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Asked: 2012-01-05 03:02:17 +0800 CST

How can I disable recent documents in Unity?

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How do I disable the tracking and display of recently opened files (and whatever else is remembered) in a default installation of Ubuntu? (This question originally concerned 11.10, but now that I'm on 12.04, that's the answer I've selected.)

(Note that this is not a duplicate of How can I keep recent files from appearing in Unity?, since that question and its answers are concerned with temporary and specific filtering. I want to disable it completely for a single user account.)

Okay, to deflect the inevitable and expand on my motivation...

While trawling the usual forums and Google results for a solution, it (unsurprisingly) seems that the near-universal use cases for this request are either browsing porn or Warhammer research. And the obvious solution to this is to create another user account to contain all evidence.

However, this is not why I'm asking, and I don't say that to get all high and mighty about it, it's because this answer won't help. (Even though I really don't have any interest in Warhammer, and I have no idea how that paint pot and brush ended up in my drawer, no that's not glue on my thumb, etc.)

My actual use case is that I use my personal laptop for presentations in different circles of my life. I have a user account set up with all the settings I like for presentations (shortcuts, small launcher, default associations, etc). But I don't want an accidental keystroke (or the find dialog) to display other recent presentations I've given, or the files I used in composing the presentation, or whatever. I also don't want to have to recreate this profile for every single presentation I might give. I just want a nice little isolated, memoryless, clean corner of my notebook for public display.

unity

6 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Go to System Settings and choose Privacy.

    Then, turn off the button next to Record Activity. Now, your recent documents will no longer be logged by Zeitgeist.

    System Settings Privacy Manager in Ubuntu 12.04

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  2. I found this solution in the ubuntuforums at comment #3, but don't know if it works. Give it a try:

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1860785

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  3. for whatever documents you don't wish to see under the recent documents tab; do the following :

    1. Make sure you keep all such files in a folder.
    2. After accessing it every time, just rename the folder.

    just by renaming the folder you will see the magic working :)

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  4. rename ~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel file (for example recently-used.xbel--) and create an empty folder and name it recently-used.xbel in same folder. That is all.

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  5. You can disable video recording at settings, privacy, files. You can also tell Ubuntu which folders shouldn't be recorded.

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  6. if you have upgraded to 12.10 already, do this:

    go to: System Setting/Privacy/Files

    then tick: Video and Image

    check if it helps in case you still want your txt and docs activity to be available.

    EDIT: Also, even better is to use the option "Don't record activity in the following folders:" what is the best customization I can see :), may be it is time to upgrade to 12.10 :D

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