macOS - what's the logic behind the file names shown when click-holding on the Dock icon?

[nickbatz]

^ What the title says. I'm having problems with pattern recognition: how does macOS decide what picture names to show when you right-click or click-hold the Affinity Photo icon in the Dock?

That is, when the program is open?

You'd expect it to show recently opened pictures, but that's not what it shows. The list it does show seems arbitrary, although I'm sure it isn't.

Sequoia 15.4.1, but I don't think this is a new phenomenon. And note that this has nothing to do with Open Recent in Affinity Photo, just the Dock icon.

TIA

[nickbatz]

The plot thickens.

I just quit Affinity Photo, started it again and opened another... and that entire list has cleared.

Okay, this is too complicated for me.

[loukash]

There are many bugs in the MacOS Recent Items mechanism in general, not just with 3rd party apps but also in Apple's own, since many iterations of MacOS, going many years back. I'm often seeing weird recent lists in Logic Pro, for example, where I have to clear the list every now and then to get rid of too many duplicate ghost entries.

[R C-R]

FWIW, the behavior has changed on my Mac between V1 & V2. V1 always shows a certain number of files I last opened in each of the 3 V1 apps. In V2, the list periodically empties or changes, particularly when quitting & restarting the app.

I believe this to be a V2 issue because other apps like TextEdit, Quicktime Player, Graphic Converter, or BBEdit behave like the V1 Affinity apps.

[R C-R]

@nickbatz, try this:

1. In one of your Affinity V2 apps, use the File > Open Recent > More to get a list of recently opened documents. (I have set a keyboard shortcut for this to Option + O to make it easy to get to.)
2. Select 3-5 documents using Shift and/or CMD in the usual way to open them in individual tabs.
3. Now use File > Close All to close them in one step.
4. (Optionally) Hide the app -- just don't quit it.
5. Now you should see all those files you just opened in the Dock popup, at least for several hours.

So basically, it isn't arbitrary but it is quirky, to say the least.

[nickbatz]

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

@nickbatz, try this:

1. In one of your Affinity V2 apps

I'm not talking about Affinity apps, I'm talking about the Dock in the Finder. Thanks though.

EDIT - oh, got it. You are too.

But the files in the Dock that I saw when I posted this were ones I hadn't opened for months!

[R C-R]

16 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

But the files in the Dock that I saw when I posted this were ones I hadn't opened for months!

Were there newer ones that did not appear? If so, are you sure you had opened them fairly recently?

[nickbatz]

20 hours ago, R C-R said:

Were there newer ones that did not appear? If so, are you sure you had opened them fairly recently?

New ones appear as expected in Affinity Photo's regular Open Recent dialog.

The ones in More... I mean, I have opened then, but not for a couple of years. There must be crusty cache somewhere.

But it doesn't really matter. This is hundreds of pages down on the List of Things I Worry About.

[R C-R]

35 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

The ones in More... I mean, I have opened then, but not for a couple of years.

Assuming you are on a Mac open one of those & use File > Reveal in Finder to check its Date last opened attribute. Does it really show a date that old?

[nickbatz]

47 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Assuming you are on a Mac

Pretty safe assumption given this thread!

[R C-R]

26 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

Pretty safe assumption given this thread!

Yes indeed! But I wanted to make it clear to any Windows users with this same issue who end up here that it won't be the same "Reveal" name.

Anyway, it would be interesting to see what your Mac Finder says about date last opened for those old files. For me, date last opened always is what I expect for the files that make it to the  File > Open Recent > More list, even if it isn't consistent with what the Dock popup shows.

[nickbatz]

I forgot to mention that I opened the files in More when I saw them out of curiosity, so the date modified listing is back on track.

[R C-R]

28 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

I forgot to mention that I opened the files in More when I saw them out of curiosity, so the date modified listing is back on track.

Good to know, but please note that I mentioned checking the Finder's Date last opened attribute. That should correspond more directly with the Affinity More list, which doesn't track modifications, just if a file was opened recently in Affinity.