Find files you worked on recently

Recent files gathers the files you worked on lately in one list, newest first. It finds them wherever they live: your own drive, a team drive, or a folder someone shared with you.

Open Recent files

1. In the sidebar, click Recent files. In Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Stickies, and Vector, it sits right below Drive. In Chat, Calendar, Mail, and Contacts, it has a section of its own in the sidebar.
2. Click a file to see its details in the panel on the right, including what happened to it lately.
3. Click Open in that panel to open it. You can also press Enter, or click the file again. A document opens in its app and a folder opens in Drive. A picture or a PDF has no Open button and opens in a preview instead.

Every one of those links opens the same page in Drive. This page is for finding things, so you cannot upload or create files in it.

What shows up here

A file joins the list when you:

• open a document, spreadsheet, presentation, board, or drawing in its editor.
• open a text or code file in Drive's text editor.
• open a chat.
• get a notification about it, such as a share, a mention, a reply, a new chat message, a card assigned to you, a request for access, or a change to something you watch.

Each file appears once. The Last activity column shows when you last opened it or were last notified about it. Dismissing the notification leaves the file in the list.

Previewing a file with Quick preview doesn't count, and neither does opening a folder. So a picture or a PDF you only previewed shows up only when a notification is about it. A folder shows up the same way, for example when someone uploads files into a folder you watch.

The list refreshes at most once a minute, so a file you opened a moment ago can take a minute to appear. It shows up to 100 files.

Sort the list

The page opens with the most recent files first, every time. Click a column heading, such as Name or Last activity, to sort by it, and click it again to reverse the order. This order is only for this visit, and it doesn't change how your other Drive lists are sorted.