"All files" / "Recent files" sidebar without plugins

Share & showcase Workflows & Templates
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Disclaimer

Is this project open source? N/A, not source code
Is this project completely free? Yes
Is this project made with AI beyond the author’s ability to comprehend how it works? No AI

For an “all files” / “recent files” sidebar without plugins, search Path:/and sort the results by Modified time (new to old). Bookmark the search for easy access. It lists all filrs because Search has no date operators, but lists them quickly; tho sometimes when scrolling it loads a little slowly.

This is nice when I want the “everything in 1 folder” experience without actually putting everything in 1 folder, or for when the sensible default of 10 recent files isn’t enough because I’ve touched a lot of files. It’s not a great solution if you use Search a lot, but I only use Search on odd occasions when Quick Switcher isn’t enough.

Further details

Searching just / works too but is slightly slower.

The slash should start a regular expression. I’m not sure if a list of filenames (only filenames, even when previews are enabled) is the intended result. It may be a quirk or an undocumented hardcoded thing. But for now it works and is useful.

Other ways

Another way to see recent files is to open the Quick Switcher: it shows the 10 most recent files when the text field is empty. The sidebar search shows more than 10. It also only shows file names; Quick Switcher adds the folder paths in front of names, which can be useful info but makes it hard to scan the names (relevant feature request: Quick Switcher: deemphasize path to match aliases and link suggestions, or hide it - Feature requests - Obsidian Forum).

There are also plugins:

2 Likes
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cool, i’ll end up using this on mobile. i have a method with bases: make recents.base, give it one filtering rule

file.mtime > now() - "7 days"

add other filters to taste, sort by time modified, set it to list view, drag it to the sidebar. downside is you can’t put stuff in sidebar on mobile. and frankly it requires a bit of css work to look alright in the desktop sidebar

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Oh, that’s a good method.

I forgot to mention that mine lists all files because there are no file date search operators. Updated to add.

You can add files to sidebar on mobile by directly modifying the workspace.json file in the vault’s settings folder (tho obviously that’s a hacky way to do things).

1 Like
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oh wow I had no idea about editing workspaces.json, nice!

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Looks like there’s also a plugin: Mobile Sidebar Notes - Obsidian Plugin.