How to Clear Recent Documents in LibreOffice

LibreOffice tracks recently opened files across all of its modules—including Writer, Calc, Impress, and Draw—to provide quick access to your ongoing work. While this feature improves workflow efficiency, you may occasionally need to clear this list for privacy, organization, or decluttering purposes. This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to clear the entire recent documents history across all LibreOffice modules at once, remove individual items, or disable the history feature entirely.

Method 1: Clear the Entire Recent Document List via the File Menu

The quickest way to delete your recent file history across all LibreOffice modules is using the standard menu bar.

  1. Open LibreOffice (either the main Start Center or any document).
  2. Click on File in the top menu bar.
  3. Hover your cursor over Recent Documents.
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the submenu and click Clear List.

Once selected, all recent file entries are instantly wiped across Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, and Math.

Method 2: Clear History from the LibreOffice Start Center

If you launch LibreOffice without opening a document, the Start Center displays large thumbnail previews of your recent files.

  1. Launch LibreOffice to access the Start Center.
  2. To remove the entire list, click File > Recent Documents > Clear List.
  3. To remove specific files individually without clearing the whole list, hover your mouse over any document thumbnail and click the X button that appears in the top-right corner of the preview tile.

Method 3: Permanently Disable Recent Document History

If you prefer that LibreOffice never records your opened files, you can adjust the advanced settings to disable recent document tracking permanently.

  1. Open LibreOffice.
  2. Navigate to Tools > Options (on macOS, go to LibreOffice > Preferences).
  3. In the left panel, expand LibreOffice and select Advanced.
  4. Click the Open Expert Configuration button.
  5. In the search box at the top, type PickListSize and press Enter.
  6. Locate the preference named PickListSize under org.openoffice.Office.Common\History.
  7. Double-click the entry and change its value from 25 (or default) to 0.
  8. Click OK, then click Apply and OK to close the Options window.

Setting this value to 0 prevents LibreOffice from storing any future document history. To re-enable the feature later, return to this setting and restore the value to 25 or your preferred number of remembered files.