To disable the list for GTK 3 based applications follow these steps:
rm ~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel
If THERE ISN'T a "~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini", then
mkdir -p ~/.config/gtk-3.0
echo -e "[Settings]\ngtk-recent-files-max-age=0\ngtk-recent-files-limit=0" > ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
If THERE IS a "~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini", then
echo -e "\ngtk-recent-files-max-age=0\ngtk-recent-files-limit=0" >> ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
(note the ">>" vs the ">" difference ; ">>" appends to a file while a single ">" completely overwrites it, without backup, if it already exists)
And in either case:
rm ~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel
To disable the list for GTK 2 based applications follow this step:
echo gtk-recent-files-max-age=0 >> ~/.gtkrc-2.0
These steps are better than changing permissions on the file as they prevent error messages from being shown when launching GTK based applications that rely on the file.
Detailed information can be found here - https://alexcabal.com/disabling-gnomes-recently-used-file-list-the-better-way/