How can I disable recent documents in Unity?

Solution 1:

Go to System Settings and choose Privacy.

Then, turn off the button next to Record Activity. Now, your recent documents will no longer be logged by Zeitgeist.

Solution 2:

I found this solution in the ubuntuforums at comment #3, but don't know if it works. Give it a try:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1860785

Solution 3:

for whatever documents you don't wish to see under the recent documents tab; do the following :

1. Make sure you keep all such files in a folder.
2. After accessing it every time, just rename the folder.

just by renaming the folder you will see the magic working :)

Solution 4:

rename ~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel file (for example recently-used.xbel--) and create an empty folder and name it recently-used.xbel in same folder. That is all.