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And so incredibly simple. A contender for the shortest code: /bin/cat "${@}".

I posted this once before back in March but that bug is closed so I am opening a new one. I have observed the same exact behavior on my personal Mac mini. That means it has nothing to do with Falcon Crowstrike. Also, I use two separate preferences files. I am no longer able to edit workflows as every time I move an object in a workflow the CPU goes over 100% for over 5 seconds. I either need to come up with a solution or roll back to Alfred 5.0 as this makes changes to workflows impossible. My Mac mini is a very generic Mac. I can duplicate the behavior on both Macs on demand by just moving a workflow obejct Both Macs run 14.4.1 and 5.5 [2257]

I love the File Contents automation task. It is so incredibly useful.

Excellent! Long time ago I had set up 'sn' as Snippet Keyword, but never used it. Alfred has so much more… >Using Cmd + S will open the snippet, ready to edit, in the Snippets preferences. For me this is CMD + ENTER. thank you. / with best regards, Omar KN, Stockholm, Sweden

Hello, I noticed the TickTick process to get authenticated has slightly changed so I have updated the instructions on the Github. Please reach out here or on Github if you have any issues.

@Vero Thanks.

It’s important to reiterate that Alfred’s Preferences are essentially a folder bundle of files. Alfred needs those files to be available at all times, and if a sync service is doing something funky to them or purging them, there’s only so much that can be done. iCloud Drive in particular has historically been unreliable (and Sonoma 14.4 in particular brought new bugs) which is why Alfred warns about it when setting it as the sync location. When disabling Optimise Mac Storage, make sure you wait before trying again, because it can take a while to download what you have online. You should also reboot your Mac, because the iCloud daemon can be unreliable. Also note you can backup your preferences with a workflow which allows you to keep you settings local while also periodically saving them to cloud storage.

I’ll ask that we please not bring more separate discussions into this thread, which is supposed to be about one Simple Idea that Stephen is kindly sharing with the community. Words of appreciation and requests for clarifications are certainly welcome, but (especially) since this post is part of a larger collection I’d rather we don’t derail it further. I’ve posted a reply on the other post.

There is not, by design¹. Think about that interface: you’d be typing something in Alfred and then the whole interface would change from under you to something different, and then you wouldn’t be able to continue typing to something else or go back² or else you would be able to do that but not filter in the view and have the interface going back and forth. The new views are separate paradigms, and to allow their full potential there can’t be ambiguity. That said, while showing all files would have major performance implications, listing a specific file type is more doable. All you need is a Run Script Action before the Grid View set to /usr/bin/swift as the Language with this code (quick adaptation from another workflow): import Foundation // Change this to what you want to search let query = "kMDItemContentType == com.adobe.pdf" // LEAVE UNTOUCHED FROM HERE // Prepare query let searchQuery = MDQueryCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault, query as CFString, nil, nil) MDQuerySetSearchScope(searchQuery, [("~" as NSString).expandingTildeInPath] as CFArray, 0) // Run query MDQueryExecute(searchQuery, CFOptionFlags(kMDQuerySynchronous.rawValue)) let resultCount = MDQueryGetResultCount(searchQuery) // No results guard resultCount > 0 else { print( """ {\"items\":[{\"title\":\"No Results\", \"subtitle\":\"No paths found matching query\", \"valid\":false}]} """ ) exit(EXIT_SUCCESS) } // Prepare items struct ScriptFilterItem: Codable { let uid: String let title: String let subtitle: String let type: String let icon: FileIcon let arg: String struct FileIcon: Codable { let path: String } } let sfItems: [ScriptFilterItem] = (0..<resultCount).compactMap { resultIndex in let rawPointer = MDQueryGetResultAtIndex(searchQuery, resultIndex) let resultItem = Unmanaged<MDItem>.fromOpaque(rawPointer!).takeUnretainedValue() guard let resultPath = MDItemCopyAttribute(resultItem, kMDItemPath) as? String else { return nil } return ScriptFilterItem( uid: resultPath, title: URL(fileURLWithPath: resultPath).lastPathComponent, subtitle: (resultPath as NSString).abbreviatingWithTildeInPath, type: "file", icon: ScriptFilterItem.FileIcon(path: resultPath), arg: resultPath ) } // Output JSON let jsonData = try JSONEncoder().encode(["items": sfItems]) print(String(data: jsonData, encoding: .utf8)!) All you need to do is change the text between quotes at the query line near the top. Currently it’s set for PDFs; PNGs would be public.png. Other file types are left as an exercise to the reader, but here’s a list. ¹ Technically you can, by using something like a Hotkey, but I don’t think that’s what you mean. You could also fudge it with an External Trigger, which I do not recommend at all. ² Because how would Alfred know if you were refining the input in the new view or changing to another one.

Fabulous! That is so clever!

With the caveat that this isn’t a secure way to encrypt sensitive data (I know you understand that, I just want to hammer the point for people arriving to this issue later), a dead-simple way to do it would be to encode as Base64. Use a Universal Action connected to a Run Script Action connected to a Copy to Clipboard Output set to paste to the frontmost app. Then duplicate all that. You’ll use one set for encoding and the other for decoding. The only change is what the Run Script will contain. In the one to encode, set the code to /usr/bin/base64 <<< "${1}". In the one to decode, set it to /usr/bin/base64 --decode <<< "${1}". Done. You can see the Getting Started Guide for an interactive tutorial on making a workflow.

Thanks a ton, I just changed the settings in Alfred as you suggested, and it works perfectly. Exactly what I needed! Really appreciate the help.

Welcome @zachbear, What you’re looking for is under Alfred Preferences → Advanced → History. Turn on both options.

wondering if that has ever been implemented? my PHPs are installed through asdf, not homebrew. so currently i have a manual symlink through within the homebrew bin. works, but kinda suck.

I use Logseq as my note-taking application, migrating from Evernote. Unfortunately, Logseq does not have password-protected encrypted text like Evernote had. A different approoach that would serve my need would be to be able to obfuscate any portion of a Logseq note (which are all plain text). It could be into something similar to morse code (like here) or any algorithm that makes it very hard to find the meaning of the text without expending efforts (the barrier is much lower compared to encryption, but this would be enough for my needs). Is there any workflow that addresses this need? If there isn't, how should I approach the design of such workflow? I'm thinking of something very simple, with two options * obfuscate selected text * reverse obfuscation on the selected text. down the lines there could be a choice of obfuscation method, but as a starting point, even one option is enough. Thanks in advance.

Any news on this? This would certainly be a welcome feature.

Also interested in such behaviour. At the moment I am using "shift" to preview results from file filter without leaving Alfred, but grid view will make my life easier.

Hello Alfred Team, I am a frequent user of Alfred and appreciate its efficiency and robust capabilities. However, I've encountered an issue related to user input retention that affects my workflow, and I would like to discuss a possible improvement. I often use the search utility as a calculator during my daily tasks. My typical process involves copying a number, using the search utility to start a calculation, then switching to another application to copy another number. This is where I encounter a significant difference between macOS Spotlight and Alfred. With macOS Spotlight, if I click away or deselect the Spotlight search bar without pressing 'esc', the input remains intact. This allows me to return to Spotlight and continue where I left off, which is incredibly useful for continuing calculations with new data. However, with Alfred, if I deselect the search window in a similar manner (i.e., by clicking elsewhere without pressing 'esc'), the previously entered text is cleared when I reactivate Alfred. This behavior disrupts the flow of adding additional numbers or continuing calculations, as I have to re-enter the data. Could the Alfred team consider adding an option to retain the last input in the search bar until manually cleared or until the 'esc' key is pressed? This feature would greatly enhance the utility of Alfred for tasks involving multiple steps or data sources, similar to how Spotlight operates. Thank you for considering this feedback. I believe this enhancement would benefit many users who rely on Alfred for complex workflows.

Posted a similar question here:

Please work carefully through all of the suggestions on this Alfred help page: Troubleshooting File Indexing Issues. If you still have problems after doing that please follow the suggestion under "Still having issues?” and post the results here. (If your Alfred oreferences are stored in Dropbox do ensure they are made available off-line: Syncing Your Alfred Settings Between Macs.) Stephen

Not sure how useful a "me too" is, but I have Alfred preferences in iCloud (with optimise off) and can not update nor remove workflows. Moving the prefs file outside the iCloud directory fixes the issue Putting the prefs file back into iCloud and the problem recurs

of course.

I'm having the same issue. Since recently cannot update or delete workflows (maybe just one workflow, I'm not sure. It's definitely affecting the OpenAI workflow). I'm using an iCloud directory on Sonoma 14.4.1. When I open Alfred preferences file in finder (via Show package contents) and try to delete workflow manually, I get the same -43 error code mentioned here: https://www.alfredforum.com/topic/21535-update-workflows/?do=findComment&comment=111878. I deleted each file separately in Finder, and was able to delete every single file. The error only occurred on "images/about" directory inside the workflow (even though this directory was empty, since I manually deleted each file from it). https://github.com/alfredapp/openai-workflow/tree/main/Workflow To workaround this issue I used rm -r to delete the directories in the terminal. Then I was able to reinstall the new version of the workflow. This worked, however, the same issue comes back when I try to update the workflow. Alfred 5.5 [2257]

I can't get Alfred to search my Dropbox folder. I have syncing enabled for prefs. What am I missing?

Please provide the information requested in this post higher up the thread and also confirm your version numbers of Alfred and macOS. Stephen