How to Fix “Recents” Folder Empty on Mac

The Mac “Recents” folder in Finder is a useful catchall Smart Folder that, as the name implies, contains all recently opened, modified, or added files that are found within the file system. This means the “Recents” folder should contain everything from text files, documents, PDFs, images, video, basically anything in the file system that has been recently opened, added, or edited on the Mac. Sometimes, the “Recents” folder on the Mac shows as empty however, when it should be filled with many recently used files.

Let’s troubleshoot and fix the issue where the “Recents” folder is empty on the Mac, so that you can regain easy access to your recently used files again.

How to Fix Empty “Recents” Folder on Mac: Restarting

An easy solution to fix an empty “Recents” folder on the Mac is to simply restart the Mac.

Restarting the Mac will trigger Spotlight to perform indexing functions again, and this is what helps populate the Recents Smart Folder.

The easiest way to restart a Mac is to go to the  Apple menu, and choose “Restart”

When the Mac boots back up, let indexing and other background tasks complete, which is usually pretty quick, depending on the last reboot and how many files are on the Mac, and then go to open Recents again. It should be populated with recently opened files as intended at this point.

Usually the Recents folder will populate fairly quickly with files after a restart, but if the entire Mac is being reindexed after a major system software update, it may take longer.

What is the “Recents” Folder and How Does it Work?

The Recents folder is the default Finder folder on modern MacOS versions, and it shows all of your recently opened files.

Recents is technically a “Smart Folder”, which basically means it’s a folder that has search parameters attached to it, so that it will show all files that match those search parameters. In the case of “Recents”, the Smart Folder is looking for file data demonstrating when files were last opened, and it displays and sorts by that information. Therefore, Recents works by showing any/all files in the order of when they were last opened on the Mac.

While “Recents” is fantastic and very useful, you can make your own Smart Folder with your own set of parameters at any time in the Finder from the File menu.

If you don’t want Recents to be the default Finder folder, you can change that in Finder settings as shown here.

Why is the “Recents” folder empty sometimes?

First, we’re making the assumption that the Mac has files on it that would be included in the Recents folder. If the Mac is brand new and there are no files in the file system, the Recents folder would be empty because there are no files. We’re assuming this does not apply to most user cases who are experiencing an empty Recents folder however.

The most likely reason that the ‘Recents’ folder appears empty for some Mac users is that the Recents Smart Folder is either being repopulated or reindexed by MacOS, a process which can take a while to complete. This is why sometimes the Recents folder appears blank or empty after you install a system software update, but then it repopulates with file data again after some time has passed, as the files get indexed and added to the Smart Folder again.

Sometimes, Recents fails to show any files because there is an issue with indexing, or an issue with the Finder, which is why restarting the Mac often resolves the issue. When you restart a Mac, various system processes are triggered, including indexing of data on the Mac, and as files are reindexed the Recents folder will function as intended again.

Restarting Finder to fix “Recents” being empty on Mac

Some Mac users have said they can restart Finder rather than the entire Mac, and that can fix the Recents folder. In my own testing and experience with an empty Recents folder, a full restart and waiting for indexing to complete was the solution instead, but it’s worth mentioning others as well.

Changing the Search Criteria May Fix Too

Additionally, some Mac users have noticed that they can change the search parameters associated with the “Recents” folder to the following:

(kMDItemLastUsedDate = “*”) &&

And that has resolved an empty Recents folder for some Mac users as well.

There are a lot of user complaints and frustrations with the empty Recents issue that have been discussed on just about every Apple forum, including discussions.apple.com,
reddit, forums.macrumors, and more. For most users, a restart is sufficient to fix the problem. If you have experienced this issue yourself, and you have found another solution, please share in the comments below!