I want to clear all the Recent file list, there has no clear function please advise how to clear the list.Thanks & regards
Swe Tin
Oh wow. I seriously can not believe the stupidity of this. When I open Dropbox (on my new phone - wasn't happening on my previous one), as a DEFAULT my recent files list opens - and I most certainly DO NOT WANT this list of files to be viewable.
There's no way to clear the list.
There's no way to NOT make Recents the default view that opens.
There's NO WAY I'm continuing to use dropbox on my phone, and there's NO WAY I'm renewing my subscription if this idiotic flaw isn't fixed before my renewal is due.
Wow. I can't believe this issue has been around for six months without it being fixed. Just... wow.
This post is more than 6 month old. Any progress? Dropbox people???
Should be a simple fix if one is interested to keep their customers
The best (only) way I've found to "clear" a recent entry is to rename the folder in which the file you accessed is housed. I guess the renaming process breaks the audit trail and the recently accessed file is this cleared from the Recent list.
Got the same problem.
It not only shows the recently added or modified files.
BUT it also shows the recently watched files. And this is something I really don't want.
In short I don't even want the recently list at all.....
Adding a feature without an option to disable it - that is so stupid (or simply Dropbox is forced by NSA to send them some logs from their users, so they came up with this crap )
I have the same reservation about opening my dropbox either in front of people or at work, its no different than going on your web browser and the first thing you see is your recent history. I strongly dislike this feature. I would not only like to delete my recently viewed files but id like to have the choice of turning the feature off entirely. If this update doesnt roll out soon i may start using a different application for the time being, and end up just sticking with it indefinitely for convenience
Obviously, many users dislike this feature. Why is this taking so long? I'm moving to Google Drive.
Give me a way to change the default folder. Dropbox probably has some self serving integrated future reason for defaulting to "recents", but this creates unnecessary hassle for users. It's also a personal privacy nightmare, especially for business, and even more so for long time users who are in the habit of opening dropbox in front of others/clients. Not a very well thought out mandatory, unnecessary change. Give users control!
My Dropbox renewal is coming up and it looks like my business is going to sync.com, who aren't suffering from feature creep.
For some reason this 'recent' thing has only just surfaced on my mobile, tablets or PC. As Alan L said some time ago in another thread this is a serious security problem for Dropbox clients.
My first experience of it was leaving my tablet open on my desk after launching Dropbox when some photographs became visible which were for a project a visitor would have been very interested in. Thankfully I saw it in time but had to shut the tablet with rather a rush.
Its only a couple of weeks since I renewed my subscription so I'm not a happy bunny and will be looking at places like sync,com and Google Drive for safer and more secure option for my file storage.
Its difficult to understand why Dropbox are ignoring the requests to give users an option with recents. I would have thought it was an easy thing to produce/
Why does it take so long for a rather simple fix? Hello Dropbox your customers are complaining, so what do you do about it?
Just stopping by to say I'm about up to Here with this "feature". If I cannot disable it then at least give me a way to clear it. I use online file sharing for a myriad reasons, and I don't need previous lookups showing up first thing front and center on the app when I open it. Considering how long these questions have been asked by users, and also considering the inability to make or suggest a fix by the program authors I will make making a fix of my own soon... it is called Google Drive.
Once I switch I am not coming back, and I know a good number that are on the same page as well. Get it together folks.
Another disappointed user here wanting either to disable this feature, or not parse any particular folders of our liking (and any uploading to/from them as well) or at the very least make it NOT the default view when starting up Dropbox. Serious privacy issue as I have it installed on multiple devices.
[Have not read all posts above.]
Please add in settings on all devices/platforms so that the users themselves can choose to start in recent or not [preferably in root or perhaps even any directory the user choose].
Well, it was a good run Dropbox. I brought you so many new clients, and endlessly extolled your virtues, but you've officially hit feature creep. It's a slow, inexorable downward spiral from here. I am not even going to ask for this to get fixed, because they didn't ask if I wanted it, so they obviously do not care about my opinion of their product. How very Microsoft of you to change the product without asking my opinion, then not respond to the people complaining in the forums, not even to try to rationalize the change. One of two thing will happen now according to M$ history: A complete "Screw you" with a "Whoops, mah bad LOLs!! We WANTED to ask your opinion, but we were too excited to get the features out there, regardless of whether they worked or were wanted!! Too bad, we can't go back now!! 6 out of 6 Grandmas like it!! Woohoo!!" or only the Pro version will have the option to disable (Essentially nagware.) I haven't looked at alternatives lately, I guess it's time again.
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PLEASE allow us the courtesy of an ETA pertaining to options of either clearing Recents or disabling Recents. This is a serious security flaw when one shares a computer or iPad. I've used Dropbox for years and prefer to continue, as long as we get information on these changes that have been requested over and over in this forum regarding functionality of Recents.
then not respond to the people complaining in the forums,
You do realize that this is a user-supported forum, yes? While a Dropboxer does reply on occasion, the majority of all support received here is from other users that volunteer their time. If you want an official response, open a ticket with Support.
PLEASE allow us the courtesy of an ETA
Dropbox does not release information about planned features and their time frames.
Rich, this forum is a dropbox.com registered domain (see whois) and the only place where customers of dropbox can complain with the idle hope that someone of dropbox reads it. Tickets are never read anyway.
Other users that volunteer their time here may accidently think they have more rights or are entitled to to some special hero treatment, but that off course that is not correct. It is your own choice to waist your time on a product backed by a company that does not care about it's customers. If it helps you: I find your contributions not helpfull for me and think you can better spent that time on fitness.
So yes this is a good place to request an ETA on when dropbox can fix the horrible timewaisters they have added.
It now requires 8 steps to get to a file on dropbox android.
I too would like the recents folder clearing option
this forum is a dropbox.com registered domain (see whois) and the only place where customers of dropbox can complain with the idle hope that someone of dropbox reads it.
I never stated that Dropbox does not own the site. It is their site and they maintain these forums. That being said, the majority of the people providing assistance here are other users like yourself. A Dropboxer does reply on occasion (as you've seen), but the only official method of receiving a response from Dropbox is by opening a ticket with Support.
Tickets are never read anyway.
All tickets are answered. It is the forum posts that will not always be seen by a member of Dropbox Support.
So yes this is a good place to request an ETA
As stated... Dropbox does not release information about planned features and their time frames.
It now requires 8 steps to get to a file on dropbox android:
Your list of steps has been (once again) removed from your post. Please refer to my previous response on this matter. Thank you.
I find your abuse of privileges to censor bizar considering your silly claim you are like other users. Who asked you to keep removing inconvenient posts??? Dropbox buddies of you?
William S.
^Makes some valid points Rich R.
You should be supporting us but no....
Irrespective of the status of this forum, surely as Dropbox are effectively hosting it, they would take an interest on what is being discussed?
To suggest that forum users should not expect Dropbox to take note of any suggestions, criticisms or other observations is very strange especially as I've just forked out the equivalent of 99 dollars just three weeks ago.
People who take the trouble to read and post here are obviously keenly interested in the subject and wish to share their observations. Hence, surely it is in Dropbox's interest to keep an eye on the forum. In particular my fellow posters are people who have actively supported the company by spending money and have developed a relationship with and dependence on it.
Sadly, it looks like that relationship is in danger of foundering on the rocks when just a short explanation from Dropbox as to why they introduced a 'facility' that many of us find appalling and what they intend to do about the situation we find ourselves in. After all it wasn't us that changed the program but we do seem to be in the 'take it or leave it' situation.
Many other companies have introduced 'improvements' to programs but where they have not suited everyone have given the option to disable it, that's all it needs and then we can get on with using Dropbox as we bought it, not as someone else thinks we must have it.
Now for that cold shower . . . . . . .
After following this forum topic for months and continuously searching online for any updates on this issue, it has become clear that the reason Dropbox devs have yet to address this easily fixable issue (option to clear or disable "Recents" or designate custom landing page in mobile Dropbox app) is because this so-called "feature" must have been the brainchild of some exec whose ego is too big to admit that they made a mistake.
Users are smart enough to organize and access their directories/subdirectories, and there are reasons why we organize our storage in our own ways. While it may seem logical to have recent files easily accessible, most of us would like the option of sorting our files by access/modification time/date RATHER THAN BEING FORCED TO NAVIGATE THROUGH RECENT FILES AS THE DEFAULT (UNMODIFIABLE) LOADING PAGE! The Dropbox browser UI is less offensive as the landing page is still the "Files" tab with our home directory that we have organized FOR OUR OWN REASONS. ("Recents" is shown only when the tab is selected.) However, whether on browser, desktop, or mobile, users would like to be able to clear the "Recents" list for various reason, but most simply BECAUSE WE WANT TO.
Dropbox's lack of acknowledgement of the many user complaints is a sign that they refuse to see that their implementation of the "Recents" feature is TERRIBLE. With the many cloud storage alternatives (eg Google Drive 15G and iCloud 4G free!), why should we continue to support a company that is too busy to monitor and address user comments in their forums? I and seemingly many others have waited months for a fix (which should be simple since the functionalities to load into home directory or last used directory existed before the "Recents" rollout), but it has come time to switch. Dropbox, though you were once a user friendly, customer driven, "indie"-hip company, you are now a sinking ship whose execs are too egotistical to admit their mistakes, and your market share is sure to drop.
Dropbox has become the most bizarre program I have ever seen. I pay for $99.00 X 5 but certainly would not have if I had known that they were so capable of screwing the pooch on something as simple as making their program totally unusable for a large segment of the users. I have been changing all my dropbox files over to Onedrive to see if that will work better, but have noted in some of the posts that Google has a similar option. I don't know if either Google or Microsoft will be a better program, but at this point they certainly cannot be any worse. I hate to lose the money, and make the people I pay for the extra space, change over to another program, but I am better off losing the money as opposed to having to jump through the hoops dropbox wants me too.
Does anybody know who is responsible for the decisions at dropbox? It appears from the amount of complaints and lack of responses that whoever it is must be in deep hiding because I have never purchased a program that refuses to at least try to justify the erroneous decisions they made regarding a programming problem. I maybe have not got it changed but at least they had the decency to justify their thinking.
Relative to Rich!! He probably escaped from Mom's basement or the individual responsible for the massive screw-up, because NOBODY can be dumb enough to make excuses and wrong headed statements such as HE?? has.
Per Wendy's suggestion, " Open the plist file in the editor of your choice" I searched for but do not find anything like that in my Windows 10 machine. Any suggestions as to where it might be found? I don't know if that will help the problem with dropbox but am willing to at least find out.
I meant to ask what is the equivalent in Windows 10 as googling it is inconclusive
@Robert H., As you've probably gathered from your own searches:
The plist file is specific to Mac iOS/OSX. (Seems that plists are also used with Apple software on Windows PC eg. iTunes).
To edit the plist file (which should be text) use a text editor of your choice.
Wendy's instructions are likely specific to Dropbox for Mac.
Poking around on Dropbox on Windows 7, I see that every time I open Dropbox, the following folders update:
%HOMEPATH%\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\instance_db\
%HOMEPATH%\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\instance1\
The files within these directories seem to be .DB and .DBX which may be readable with SQLite (I have not tested). I suspect the "recently changed" file list that may be equivalent to the plist that Wendy suggested to edit is stored in:
%HOMEPATH%\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\instance1\UPDATED_XXXX ##where XXXX is some letters that changes each time it syncs
Again I have not managed to open any of the files. Deleting the filecache.dbx forces a "hash check"-like behavior (resyncs your entire Dropbox). Deleting UPDATED_XXXX seems to delay the "recently changed" file list from displaying (both on my Desktop and Android phone). But both of these files are recreated and the Recents eventually pop back up. These are likely downloaded from Dropbox server. If anyone pokes around and has more info or paths specific to Windows 10, please share with Robert H.
Now although this thread has "Apple mobile apps" in the title, it seems that forum moderators are redirecting everyone here for concerns about the "Recents" default loading page for Andriod as well. If you are on Android or have a mobile device that supports widgets, this solution from Dropbox support (Ralph) posted recently by Corey A. may work to load directly into a folder of your choice:
Here is his pasted post:
Hi all,
I get this response from DropBox support. I have actually tried this and it works. I have DB in a folder on my Android so I had to create the shortcut on a page first then move it. Hopefully they listen and remove the Recents.
Ralph, Feb 23, 8:32 AM:
Hi there,
Thanks for writing in. I understand that you would like to change the default tab/folder when the app opens. When tapping the Dropbox icon, Dropbox will open up to the Recents page first. This is working as intended and cannot be modified by the user.
We are always looking for user input when creating the next version of the Dropbox app and I will make sure your comments are passed along to our development team.
As a workaround, the Dropbox app offers the ability to create a home screen widget to any folder in your account, including the top-level Dropbox folder.
To create this shortcut: - Tap and hold an empty spot on the home screen (phones) or tap the All Apps icon on the home screen (tablets) - Tap “Widgets” - Tap and hold the “Dropbox Folder” widget, drag it to the desired location on your home screen, and release. - Upon releasing, you’ll be prompted to “Create shortcut to” the currently selected folder. If you wish to open a different folder, navigate to the preferred folder. - Tap the “Create Shortcut” button.
You can now use this new Dropbox folder icon on your home screen to bypass the Recents view upon opening the Dropbox app.
If there is anything else I can do to be of service, please reach back out to me and I will be more than happy to assist.
Regards,Ralph
Mike C et al,
Thanks for posting that. Whilst it doesn't get rid of recents it provides a good way to avoid its inherent problems.
One word, don't use a well stocked folder for Dropbox to land on 'cos it will take forever to download each time you open it up. I've made an empty folder called 'launch', being somewhat old fashioned.
The only thing worse than pedantic moderation is personal attacks on the moderator. Sad to see almost every discussion on the entire net sink to this level, instead of just discussing the issue.
Since I'm well into moving to Sync (sync.com) and saving $50 per year, I'm going to see if I can stop notifications for this thread. I wish the rest of you good luck.
