How to disable or remove recent files in Adobe Reader and Acrobat DC

All Adobe Acrobat DC products (Pro, Standard, and Reader) are excellent PDF powerhouses. However, there are some user interface elements that present some issues. We recently covered how to hide the Tools pane and get rid of the tabbed tab. Today, we'll address another related issue—recently opened files.

The Recents menu provides shortcuts to your most recently accessed/opened files. It's very convenient. However, it's a privacy concern, and if you share your device with someone, it's a real nightmare. It's certainly not fun to have someone dig through some sensitive or confidential documents, right?

So let's see how you should go about removing any items under this list, as well as what you should do to disable the feature completely.

Adobe Acrobat on desktop

On the desktop, all versions of Adobe Acrobat DC allow you to easily remove shortcuts from the Recents menu. If necessary, you can also disable the menu from displaying any of your recent files. The process is similar for each version.

• Note: Removing items from the Recents list will not delete the actual files. Only the shortcuts are removed.

Remove Recent Files

Remove recent files

Adobe Acrobat syncs your Recents list across devices (desktop and mobile) where you're signed in with your Adobe ID. However, syncing is limited only to shortcuts that point to files within Adobe Document Cloud—those items have a cloud icon.

Therefore, if you remove them, the recents list on all connected devices will be automatically cleared. However, there are multiple ways to remove shortcuts.

In the Recents list, hover over the shortcut you want to delete. Then, click the box on the left side of the list to select it. You should see a separate pane appear on the screen. Click "Remove from Recents" to get rid of the shortcut. You can also select multiple items and remove them all at once.

If you have a lot of items on your list and want to remove most of them, make selecting them less of a chore by clicking the box below "Recent." The app prompts you to select all the items on your list. You can then deselect the items you want to keep on the list.

Additionally, you can also choose to clear the entire list immediately. There's a Clear Recents option in the lower-right corner of the window. Click it, then click Clear List in the pop-up confirmation window to clear the entire list.

Disable recent files

If you don't like having Recents pop up with every file you open, you can configure Adobe Acrobat to stop showing them. There's a built-in option that lets you adjust the number of items displayed in the list—reducing it to zero effectively disables the Recents list.

Step 1: Pull down the Edit menu, then click Preferences.

Step 2: In the Preferences pane, click the Documents tab. Enter "0" in the box next to Documents in the Recently Used list.

Step 3: Click OK to save your changes. Voila! Your recently opened files should no longer appear.

However, if you open a document in Adobe Document Cloud, the file shortcut will still appear in the Recents list on another desktop or mobile device where you're signed in with your Adobe ID. Furthermore, raising the Recents list limit will prompt the app to display the most recently accessed files before doing so. These are potential vulnerabilities that anyone could exploit to view your documents.

Adobe Acrobat on mobile

On Android and iOS, the Adobe Acrobat Reader app doesn't let you stop the Recents list from displaying recently accessed files. But it still allows you to delete single or multiple items from within the recent list. Let us know how you can do it.

• Warning: Be careful! Unlike the desktop, there is also a “Delete” option that removes not only the shortcut but the actual file as well. So don't get confused.

Also read:  How to recover deleted contacts from Google

Android

In the Android version of Adobe Acrobat Reader, it's just a matter of tapping the three-dot icon next to a listed item. From the menu that appears, click “Remove from Recent” to remove the shortcut.

To remove multiple shortcuts from the list, tap and hold any item to access selection mode. Now, check the boxes next to the items you want to remove, tap the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner of the screen, and then tap Remove from Recent.

You can also clear the entire list at once. To do this, tap the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner of the screen without selecting any items, then tap Clear Recent.

iOS

Removing items from the Recents list in the iOS version of Adobe Acrobat DC is similar to the Android version, except when selecting multiple items for deletion, tapping and holding will not work—so tap the three-dot icon, then tap Select to enter Selection mode.

After selecting the shortcuts you want to delete, be sure to click the correct icon afterward, as shown in the image below. Clicking the trash icon will also delete the actual file, so be careful.

Privacy is not an issue anymore.

The latter menu is a useful tool, but it's very detrimental to privacy. Fortunately, it's very easy to cover your tracks. Don't forget to disable the menu if deleting shortcuts all the time becomes a chore. Hopefully, the portable version of Adobe Acrobat Reader will gain the ability to disable the menu soon.