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"Clear History" button for "Recents".

"Clear History" button for "Recents".

JSD2K
New member | Level 2

Some people deal with confidential files and use Dropbox for these. It would be very useful to allow people the option to clear their "Recent" files at will to allow more privacy and discretion. 

Latest Update
Megan
Dropbox Staff

This idea has been closed due to inactivity and can no longer be voted for.

 

If you have a similar idea please share it with us here.

Status changed to: Closed
49 Comments
Sharky
Explorer | Level 4

I also think this would be a good feature.

sharty
Explorer | Level 4

Companies continue to "improve" their user interface and make it easier and easier to use until the product becomes un-usable.  This is such a feature.  And it was implimented with no thought of privacy or security.  At least with most other programs that track, they have a clear history button that works.  I've explained for the 3rd time to support that "hide" is no no value when after it is done it is replced by "un-hide".  

While I don't make it a habit of leaving sensitive information on my screen, I do sometimes gfet called away and by someone clicking un-hide they would know who or what I have been working on, including items that might be private.

 

Lets fix this, or remove the code, or give the user an option in setup to disable it.

From the first complaint till now has been 5 months.  

 

 

Karthik-v
New member | Level 2
Hi, is there any update on adding the feature to clear recent list/items
Fiona
Dropbox Staff

Thank you for your interest @Karthik-v!

No updates as of yet. It is great that you joined our Community to post about this. If we get any updates, they will be posted here. Keep an eye out. :wink:

Thank you!

 

SpeMarX
New member | Level 2
I don’t understand why DropBox, Google, etc. hasn’t addressed the invasive issue that is the “Recent” feature.

For personal accounts, there are times where you don’t want to be reminded you looked at something.

Not long ago, when my Dad passed away, I spent an evening looking at photos. The next day, when I opened my app, I wanted to look at the last thing I worked on. I didn’t want or need to look at the last 10 photos of my Dad. It was painful, and frustrating. I should have been able to easily clear my history. Instead I spent half an hour opening up random files.

DropBox, Recent files is a productivity feature that deserves curation options. If my life is on DropBox, everything I look at is recent. It stops being useful and can become painful. Recent files should function only on folders I choose. This isn’t some random nice to have, it’s truly important, for practical and emotional reasons it’s important.

Thank you for reading this,

Spencer M.
Fiona
Dropbox Staff

Hi Spencer. 

I am sorry for your loss and any frustration caused. 

We appreciate your feedback. Others have reported it would be useful to have a way to hide or clear history in the recent section. Below I've attached a direct link to help you upvote this idea about recents:

"Clear History" button for "Recents".

Thank you!

Daphne
Dropbox Staff

This idea is going to need a bit more support.

We've updated the status to encourage more users to back you up!

Status changed to: Gathering Support
AlbertoVillar
Explorer | Level 4
I totally agree with the idea of having platforms that really support privacy and take care of customers, free or under subscription. It's a shame that they need a tone of votes before they start moving their brains in order to come back with some solution. As a developer I would suggest that they implement one or more of the following: 1) Profile option to let us decide if we want to keep list(s) of recent documents 2) Profile option to automatically clear recent list on sign off 3) A button to clear all entries in the "recent" list There are more things that could be done. I will really appreciate that they stay far from the temptation of making these options available to subscribers only. Regards, Alberto
sharty
Explorer | Level 4
The problem is worse because they are grabbing file activity outside of dropbox, I open up a will to work on and family members will see it pop up as a recent activity in dropbox. I don't need them seeing that, as an example. This is a typical software development cycle issue. They have a good product but feel they have to add more and more each time so you get a bloated program that ends up hurting the user. I guess we need more votes to get this looked at.
Hedgebob
New member | Level 2

I hate this Recents feature so much.  Why not give us the ability to just turn it off.  I don't need it displayed so promimently.  Windows has both the ability to clear recent files and also not show them in the Start Menu, both of these features are what is needed to solve this issue for all of the people that have been complaining about this since 2015 (based on all the other threads)

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56 votes received Status: Closed