Recents Blocklist

[tnyeanderson]

There should be an option to blacklist directories/files (using wildcard notation) from appearing in the "Recents" list at the top of the Files page.

Use case: I have .txt files used with nextcloud notes. I don't want these files to appear in my "recents" list as they are edited often, and edited through the nextcloud/notes app. Because of this, all I see in the recents list are my notes, which then open in text editors rather than the nextcloud/notes app. For this I would add a wildcard for Notes/* (or similar).

I think this is, in addition to not having hidden files a la #71, Will make the experience much better.

[szaimen]

Yes, thats really much needed!

[jonas-app]

Have the same need.
My use case: I have one folder which holds all auto uploaded images of my family.
Already excluded it from the gallery (.nomedia).

I think it would be useful to reuse this concept here.
For example .noindex seems suited:

Nextant leaves the user the possibility of not indexing the contents of a directory (recursively) by the creation of a .noindex file.

https://nextcloud.com/blog/nextcloud-11-introduces-full-text-search/

[ChristophWurst]

I think it would be useful to reuse this concept here.

Makes sense for power users. But not very usable for the average user. And technically, we have to traverse the files every time we want to build the list of recommendations because that file might exist in one of the parent directories. Right now we don't even have to go into the storage to get the information. Storage access will most likely make this feature slow with external storage.

[Torqu3Wr3nch]

Came here to open a feature request for this exact feature. I'd settle for just being able to blacklist directories. All it takes is one directory with a lot of writes to render Recommendations useless with noise.

[zzyzx-dc]

Seconding this as well. I use the auto-upload feature of Nextcloud and all my photo uploads dominated the entire Recommended / Most Recent list.

Now I'm using Joplin which works well with Nextcloud. But every note edit modifies a file within Nextcloud directory /Joplin, so my Recommended / Most Recent files are just an endless list of hashed .md files.

Carnet has this problem too. However, I noticed they use /.carnet which at least hides the directory from the normal Files view.

[Thesola10]

I think the "flag" to exclude a folder from Recents should be a hidden file or WebDAV attribute, such that applications which use Nextcloud as storage (like Swift Backup or Seedvault) could automatically set the flag without the user's intervention.

[indyspike]

The bookmarks app is now creating backups and the recommended files is flooded with YYYY-MM-DD.html files. Either a mechanism of blacklisting directories, or the ability to select which directories are to be looked at for entries for the recommended list would be a good enhancement.

[gmeks]

Perhaps it should follow the .noindex or .nomedia files?

This will also allow you to easy filter away backups, and means that 1 "setting" works consistent accross many apps.

[tnyeanderson]

I definitely prefer the flexibility of a separate option. I might want to make sure a folder is indexed, but not showed in recents. Or show up in my photos app but not in recents.

.norecents ?

[j0hnnyclaymore]

+1 Joplin syncs to my nextcloud and dashboard recommended files is now useless.

[xinstein]

+1 Joplin syncs to my nextcloud and dashboard recommended files is now useless.

+1 That's exactly when I disabled the recommended files card.

[anon8675309]

I think [.nomedia] would be useful to reuse this concept here.

Makes sense for power users. But not very usable for the average user. And technically, we have to traverse the files every time we want to build the list of recommendations because that file might exist in one of the parent directories. Right now we don't even have to go into the storage to get the information. Storage access will most likely make this feature slow with external storage.

The .nomedia (and .noimage, etc.) is something that many mobile users (at least Android and Blackberry) are already accustomed to.

The Photos app now respects the .noimage standard GitHub issues 75, 159, and 234. So this is a pattern that already ships with Nextcloud. This is an additional argument that the convention is not too difficult for the average user.

As for the performance impact, I understand the concern there. Perhaps there could be a flag to ignore certain files and have it disabled by default? This would give the performance by default, and still give the option of being consistent with the .nomedia standard. Would this provide an acceptable path forward, @ChristophWurst?

Also, allowing the user to specify what flags should be considered (e.g. .noimage, .nomedia, .norecents) would be helpful. Some users are going to want granular control over as @tnyeanderson (and the people who gave it a 👍) have pointed out, while others will want the files they're trying to hide to be hidden everywhere, not just in the Photos app and on their mobile devices.

And for the people who come across this thread looking for any solution at all to stop this from showing up, there are two workarounds:

1. In the bottom left of the Files app -> File setting -> uncheck Show recommendations
2. Add some custom CSS which may break 3rd party apps or be broken in future versions of Nextcloud

The first one will get rid of the bar of recent files between the home/add file section and the list of files and folders. This is likely sufficient for many people, as it stops filenames from cluttering up the screen, or potentially being seen by someone who can see your screen.

The second one will remove the Recent entry from the navigation on the left. The workaround is about 3 years old now, so it might not work in the current version of Nextcloud.

These workarounds just throw out the Recent/Recommendations features instead of making it more useful, but hopefully we can find a path forward on this ticket to get everyone what they're looking for.

[ChristophWurst]

If .nomedia works well for photos we can add it here as well, I guess. I'm by no means an expert with file operations and can't judge the performance concerns.

A setting for .nomedia, .noimage, .norecents etc seems a bit too much. Nextcloud design tries to find good defaults and limit the number of settings a user needs.

[mufeedali]

Nextcloud design tries to find good defaults and limit the number of settings a user needs.

I think the point of ".norecents" should be that the application automatically adds it. For example, the Notes app in the Notes folder or Bookmark apps in the backup folder. Also, what if the user has a folder inside a folder with photos that he doesn't want be scanned for but wants them to show up in recents?

[Ngineer4life]

Agree, need this functionality too. Would see it as a setting where you can choose directories, and the app adds .norecents, or does the necessary plumbing. Don’t is user friendly and encourages users to use Recommended Files