Trickster: Recently Used Files
Find what you just worked on
Only for Mac
$39.99
Trickster - Quickly act on relevant recent files, folders, and apps
If you work with files at all, Trickster is the ultimate productivity booster for you.
What are others saying about Trickster?
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- "Incredibly useful, nicely designed. The simple 'Help' is perfect" - Smile Software
- "A handy tool for tracking and working with documents, folders, and other data." - Macworld (4 mice)
- "Trickster is easy to figure out, fast, and looks nice." - $2-tuesday
- "Where Trickster does the trick for me is with its keyboard navigation." - Macstories
- "I’m always on the lookout for productivity boosters, and Trickster has me in love." - TheNextWeb
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Quickly access to your recently used documents, folders, and applications.
All your important stuff is now just a couple of clicks away, accessible from your menu bar.
Did you just open a document in Pages? It’s in Trickster.
Did you just download a file? Don’t bother searching your downloads folder. Trickster has it one click away.
Did Dropbox sync files from another computer? It's in Trickster.
Everything you were supposed to be working on is a click away, ready when you are.
Some of the things Trickster can do:
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- Drag and drop files from Trickster to Finder or any other application like you'd do from Finder.
- Open files and applications from Trickster, preview them or reveal in Finder.
- Includes Preset filters to only display images, audio files, videos, documents, applications, folders and specific locations.
- Create your custom filters based on location, file types, Finder tags or string matching.
- Track only relevant files and ignore all the rest.
- Favorites "sticky" bar gives you fast access to your most frequently used files, folders, and applications. Drop files on a 'favorite' folder to move it there or drop on a 'favorite' application to open it with that particular app.
Trickster is keyboard-friendly. For ultimate productivity and speed, you can use it entirely without a mouse or combine mouse with keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys.
more I use this app all the time to quickly access recently used files. The ability to be able to keep important files in the list as well as assigning a title (which is searchable) is perfect for quickly accessing both starred as well as recent files. Highly recommended :)
I use this app all the time to quickly access recently used files. The ability to be able to keep important files in the list as well as assigning a title (which is searchable) is perfect for quickly accessing both starred as well as recent files. Highly recommended :)
Just a brilliant, useful app. I would struggle to work without it now, as I'm so used to hitting a shortcut, and finding files that I've just saved. HIGHLY recommended.
Just a brilliant, useful app. I would struggle to work without it now, as I'm so used to hitting a shortcut, and finding files that I've just saved. HIGHLY recommended.
I rarely write reviews, but Trickster is a lifesaver. I'm not even using filters yet … but just seeing the last few items i've saved / edited / opened from anywhere is hugely helpful. I can even click/drag from trickster, over to drag and drop upload web form, which is even more fantastic. In the past 4 months, Trickster has definitely saved me a few hours of looking/searching in finder. Just a great little app!
I rarely write reviews, but Trickster is a lifesaver. I'm not even using filters yet … but just seeing the last few items i've saved / edited / opened from anywhere is hugely helpful. I can even click/drag from trickster, over to drag and drop upload web form, which is even more fantastic. In the past 4 months, Trickster has definitely saved me a few hours of looking/searching in finder. Just a great little app!
Very helpful on a daily bases. Does as it says, the only thing is sometimes it does not record all used applications, however it is not that significant comparing to the usability.
Developer Response Hello,Trickster should be much more stable with version 2.6 now.Apparent Software
Very helpful on a daily bases. Does as it says, the only thing is sometimes it does not record all used applications, however it is not that significant comparing to the usability.
Hello,Trickster should be much more stable with version 2.6 now.Apparent Software
Fix DEVONthink items not appearing in Trickster, in most cases
3.9.11 2025-08-15
This release improves file monitoring accuracy and fixes keyboard navigation issues with Quick Look.
IMPROVE: Enhanced file change detection to reduce unnecessary items appearing at the top when files haven't actually changed
FIX: Fixed Quick Look ESC key behavior where pressing ESC would close the entire Trickster window instead of just the Quick Look panel after navigating with arrow keys
FIX: Fixed issue where dragging files to reorder favorites or dragging files out of Trickster would not properly update the file list
3.9.10 2025-07-18
* Fix files jumping to top of list after using Quick Look on files in the list
* Add a new URL schema to empty Trickster file list (like from the menu).
Use URL "trickster-empty-list:" to clear the list.
3.9.9 2025-06-19
More robust validation of App Store purchase
3.9.8 2025-03-13
- Better tracking of opened files in latest macOS
- Play a sound when a file from the list is moved to Trash using keyboard or from the contextual menu
3.9.7 2025-01-07
Resolved an issue where Trickster would not appear on screen in certain cases when the menu bar icon was hidden by the system.
3.9.6 2024-12-27
Fixed an issue where Trickster could become unresponsive if a folder added to the watched folders list was a subfolder of an already watched folder. Trickster will now display an informative alert in such cases, as intended.
3.9.5 2024-12-09
This release mostly fixes and improves behaviour related to changes in macOS Sonoma (macOS 16)
* Filter Trickster itself out of the list (see why below)
* Add preference to not show apps in All Files (see why below)
* Add anonymous analytics and a preference to opt out
We’ve integrated a system called Plausible analytics that lets us understand how folks use the app. This tracks things like settings and some UI choices, but they’re tracked in aggregate and anonymously — no user data or user-identifiable gets sent anywhere. If you don’t want to send this information, just untick the Analytics checkbox in the settings.
Why these changes?
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macOS Sonoma (macOS 15) started to set applications' last used date to when they were activated last instead of last opened, like it used to be forever.
Thus, in prior version, when you were just switching between applications in Sonoma, they would jump the top of the All Files list, which is not that useful. Even Trickster itself was showing on the top of the list since you'd just activated it.
So with this version we always filter Trickster out but also give you the option to not show apps in the All Files list at all.
You can still see apps in the "Apps" filter, even if you choose to not display them in All Files. This is identical to the same kind of setting for folders.
3.9.4 2024-10-22
* Trickster will now refresh previews for modified files that are already in the list
* Fix Configure Tracking Settings button in Preferences not always working
* Add checks when adding watched folders:
- Prohibit adding home and root folders
- Skip folders that are already in the list
- For newly added folders that are children of watched folders, confirm that they should be added
- For newly added folders that are parents of watched folders, suggest removing the children watched folders
* Fix text for right-click menu commands when more than one file is selected
3.9.3 2024-05-03
Improved support for Dropbox, iCloud Desktop and Documents folders, and DEVONThink (particularly with regard to copying file icons):
* Handle displaying new Dropbox client's paths and iCloud-based Desktop/Documents
* Add support for Setapp version of Hookmark
* For items originating from DEVONthink:
* Copying URLs will copy a callback URL that opens the item in DEVONthink
Helps with copying DEVONthink items, for example
* Option-Double-Click or Option-Return will open the file using a default app for the type instead of inside DEVONthink.
3.9.2 2023-12-18
- Added a setting to select what should be displayed in the Favorites sidebar: Icon, Title or Both (like previously).
- Improved integration with Hookmark and DEVONthink:
- Change name from Hook to its rebrand name Hookmark.
- Display Hookmark button for tracked DEVONthink documents that have hooks.
- Invoking Hookmark on a DEVONthink item in Trickster will provide expected URL to DEVONthink.
3.9.1 2023-03-06
* Fix launch on log-in to be hidden from 10.15 and up
* Better reliability of access to watched folders
* Fixes system apps not being tracked on Big Sur or later. Automatically add the folder to watch system apps, if /Applications is chosen.
* Allow dragging a file or a folder to favorites directly from Finder. This still has the limitation that the added files or folders should be already in a Watchable location. They will be automatically added to the list of items, favorited and inserted where dropped.
3.9 2022-10-22
New in version 3.8.1
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* Fix AppleScript integration (required for LaunchBar integration, for example)
* Add menu items in Integrations menu for Hook, Launchbar and Alfred articles in user manual, in addition to the DEVONthink one.
New in version 3.8
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NEW: Integration with DEVONthink (optional). This integration enables Trickster to track the documents you open in DEVONthink and then open these documents back in DEVONthink when you ask to open them in Trickster. Instruction are available through Trickster's main menu (bottom-right button in Trickster's window, choose Integrations)
3.8.1 2021-07-06
NEW: Integration with DEVONthink (optional). This integration enables Trickster to track the documents you open in DEVONthink and then open these documents back in DEVONthink when you ask to open them in Trickster. Instruction are available through Trickster's main menu (bottom-right button in Trickster's window) or browse to https://discourse.apparentsoft.com/docs?topic=47.
3.8 2021-06-21
* NEW: Added Renaming capability (Command-K or from the context menu)
* Moved the User Manual to the web forum (Find it in the "cog" menu or at https://www.apparentsoft.com/trickster/manual)
3.7 2021-06-05
- NEW: Add a preference to automatically scroll Trickster to top of the list and select top item after a period of inactivity or on every recall. Default is still to not do it, so that it defaults as in previous versions, unless changed in Preferences.
- Allow vertical dragging motion to start dragging a file instead of selecting more files. This is probably the more common use for that motion. Multiple files can still be selected with Shift or Command clicking
- Allow Trickster window to become smaller than it was
- If the anchor option is set (not to close Trickster’s window), it’ll now reappear after dragging a file out of the window. Trickster disappears when dragging out so as not to cover a potential dragging destination. But it was not coming back previously, even of anchor option in the window titlebar was selected
- “Open at cursor” option works correctly now when multiple screens are connected to the Mac
- Fix showing Trickster window on the correct screen when Trickster icon in the menubar is clicked and Trickster is in the “attached to menubar” state
- Add Hook icon to the collection of filter icons for custom filters
- Fix filtering of tags that include Capital letter
- Fix support for Hook version 2.2 and alter
- Fix filter icon position on macOS version prior to Big Sur
- Some fixes and improvements to tracking for new customers
3.6 2021-01-11
- Added Support for macOS 11 Big Sur and Apple Silicon Macs
- Added a preference to limit the number of files that Trickster will keep in the list. The default is 5000 but it can be edited to be between 10 and 10000. Note that the actual number of files at any specific time can be higher for many reasons since the cleanup occurs only about once an hour or on launch.
- When tracking is paused (there's a command in Trickster's main menu), Trickster will now display [Paused] in its title and its icon in the menubar will become translucent.
- Invoking the "Empty List" command in the main menu will now show a confirmation alert
- Updated the copy of various menu items to make them clearer and more consistent
- When the "Current app" filter (bottom bar, second control from left) is disabled, Trickster will now display the current app’s icon as translucent, for a clearer indication of the enabled and disabled state for this option
3.5 2020-11-11
* NEW: Integration with the application Hook
If you have Hook installed and running, Trickster will show an additional button on the right edge of the row for files that already have Hook links. This helps with knowing when to invoke and not invoke Hook - there’s no need to remember or guess if a file or a folder on your Mac has hooks. If there are, the button will appear to indicate that. Clicking on that button will invoke Hook on the corresponding file, saving you a trip to the keyboard to hit Hook’s hotkey.
* NEW: Added a Preference, which selects showing Trickster’s window at current mouse location, if the window is not attached to the menubar icon and Trickster is invoked using the keyboard. It can be very handy for even faster access to files in Trickster. Trickster will position the window such that the mouse is over the topmost visible item, allowing for immediate dragging of it out of Trickster (for example, to drop into an email)
* IMPROVED: Made it so that context popup menu, called from the keyboard, shows Services menu. As a consequence, the menu opens not at the gear button but at the current mouse location
* FIXED: Hiding Trickster’s window when dragging files out to the left of it
3.4 2020-04-10
- Fix undesirable scrolling of the file list
- Memory usage and performance improvements
- Flag button now follows accent color and has a contrasting appearance on selected rows
- Fix opening Trickster after a first launch on boot
3.3 2019-12-05
* NEW: Current App smart filtering - show files relevant to the current app. Details are in the user manual.
* Improve appearance of flag and cloud icons
* macOS Catalina support
* Remove Evernote support
3.2 2019-10-15
- Allow choosing a dark or light theme, independently of the system-wide setting
- Add an option to increase font size for file and folders names in the listing
- Improve appearance in Dark Mode
3.1 2019-04-03
- Built for macOS Mojave, optimized with Dark Mode support and native look and feel
- Allow removing Trickster's custom hotkey altogether
- Better first launch experience
- Bug fixes
3.0 2019-03-29
- Added a Preference to disable window detaching behaviour
- Keypad Enter key now functions as Return key instead of doing nothing
- Improved compatibility with Bartender application (now Trickster's menu bar icon can be hidden in Bartender)
2.8 2018-05-31
- Trickster's window can now be dragged by the top or bottom bar to detach it from the icon in the menu bar. It can then be reattached by bringing the window close to the icon. Very useful to reduce the amount of dragging you need to do on large monitors.
- Monitoring can now be paused to save CPU resource during file-intensive operations or when running operations that create a lot of files that you don't want to see in Trickster. Trickster can be paused from its main menu (bottom-right button) or using Mac's Defaults mechanism (see User Manual for details on that).
- Cosmetic fixes and improvements
2.7 2018-01-25
Some of these new features come as direct response to your requests. Keep them coming.
- NEW: Light Theme. Change in Preferences.
- NEW: Trickster will now ask if to overwrite a file, when a file is dragged onto a folder in Favorites, and another file with same name already exists there
- NEW: Trickster now has an option to show file icons instead of QuickLook previews in Expanded view (higher rows). Change in Preferences.
- NEW: Provide instructions in File Tracking and Filter Editing Panels
- NEW: If some folders can't be accessed because of sandboxing permissions, they will be marked with an exclamation mark in "Watched Folders" settings and Trickster will suggest a simple way to renew the permissions
- IMPROVED handling of Sandboxing, miss less events in some cases
If you benefit from Trickster, we'll appreciate if you spread the love to your friends through personal recommendations or on social media. It makes a lot of difference. Thank you.
2.6 2017-01-05
Fix DEVONthink items not appearing in Trickster, in most cases
more Version 3.9.11 2025-08-15
Data Not Collected The developer does not collect any data from this app.