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How do I disable the tracking and display of recently opened files (and whatever else is remembered) in a default installation of Ubuntu? (This question originally concerned 11.10, but now that I'm on 12.04, that's the answer I've selected.)

(Note that this is not a duplicate of How can I keep recent files from appearing in Unity?, since that question and its answers are concerned with temporary and specific filtering. I want to disable it completely for a single user account.)

Okay, to deflect the inevitable and expand on my motivation...

While trawling the usual forums and Google results for a solution, it (unsurprisingly) seems that the near-universal use cases for this request are either browsing porn or Warhammer research. And the obvious solution to this is to create another user account to contain all evidence.

However, this is not why I'm asking, and I don't say that to get all high and mighty about it, it's because this answer won't help. (Even though I really don't have any interest in Warhammer, and I have no idea how that paint pot and brush ended up in my drawer, no that's not glue on my thumb, etc.)

My actual use case is that I use my personal laptop for presentations in different circles of my life. I have a user account set up with all the settings I like for presentations (shortcuts, small launcher, default associations, etc). But I don't want an accidental keystroke (or the find dialog) to display other recent presentations I've given, or the files I used in composing the presentation, or whatever. I also don't want to have to recreate this profile for every single presentation I might give. I just want a nice little isolated, memoryless, clean corner of my notebook for public display.

Community
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detly
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    It's often helpful to say why you want things, since there can be better ways of accomplishing it, or things you'll loose that you weren't aware of, etc. – Jo-Erlend Schinstad Jan 04 '12 at 11:30
  • @Jo-ErlendSchinstad - yes indeed, I was just editing for that purpose :) – detly Jan 04 '12 at 11:33
  • You need to follow @jokerdino suggestion and use "All History" and click Delete. Now the history should not be shown in Unity – Manish Sinha Mar 21 '12 at 06:41
  • @ManishSinha - yes, I'll try that when 12.04 is released and I'm prepared to use it. Until then, unless there's an answer for 11.10, I can't accept it. – detly Mar 21 '12 at 07:38
  • @detly This tool is available even for 11.10, will build it for 11.10 and add it to Zeitgeist PPA (within 24 hours) – Manish Sinha Mar 21 '12 at 08:31
  • @ManishSinha - before you go to the trouble, I already have activity-log-manager 0.8.0-0ubuntu1~ppa2 installed from the Zeitgeist PPA. Is there a newer version? – detly Mar 21 '12 at 08:55
  • The latest version of the activity log manager (for Precise) is 0.9.4-0ubuntu1. So, when Manish backports it to 11.10, you can disable the recent documents. – jokerdino Mar 21 '12 at 11:40
  • @jokerdino Actually, I think the updates to the underlying libs might have fixed the problem. Give me a day to check, and if it works I'll mark your answer as accepted. – detly Mar 21 '12 at 15:08
  • @jokerdino Yes. 0.9.4 was uploaded less than 12 hours back. It fixes a lot of i18n and UI issues. Anyway I will backport activity-log-manager for oneiric – Manish Sinha Mar 21 '12 at 17:02
  • @detly 0.8.0 can do the same thing. It just looks different and the first tab is named different. Choose All History and clear it – Manish Sinha Mar 21 '12 at 17:14
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    @ManishSinha - clearing history was not the issue, stopping all logging was. 0.8.0 didn't do that (despite appearances), but your recent updates to the Zeitgeist PPA seem to have fixed whatever problem was causing that. – detly Mar 22 '12 at 00:43
  • @ManishSinha - there's no 0.9.4 version in the Zeitgeist PPA — did you end up backporting it? Also, there's no "All History" button or option anywhere in 0.8.0. – detly Mar 30 '12 at 10:13
  • @detly Hopefully will do it today. – Manish Sinha Mar 30 '12 at 14:55

6 Answers6

67

Go to System Settings and choose Privacy.

Then, turn off the button next to Record Activity. Now, your recent documents will no longer be logged by Zeitgeist.

System Settings Privacy Manager in Ubuntu 12.04

Jorge Castro
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jokerdino
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  • I'll have to wait until I'm ready to use 12.04. Hopefully they'll have fixed whatever issues Activity Monitor currently has. – detly Feb 19 '12 at 09:57
  • Your instructions for 11.10 should include using the PPA mentioned by @Manish Sinha — following these instructions for the activity-log-manager available in the official repos was the first thing I tried, and it never worked. It only seems to work now with the updated libraries. – detly Mar 22 '12 at 00:42
  • @detly I can't quite tell which PPA you used that helped you solve the problem. Perhaps, you can edit the answer and add that part yourself? – jokerdino Mar 28 '12 at 09:23
  • Sorry, it doesn't actually seem to work after all. Also, what version of activity-log-manager do you have installed in that first screenshot? Mine has no "Recent items" tab, nor a "Delete history" button; just a "History" tab and a calendar based deletion that doesn't really work. – detly Apr 02 '12 at 23:38
  • @detly I guess it is version 0.9. – jokerdino Apr 02 '12 at 23:41
  • Hmm, I only have 0.8.0-1~oneiric1. – detly Apr 03 '12 at 00:41
  • @detly Are you on 12.04 yet? – jokerdino Aug 20 '12 at 08:33
  • Nope :/ It's on my to-do list, for next time I take a sick day. – detly Aug 20 '12 at 08:59
  • @detly Alrightie. Was just curious. – jokerdino Aug 20 '12 at 09:08
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    Finally got to try it, and yes, it does work in 12.04 :) – detly Sep 02 '12 at 07:06
  • @detly Thanks for the accept. Happy to help. :) – jokerdino Sep 02 '12 at 07:12
  • You might want to just remove the 11.10 info - it didn't work, but 12.04 is current and LTS anyway. – detly Sep 02 '12 at 07:43
  • @detly Thanks. Removed 11.10. Hope that is coherent enough. – jokerdino Sep 02 '12 at 07:50
1

for whatever documents you don't wish to see under the recent documents tab; do the following :

  1. Make sure you keep all such files in a folder.
  2. After accessing it every time, just rename the folder.

just by renaming the folder you will see the magic working :)

Ketan Deshmukh
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rename ~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel file (for example recently-used.xbel--) and create an empty folder and name it recently-used.xbel in same folder. That is all.

guntbert
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Chengaver Hero
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I found this solution in the ubuntuforums at comment #3, but don't know if it works. Give it a try:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1860785

heiko81
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  • I've already tried the recently-used.xbel thing without success, but I'll try the Activity Monitor approach. – detly Jan 04 '12 at 12:07
  • Hmm, disabling logging in the Activity Monitor doesn't seem to make any difference. (This is simply by clicking the big button at the bottom right of the dialog.) – detly Jan 04 '12 at 13:34
0

You can disable video recording at settings, privacy, files. You can also tell Ubuntu which folders shouldn't be recorded.

fabricator4
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vivo
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0

if you have upgraded to 12.10 already, do this:

go to: System Setting/Privacy/Files

then tick: Video and Image

check if it helps in case you still want your txt and docs activity to be available.

EDIT: Also, even better is to use the option "Don't record activity in the following folders:" what is the best customization I can see :), may be it is time to upgrade to 12.10 :D

Aquarius Power
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