Fix Finder's Recents: a Smart Folder showing recently added/created/modified/opened files — not just opened

examples-of-real-recents.md

make-real-recents — example invocations

Install on a new machine

Download the script to somewhere on your PATH, make it executable, and run it:

curl -fsSL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/erikdw/3eecfc77270e1281e4f04c89c76b68b5/raw/make-real-recents \
  -o ~/.local/bin/make-real-recents && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/make-real-recents && make-real-recents

Then drag the smart folder that opens into your Finder sidebar (see Finishing setup). No dependencies beyond stock macOS.

Basic

# Defaults: last 30 days, named "Recents for Reals",
# scoped to ~/Desktop, ~/Documents, ~/Downloads (+ iCloud Drive Downloads if present)
make-real-recents

# Tighter window: only the last 7 days
make-real-recents -d 7

# Custom name (this is the filename in ~/Library/Saved Searches and the sidebar label)
make-real-recents -n "New Stuff"

Custom scopes

Pass folders as arguments to replace the default scope list entirely:

# Just Downloads — a better "recent downloads" than the Downloads stack
make-real-recents -d 14 ~/Downloads

# Include cloud-synced folders
make-real-recents ~/Desktop ~/Documents ~/Downloads ~/Dropbox \
  "$HOME/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs"

# Approximate "my whole home folder except ~/dev" by enumerating what you DO want.
# (Spotlight queries can't exclude paths — see the script header.)
make-real-recents ~/Desktop ~/Documents ~/Downloads ~/Movies ~/Music ~/Pictures

Multiple smart folders

Different names create separate smart folders, so you can keep several:

make-real-recents -n "Recents for Reals"            # the general one
make-real-recents -n "This Week" -d 7               # short-window variant
make-real-recents -n "Recent Downloads" ~/Downloads # downloads only

Tweaking an existing smart folder

Re-running with the same -n name overwrites the saved search in place, and Finder sidebar entries keep working (they track the file, not its contents):

make-real-recents -d 60   # widen the window on the default smart folder

Gotcha: Finder caches a saved search's definition once it's been opened and won't re-read the file after it changes. If results look stale after a re-run:

killall Finder

Finishing setup

The script opens the smart folder in Finder. To pin it: drag the small folder icon in the window's title bar into the Finder sidebar. To find the file later: Finder → ⇧⌘G → ~/Library/Saved Searches.

make-real-recents

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# make-real-recents — a Finder "Recents" that actually shows recent files.
#
# Finder's built-in Recents only shows files you have OPENED (it queries
# kMDItemLastUsedDate), so a freshly downloaded or created file is invisible
# in it until you open the file at least once. This script creates a Finder
# Smart Folder that shows files ADDED, CREATED, MODIFIED, or OPENED within
# the last N days — any recent interaction counts — scoped to the folders
# where new files actually land.
#
# Usage:
#   make-real-recents [-d DAYS] [-n NAME] [SCOPE_DIR ...]
#
#   -d DAYS   How far back to look (default: 30)
#   -n NAME   Name of the Smart Folder (default: "Recents for Reals")
#   SCOPE_DIR Folders to search. Defaults to ~/Desktop, ~/Documents,
#             ~/Downloads, and the iCloud Drive Downloads folder if present.
#             Scoping matters: searching your whole home folder drowns you
#             in noise from git checkouts, caches, and package managers.
#
# The Smart Folder is written to ~/Library/Saved Searches/ and opened in
# Finder. To finish setup, drag it from the title bar (or the Saved Searches
# folder) into the Finder sidebar. Re-running the script overwrites the
# saved search in place, so tweaking -d or the scopes is safe.
#
# NOTE: Finder caches a saved search's definition once opened, and won't
# re-read the file after it changes. If results look stale after re-running
# this script, relaunch Finder:  killall Finder
#
# Why not "everywhere except ~/dev"? Spotlight can't. Its query language
# filters on file metadata only — file paths are not a queryable attribute
# (kMDItemPath isn't indexed), and saved-search scopes are additive-only,
# with no way to exclude a folder. To approximate an exclusion, enumerate
# the folders you DO want:
#
#   make-real-recents ~/Desktop ~/Documents ~/Downloads ~/Movies ~/Pictures
#
# (The blunt alternative — System Settings > Siri & Spotlight > Spotlight
# Privacy — hides a folder from ALL Spotlight search, not just this one.)
#
set -euo pipefail

DAYS=30
NAME="Recents for Reals"

usage() { awk 'NR == 1 { next } !/^#/ { exit } { sub(/^# ?/, ""); print }' "$0"; exit "${1:-0}"; }

while getopts ':d:n:h' opt; do
  case "$opt" in
    d) DAYS=$OPTARG ;;
    n) NAME=$OPTARG ;;
    h) usage ;;
    *) usage 1 >&2 ;;
  esac
done
shift $((OPTIND - 1))

case "$DAYS" in
  ''|*[!0-9]*) echo "error: -d expects a positive integer, got '$DAYS'" >&2; exit 1 ;;
esac

# Default scopes: the places new files actually arrive.
if [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; then
  scopes=("$@")
else
  scopes=("$HOME/Desktop" "$HOME/Documents" "$HOME/Downloads")
  icloud_dl="$HOME/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Downloads"
  [ -d "$icloud_dl" ] && scopes+=("$icloud_dl")
fi

for dir in "${scopes[@]}"; do
  [ -d "$dir" ] || { echo "error: scope folder does not exist: $dir" >&2; exit 1; }
done

# A file is "actually recent" if ANY of these happened within the window:
#   kMDItemDateAdded               = landed in its folder (downloads, moves)
#   kMDItemContentCreationDate     = was created
#   kMDItemContentModificationDate = was modified
#   kMDItemLastUsedDate            = was opened (all Apple's Recents checks)
# MDSystemFile exclusion mirrors what Finder's own searches do.
t="\$time.today(-$DAYS)"
query="((kMDItemDateAdded >= $t) || (kMDItemContentCreationDate >= $t) || (kMDItemContentModificationDate >= $t) || (kMDItemLastUsedDate >= $t)) && (kMDItemSupportFileType != \"MDSystemFile\")"

xml_escape() { printf '%s' "$1" | sed -e 's/&/\&amp;/g' -e 's/</\&lt;/g' -e 's/>/\&gt;/g'; }

query_xml=$(xml_escape "$query")
scopes_xml=""
for dir in "${scopes[@]}"; do
  scopes_xml+="			<string>$(xml_escape "$dir")</string>"$'\n'
done

out_dir="$HOME/Library/Saved Searches"
out_file="$out_dir/$NAME.savedSearch"
mkdir -p "$out_dir"

cat > "$out_file" <<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>CompatibleVersion</key>
	<integer>1</integer>
	<key>RawQuery</key>
	<string>$query_xml</string>
	<key>RawQueryDict</key>
	<dict>
		<key>FinderFilesOnly</key>
		<true/>
		<key>RawQuery</key>
		<string>$query_xml</string>
		<key>SearchScopes</key>
		<array>
$scopes_xml		</array>
		<key>UserQuery</key>
		<string></string>
	</dict>
	<key>SearchCriteria</key>
	<dict>
		<key>FXScopeArrayOfPaths</key>
		<array>
$scopes_xml		</array>
	</dict>
</dict>
</plist>
EOF

plutil -lint "$out_file" > /dev/null

echo "Created Smart Folder: $out_file"
echo "  looking back: $DAYS days"
printf '  scope: %s\n' "${scopes[@]}"
echo
echo "Opening it in Finder. To keep it handy, drag the little folder icon"
echo "in the window's title bar into the Finder sidebar."

open "$out_file"