'Open Recent' on Affinity Designer (Mac) never shows any files

[Moustachey]

As the title states, if you open a file in Affinity Designer on Mac, make some edits, save the file and close the file. Go into the menu and click on 'Open Recent', that recently closed file will not be there. No recent files will be listed there.

[Gear maker]

37 minutes ago, Moustachey said:

As the title states, if you open a file in Affinity Designer on Mac, make some edits, save the file and close the file. Go into the menu and click on 'Open Recent', that recently closed file will not be there. No recent files will be listed there.

I don't have that problem.  What OS are you running? What mac are you using?  Are you saving to the internal drive or something like a network or iCloud?

[Moustachey]

Affinity Designer: 1.9.3

MacOS Big Sur: 11.5.1

Intel Macbook Pro 2020 Model

Loading and saving files directly from my desktop and Dropbox folders, located on my internal HDD.

[Sean P]

Hi Moustachey,

It sounds as though you've got the Recent Files option in System Preferences > General set to 'None'. The Recents list in Affinity will always show the amount of recent documents equal to the value in the System Preferences.

[Moustachey]

3 hours ago, Sean P said:

Hi Moustachey,

It sounds as though you've got the Recent Files option in System Preferences > General set to 'None'. The Recents list in Affinity will always show the amount of recent documents equal to the value in the System Preferences.

Oh wow I didn't even know that was a MacOS setting! Thank you that fixed it! 😁

[rui_mac]

I have my Recent Files option in System Preferences > General set to '10' and I still get no recent items list in the "Open Recent" option of any Affinity application.
I'm on Mac OS Catalina (10.15.7).

[CB1978]

Having this problem also - No "Open Recent" files are ever available.  I also don't even have an option in General Preferences specific to "Open Recent".  

Running latest version - 1.10.4

MacOS - 12.0.1

2021 14" Macbook M1 Pro

[Old Bruce]

On 1/14/2022 at 2:22 PM, CB1978 said:

Having this problem also - No "Open Recent" files are ever available.  I also don't even have an option in General Preferences specific to "Open Recent".  

 

Is that the OS System Preferences? The General section.

[RMT]

I have the same problem on Affinity photo. But not on Affinity designer or Affinity publisher.
I have changed the General preferences on my mac to 15 but it still doesn't work in photo.
I have rebooted my computer.
It happened recently - it used to work.
I am using mac os Monterey, version 12.1 on a mac mini. I am using affinity photo version 1.10.4.
Any other ideas?
It all works fine in Designer.

[roble2020]

I have just noticed the above problem in up to date version of Affinity Designer but Affinity Photo is fine. I'm running Ventura 13.2.1 (22D68)

Additionally I cannot find the option to set recent file count in System Preferences mentioned above.

I'll follow this topic. Hopefully there is a way to resolve this soon.

[MikeTO]

2 hours ago, roble2020 said:

I have just noticed the above problem in up to date version of Affinity Designer but Affinity Photo is fine. I'm running Ventura 13.2.1 (22D68)

Additionally I cannot find the option to set recent file count in System Preferences mentioned above.

I'll follow this topic. Hopefully there is a way to resolve this soon.

If you're using Ventura note that preferences/settings have been completely redesigned. It's in System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Menu Bar as shown here.

[roble2020]

1 minute ago, MikeTO said:

If you're using Ventura note that preferences/settings have been completely redesigned. It's in System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Menu Bar as shown here.

Thanks very much! I had looked around but missed it. Will check that and try again. 

[MikeTO]

On 2/20/2022 at 11:06 AM, RMT said:

I have the same problem on Affinity photo. But not on Affinity designer or Affinity publisher.
I have changed the General preferences on my mac to 15 but it still doesn't work in photo.
I have rebooted my computer.
It happened recently - it used to work.
I am using mac os Monterey, version 12.1 on a mac mini. I am using affinity photo version 1.10.4.
Any other ideas?
It all works fine in Designer.

If one Affinity app isn't showing Recent Items but the others are then maybe deleting the mru.dat file for that app might help. It contains the list. Quit the app first, delete this file, restart the app, open a file, quit again, and restart the app to see if it's now in the menu. You can find this file here:

Users/<user name>/Library/Application Support/Affinity Photo 2/mru.dat

Cheers

[polochon]

Supprimé ce fichier : Users/<user name>/Library/Application Support/Affinity Publisher 2/mru.dat

Problème résolu ! Merci

[roble2020]

Thanks / Merci, deleting mru.dat as described resolved the problem 😃

 

[vizou]

I have been plagued with this problem through three Mac OS systems for all Affinity apps (versions 2 and below).

Following the instructions to delete the mru.dat file and restart/save did make recent files appear in the Apple Menu AFTER opening Affinity Photo 2, but they don't appear as a list when selecting the app icon in the dock as they do with other apps (ex. Final Cut Pro X); if I click on "Show Recents" in the dock app for Affinity Photo 2, I see "No Available Windows" message on my screen and there is no list of the many docs I have opened and saved. Same for all Affinity apps. See screenshots below.

[Oufti]

5 hours ago, vizou said:

I have been plagued with this problem through three Mac OS systems for all Affinity apps (versions 2 and below).

[…] recent files […] don't appear as a list when selecting the app icon in the dock as they do with other apps (…); if I click on "Show Recents" in the dock app for Affinity Photo 2, I see "No Available Windows" message on my screen and there is no list of the many docs I have opened and saved. Same for all Affinity apps. See screenshots below.

 

For me (see my config in my signature), it works "sometimes" but ONLY when the app is open. Otherwise, when not running I always have the same view as you here above. 

 

— I said "sometimes" as most of the time there are not as many items in the list in the Dock than in the menu File > Open recent… And sometimes, there are only the opened windows showing in the list. 

In Photo's menu, there are 7 recent items (instead of the 15 specified in my System preferences…):

But in the Dock, there are none, only the open window:

For Publisher, it is a bit better. Two recent items + the open one:

Nothing of this seems very consistent nor efficient… 

Actually, I only use the Dock to launch the app by a single click, then I use the menu for opening a recent file. 

(Note that I never myself modified the Most Recently Used (mru.dat) file.)