the right-click menu to remove recent files, but at least there is a way to do it.
How about a small 'X' at the top right of the thumbnail which would simply remove it from the recents preview pane? I would love to see this in the next update of Photoshop.
Hi. Well for the ones that dont want to clear all recent. The workaround I do (In Windows) is to deleted the original Pic or file on the original location that was (you can move it to a different folder) and after that try to open in Photoshop, you will get a file could not be found message but after taht it dissappears from recent just that one. I hope that helps
If you Delete, Rename or Move the file (basically break the link) and then click the thumbnail under recent items on the home screen, that specific item is removed. Not what you're asking for (I also agree with having a quick "Remove from Recent Items" option via a right-click or "x" button), however, it is a workaround.
Why have they not implemented the removal of just some of the recent? I followed another thread that is over 6 years old. This seems like an easy thing to fix. I pay good money to get aggravated each time I open PS. I do astrophotography and I end up with several variations of images. When I get to the final image I would like to delete the other ones that I no longer need. ADOBE Please listen to your consumers.
A possible workaround (not a complete solution): If the Recent list contains images that no longer have the same filename or location as when they were added, they disappear when clicked. For me that’s a bug, because sometimes I simply renamed a file and want to relink to it when I choose it from Recents, and because it disappears I have to go find it all over again in the Open dialog box. But in your case this bug might be a workaround, because if you deleted the images you no longer need, clicking on any of them in the Recents list on the Home screen will cause it to disappear from the Recents list.
As far as why editing the recents list hasn't been done yet, it’s probably just priorities: If you look at the Ideas (feature requests) forum in this Community, there are hundreds of requests. Like any company, Adobe does the ones that they think would be the most beneficial, partially influenced by things like whether there’s competitive pressure (e.g. how many other photo editors let you edit the Recent list), what it takes to do and test, and how many votes it got in the Ideas forum. (This feature request currently has 34 upvotes, and for context, the #1 request has ten times as many upvotes.)
Amazing that this is now 2023 and this EASY to implement STANDARD feature hasn't been implemented. Shame on the program manager or whoever decides how developer's spend their time. REWARD FOR MANY IS HIGH, developer time to implement? relatively trivial
Same here. Not being able to remove specific files from the recent file list is a huge privacy issue for those of us working with several clients, under NDAs, recording videos, etc. Very easy to let it out into the world something that shouldn't be made public.
Everytime I record a video, for instance, I have to either painstakingly rename all compromising files and then click the thumbnail and then click "ok" to remove it from the list, then rename the file back to its name, or remove the entire recent file list altogether (which is inconvenient because, after all, the recent file list is useful).
One can always click another section in the home screen so that the recent file list is not shown, but it is easy to forget and then click to open a recent file, only to reveal a thumbnail you didn't want the world to see. Too late by then.
Small nuisance, but real problem. So many years without a fix... 😔
I recently contacted support about how to delete specific document size templates when I choose File > New. My aim was to delete the ever-growing custom templates of varying dimensions when I paste scene captures into PS. Their solution was to edit or delete the MRU New Doc Sizes.json file in the Preferences folder found in C:\Users\Dave\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2023\Adobe Photoshop 2023 Settings. I also have the beta version installed, so the same file is in C:\Users\Dave\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop (Beta)\Adobe Photoshop (Beta) Settings folder. This solution has been corroborated by several independent sources.
It was then that I found this and other threads requesting the deletion of selected items in the Recent Documents list. I found that these are listed in both the system registry and a file named MachinePrefs.psp in the same folders as above. However, this is a binary file making it very hard to read and deconstruct. Adding to the confusion is how much this file shrinks in size when the Recent Documents list is cleared in PS itself.
That said, my goal now is to use 30+ years of software development to try and reverse engineer this file to create a small app to list both the New Document templates and the Recent Documents list to selectively delete any combination of items, including all of them. Unfortunately, my development experience has been exclusively on MS-DOS and Windows PCs meaning any testing, debugging, etc. would be done on my Win 11 Pro computer. But once I'm satisfied with its operation, I would gladly pass off the source code to a Mac developer to create a Mac version of the app.
I know this approach is not exactly optimal, but I still think it would be better than having to rename/move/delete several files by hand to force PS to update its list because it can no longer find the files. It's the reverse engineering of the Prefs file that'll likely take some time.
So if anyone is still interested in a means of achieving this since it was first proposed in 2014 and yet implemented for no apparent reason, stay tuned!
I have successfully reverse-engineered the MRU New Doc Sizes.json and Photoshop MachinePrefs.psp files and created a small Windows desktop executable to list recent document sizes and recent documents for all versions of PS where these files exist, whether or not PS is actually installed or not (ie: PS 2023 and Beta installed, PS 2021 and 2022 not installed). Using this small app, I can select everything I want to delete while PS is closed. When I relaunch PS, all sizes and documents that I chose to delete are no longer listed in PS.
As I mentioned in my previous message, I don't have the ability to create this app for a Mac. The next best alternative would be to copy the Mac files to the appropriate place on a PC, have my app do its thing, and copy the updated pref files back to the Mac. However, I can't guarantee this will work because there may be differences in the preference file structure. If someone would like to send me copies of those files, I can certainly test how the app modifies them and send them back to you. I understand if anyone is unwilling to do this because of privacy concerns.
In the meantime, if anyone would like the PC version of the app, let me know and I'm sure we can make some arrangements to get it to you. If you find that the app does not launch, you may also have to install the .NET 6.0 runtime. If I find that this proves to be a hassle for most of you wanting the app, I'll consider rewriting it using C++ so there are no .NET dependencies with C#.
If there are no takers, I know I'll be making good use of the app to perform custom deletions of document sizes and recent documents for all my installed versions of PS! 🙂
I wanted to add one last message to show that I am indeed for real and my intentions are honourable.
After setting up PS 2023 to show some recently used sizes and files, this is a screenshot of the before and after for the execution of my app. Launching it and selecting items I wanted to delete took less than 10 seconds. It may not be as nice as doing this right from PS itself, but it’ll work for me until Adobe does something about it.
If you’re one of the millions on Facebook, look for David Vongrad and send me a PM if you’re interested. Alternatively, contact me at dvongrad66@hotmail.com. Unless there’s anything more from anyone needing my input, I’ll leave it here and wish you all the best in your Photoshop journey.
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