# Stale "recent notebook" still shown in Pluto

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203>\
**Category:** Pluto\
**Created:** [September 9, 2024, 4:19am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203 "2024-09-09T04:19:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 14\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![liu20001028](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/liu20001028/32/211762_2.png) [@liu20001028](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/liu20001028)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 4:19am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/1 "2024-09-09T04:19:34Z")

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why does the my work didnt auto delet (the notebook in My work is already deleted by myself)  
The source file has been deleted by me, but it is still displayed.

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**Author:** ![nandoconde](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nandoconde/32/19497_2.png) [@nandoconde](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nandoconde)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 5:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/2 "2024-09-09T05:55:44Z")

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Hello!

I think it may be difficult to answer the question without more details. Could you provide a step-by-step description of the actions you took to delete the notebook, and check if doing it with another notebook results in the same?

Some code snippets and snapshots could be useful 🙂

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**Author:** ![liu20001028](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/liu20001028/32/211762_2.png) [@liu20001028](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/liu20001028)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 6:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/3 "2024-09-09T06:03:39Z")

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Pluto will display a record of recently opened files, but even if I delete the source file, it still shows up.

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**Author:** ![kellertuer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kellertuer/32/220707_2.png) [@kellertuer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kellertuer)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 6:06am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/4 "2024-09-09T06:06:55Z")

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Yes, that seems to be a known issue, see for example [Remove stale 'recent' notebooks · Issue #877 · fonsp/Pluto.jl · GitHub](https://github.com/fonsp/Pluto.jl/issues/877)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![liu20001028](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/liu20001028/32/211762_2.png) [@liu20001028](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/liu20001028)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 7:40am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/5 "2024-09-09T07:40:59Z")

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Must l alway do this ? so terrible! why dosent pluto add ‘delete’ ?

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**Author:** ![kellertuer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kellertuer/32/220707_2.png) [@kellertuer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kellertuer)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 7:49am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/6 "2024-09-09T07:49:51Z")

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As there is an open issue about this, you are not the first to ask for this.  
I am not sure why Pluto does not offer this (yet); maybe no one had time until now to program that? Maybe they have not yet agreed on how to best include this feature?

Maybe it is a mix of both and they would need someone to help out, program that to propose an idea (and a Pull Request).

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**Author:** ![ddrake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@ddrake](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ddrake)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 12:05pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/7 "2025-06-12T12:05:35Z")

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For what it’s worth, if you’re willing to use the browser’s Javascript console, you can fix up that list as you like. The list is in the browser’s localStorage object. Open the console from the Pluto notebook page, and do:

```julia
localStorage.getItem("recent notebooks")

```

That gives you a string of JSON-formatted data with the list of recent notebooks. Copy that, edit as you like, and then put it back into the local storage:

```julia
localStorage.setItem('recent notebooks', '["/path/one.jl","/path/two/another.jl"]');

```

Refresh the page and the list will be updated.

It would be nice if Pluto had a little editor for that list – give me a table, and let me delete entries.

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**Author:** ![ddrake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@ddrake](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ddrake)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 12:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/8 "2025-06-17T12:25:45Z")

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Just a note: in newer versions of Pluto, they don’t use the browser’s local storage for this, so the above bits about the Javascript console are moot; see [Remove stale 'recent' notebooks · Issue #877 · fonsp/Pluto.jl · GitHub](https://github.com/fonsp/Pluto.jl/issues/877#issuecomment-2978232706) .

There’s now a “forget” button in the list of recent notebooks, or, if you still want to manually fiddle with that, you can look in `julia/pluto_notebooks`.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kellertuer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kellertuer/32/220707_2.png) [@kellertuer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kellertuer)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 12:34pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/9 "2025-06-17T12:34:55Z")

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That button solves it for me, great addition!  
While I can hack a bit with JS, I usually prefer to to.

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**Author:** ![aplavin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/aplavin/32/222056_2.png) [@aplavin](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/aplavin)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 2:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/10 "2025-06-17T14:55:24Z")

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> [@ddrake](#):
>
> in newer versions of Pluto, they don’t use the browser’s local storage for this

I’m pretty sure it still uses localstorage.

> [@ddrake](#):
>
> There’s now a “forget” button in the list of recent notebooks, or, if you still want to manually fiddle with that, you can look in `julia/pluto_notebooks`.

This folder stores the notebooks themselves, unless you specify the path explicitly. But it doesn’t have anything to do with the “recent notebooks” list.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![disberd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@disberd](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/disberd)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/11 "2025-06-17T17:00:12Z")

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> [@aplavin](#):
>
> I’m pretty sure it still uses localstorage.

That seems indeed:

> <https://github.com/JuliaPluto/Pluto.jl/blob/main/frontend%2Fcomponents%2Fwelcome%2FRecent.js#L264-L275>

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddrake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@ddrake](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ddrake)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 3:16pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/12 "2025-07-01T15:16:28Z")

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Hrm. I have Pluto 0.20.6 right now, and you’re right, it’s using localStorage.

I do hope the “forget” button does get released, though, as that’s a nicer and simpler solution.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddrake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@ddrake](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ddrake)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/13 "2025-07-01T15:17:27Z")

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> [@aplavin](#):
>
> This folder stores the notebooks themselves, unless you specify the path explicitly. But it doesn’t have anything to do with the “recent notebooks” list.

You’re right, that seems to be the behavior in my version of Pluto. (Which as mentioned above, does still use the browser’s local storage.)

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**Author:** ![ederag](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ederag/32/4106_2.png) [@ederag](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ederag)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 3:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/stale-recent-notebook-still-shown-in-pluto/119203/14 "2025-07-01T15:55:09Z")

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The latest is `Pluto v0.20.13`, that has the fix  
(see the “forget” button to the right when hovered):  
 ![Screenshot_20190428](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/1/6/16f0c51852a8eef59cfbefea028a0614a737f08b.png)