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 certain problematic UI elements. We recently covered how you can hide the Tools pane and get rid of the tabbed view. And today, we’re going to cover another related topic – Final list.

The Recent list provides shortcuts to your most recently accessed/opened files. It’s pretty convenient too. However, it is terrible in terms of privacy and a real nightmare if you share the device with someone. It’s definitely not fun for someone to stumble upon some sensitive or confidential documents, right?

So, let’s see how you should remove any item from this list and 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 list. And if needed, you can also choose to disable the list from displaying any of your recent files. The process is similar in each version.

Note:

Remove Recent Files

Adobe Acrobat syncs your Recent list across devices (desktop and mobile phones) where you’re signed in with your Adobe ID. However, synchronization is limited only to shortcuts that point to files located in Adobe Document Cloud – these items have a cloud-shaped icon.

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

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

If you have a large number of items in the list and want to remove most of them, make selecting them less of a chore by clicking the box just below Recent. This prompts the app to select all items in the list. You can then uncheck the items you want to keep in the list.

Additionally, you can choose to clear the entire list immediately. In the lower right corner of the window is the Clear Recents option. Click it, and then click Clear List on the confirmation pop-up to clear the entire list.

Disable Recent Files

If you don’t like recent files populating a list of every file you’ve opened, you can configure Adobe Acrobat to stop showing them. There is a built-in option that allows you to change the number of items displayed in the list; setting this option to zero effectively disables the Recent list.

Stage 1: Pull down the Edit menu and then click Preferences.

Step 2: In the Preferences pane, click the Documents side tab. Enter ‘0’ in the box next to Documents in Recent List.

Stage 3: Click OK to save your changes. And voila! After that, no recently opened files should appear.

However, if you open a document located in Adobe Document Cloud, the shortcut to the file will still appear in the Recents list on any other desktop or mobile device you’re signed in with with your Adobe ID. Also, removing the limit on the Recent list prompts the app to display the most recent files you’ve accessed before doing so. These are potential loopholes that someone can exploit to view your documents.

Adobe Acrobat on Mobile

On Android and iOS, the Adobe Acrobat Reader app does not allow you to prevent the Recents list from displaying the files you have accessed recently. However, it still allows you to delete individual or multiple items from the Recent list. Let’s find out how you can do this.

Warning:

Android

In the Android version of Adobe Acrobat Reader, simply tap the three-dot icon next to a listed item. In the menu that appears, tap Remove from Recent to remove the shortcut.

To remove multiple shortcuts from the list, tap and hold any item to switch to selection mode. Now check the boxes next to the items you want to get rid of, tap the three-dot icon in the top right corner of the screen, 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 any items selected, and then tap Clear Recents.

iOS

Removing items from the Recent list in the iOS version of Adobe Acrobat DC is similar to Android, except that multiple items are selected for deletion. Tap and hold won’t work – so tap the three-dot icon and then tap Select to switch to selection mode.

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

Once again, removing shortcuts to files stored in Adobe Document Cloud from the Recents list will also remove them from any other device.

Privacy Is No Longer an Issue

The last list is a useful practice, but very detrimental to privacy. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to cover your tracks. Don’t forget to disable the list if constantly deleting shortcuts becomes a chore. We hope the mobile version of Adobe Acrobat Reader can also close the list soon.

Next up: Want to delete some pages from PDF? Adobe Acrobat won’t let you do this unless you get a paid version. Click the link below to learn about five great online tools that should help you instead.