Deleted Recents Items in Finder

[C928JON]

Hi

I stupidly deleted my recents folder contents yesterday, selected all, moved to Trash and then emptied trash. (MacBook Air 2018 running Catalina 10.15.4)
I thought I was deleting the downloads folder.

The files that I need back were all on iCloud but I can't find them in recently deleted.

I tried a recovery application but all I have its a collection of .plist files and a sinking feeling that I'm out of my depth.

It'd be great if someone who actually knew what they are doing could help. even if that's doing a better job of searching than I did.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Which recents folder - on your Mac or iCloud? Normally, when you put something in the Trash, then empty the Trash, they are gone for good. If you happen to have a Time Machine backup, you may be able to restore them.

If you can give a little more information of the steps you took, we will see if they are recoverable.

C

 

[C928JON]

Thanks for replying.

It was the recents folder on my Mac, but most of the recent files
were actually saved in documents, numbers and pages which are on iCloud.

I don't have time machine as I thought iCloud would be sufficient backup (hadn't allowed for my stupidity)

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, thanks.

The Recents folder actually just lists files and folders that were recently used. It doesn't move them to the Recents folder - they remain in the folder they were originally put in. It can be a little dangerous to delete files from that list, as they could actually be anywhere on your Mac, iCloud, Google Drive, etc. You could actually delete the file on your Mac and in iCloud at the same time!

Two helpful functions to enable in Finder are in the View menu - Show Path Bar and Show Status Bar. They enable an information "footer" in your Finder windows:

-Show Path Bar: Shows a "breadcrumb" trail of where a file actually resides on your Mac.
-Show Status Bar: Changes depending on what you are viewing in Finder. It displays things like free space left on drive, how many items, how many items are selected, etc.

Check those out - I use them al the time.

C