Vero

12 minutes ago, Jimmy Bosse said:

I am pointing the sync to a folder my iCloud document folder. I think maybe iCloud had removed the local file for some reason and opening it forced a download and everything started working again.

@Jimmy Bosse If you're using iCloud, you'll need to ensure Optimised Storage is disabled. More details on how to do this here:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/advanced/sync/#always-offline

@Jimmy Bosse It sounds like your preferences may no longer be where Alfred expects them to be, which can happen for a few reasons:

• If you used an "app cleaner" on updating Alfred, the preferences may have been removed, so check your trash first
• If you've recently updated to Sonoma, check whether your sync folder location is still accurate, e.g. Dropbox and other services have moved their data in recent years, so re-set your sync folder if needed

If the issue persists, please provide your Diagnostics file, which you can get by typing "?diagnostics" into Alfred? You can then email this to our info@ email address so that I can help you further.

@arijon You can use Alfred's Rich Text Snippets feature and paste in, for example, the sentence you've posted here with the hard-coded link already included.

You can then click on "Strip" and strip the colours, fonts and sizes as relevant for the output you want. 

Keep in mind that the destination also matters, and links will only be included where rich text is possible.

@ethanX It doesn't look like your T7 Shield volume is in your search scope, so you'll first need to include it under Features > Default Results > Search Scope.

@touchmii Prefix your keywords with additional characters, as it's not sensible to choose keywords that are likely to be typed in normal situations.

Here are some tips for setting up better text expansion keywords:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/features/snippets/#tips-expansion

@ElisabethOrme I've had a look at this and have been able to replicate the issue. The freeze occurs in the macOS framework, rather than in Alfred, which is why Alfred doesn't quit and there's no crash log.

The simplest way to explain what's happening here is that Alfred instantaneously uses ~ to start the File Navigation process; When you type tilde to expand into the ~ symbol, macOS gets stuck trying to replace in the ~ symbol, and the text field it's trying to replace into is no longer available in memory (even though you still see it on your screen) as Alfred has already moved on to switching to the File Navigation.

There are a few ways to work around this:

• As @Stephen_C suggested, you could use Alfred's snippets feature instead, as Alfred's text expansion works fine in Terminal, saving you a step
• Change the symbol used to open Alfred's File Navigation under Features > File Search > Advanced > Home Folder, where you can choose an alternative from the dropdown

We'll look at putting a reproducible case to submit to Apple as a bug report, but I'm not holding high hopes that this will be treated as a priority, so it's best to use one of the options above as a solution  Let me know how you get on.

Cheers,
Vero

@touchmii Welcome to the forum

Could you give examples of the kind of keywords that are triggering accidentally for you? You may need to tweak your keywords to be a little less common, such as adding a symbol prefix (e.g. "!date" instead of just "date")    

@jdwwwyah In fact, on re-reading your message, I have a suspicion that you might have a conflict between Alfred and Spotlight using the same hotkey. Using the hotkey brings up both Spotlight and Alfred (though Spotlight may not be visible).

Take a look at this guide to making sure Alfred and Spotlight don't conflict:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/cmd-space/

If you still have any issues, please follow the instructions above and send in your Diagnostics, as well as screenshots of the System preferences where the Spotlight hotkey is set.

@jdwwwyah Could you please provide your Diagnostics file, which you can get by typing "?diagnostics" into Alfred? You can then email it to our info@ email address, so that I can take a look at your configuration

When you next see Alfred freezing, could you please open Activity Monitor, select Alfred and do a Sample Process? This will tell us what's happening while it's frozen on your Mac.

@Johnny Open Alfred's preferences to Features > Snippets > Auto Expansion Options > Tweaking and slow down the key events.

It's likely that the app you're using when this happens is a slower non-native app (or macOS may be very busy at the time) so slowing down the key events then speeding them back up until you find your sweet spot is the best way to deal with that

More details on slowing down key events here:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/snippets/#partial

@arijon You can use the {cursor} dynamic placeholders. With this one, the snippet will paste, then the cursor will move to the location of the {cursor} marker so that you can manually answer the name.

Otherwise, the tutorial you found is a great way to do it - we're happy to help you create a workflow if you let us know what content you'd like to include

@glgray There are a few ways to exclude Windows apps from your Mac's results:

1. Tell Parallels not to include virtual apps on your Mac. This knowledge base from Parallels might give you a starting point:
https://kb.parallels.com/en/112798 

2. Drag the folder of Parallels apps to Spotlight's Privacy tab to tell Spotlight not to include them in the index. You'll then need to type "reload" in Alfred to force Alfred's cache of apps to refresh.

Let us know how you get on  

@jsschaeffer Welcome to the forum! Could you please let us know which version of Alfred and macOS you're using?

Have you by any chance just upgraded macOS? If so, you may need to give it some time to complete a reindex.

Also, please use Alfred's File Troubleshooter and drag in Mail from Finder to find out if it's correctly indexed:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/indexing/

If you can provide some more details, we'll be happy to help you work out what's happening on your Mac.

2 hours ago, Cliff said:

then I opened Alfred search bar and hit up arrow to see what I typed previously and it wasn't there, none of the history

Are you referring to Clipboard History content? (As this is what this thread is about) Or the general query history that appears when you use the up arrow?

If it's the latter, that is normal behaviour; That query history is temporary/transient and is not saved upon restarting Alfred.

If it's a Clipboard History issue, then please do give more details so that I can help you further.

@matiheilen Here's a link to a blog post that shows you in a little more details how to do exactly what Stephen just suggested, which might help if workflows are new to you

https://www.alfredapp.com/blog/tips-and-tricks/give-files-nicknames-to-find-them-faster/

@Datafog Welcome to the forum!

Could you give us a bit more details?

• Did you download the workflow from the Alfred Gallery here? Or directly from GitHub?
• Could you open the Workflow Debugger and type the "wine" keyword into Alfred, then copy any errors or details from the debugger into your reply so that we can take a look?

Once we know why the workflow's not running normally, we'll be able to help you resolve that.

@albertkinng As a quick note, I replied six weeks ago letting you know that Alfred 3 is the best version for Yosemite. See below:

On 8/17/2023 at 10:25 AM, Vero said:

@albertkinng Can you clarify which version of Alfred you're using on that Mac? On OS X Yosemite, Alfred 3 would be the appropriate version of Alfred to use in order for features to work as expected. Keep in mind that Alfred 5 workflows aren't backwards compatible to older versions of Alfred.

For macOS Ventura, yes, the latest Alfred 5 is the best version to use

12 minutes ago, kinwolf said:

Hi, when I try this workflow https://alfred.app/workflows/alfredapp/system-settings/   they all work, except "software updates" or "updates" which returns nothing and is the problem I am reporting here.  It was working fine around a month ago or so.

"updates" and "software updates" keyword both work fine in Spotlight.

The keyword for this preference is "software update", not "updates" or "software updates" (plural). The keywords used by Spotlight are not relevant in this case, as the ones you need to use are defined in the workflow.

You can find the full list of keywords on the page here:

https://alfred.app/workflows/alfredapp/system-settings/

Having said that, you can duplicate the workflow and add your own keywords if you prefer. However, note that you then won't get the updates from the Gallery for it in the future.

@JiabaoGao I've created a workflow that will help you search for certain files within the ~/Library/ folder.

First, I'd recommend returning your search settings to a more normal configuration, and unchecking the Unintelligent Search box.

You can download the workflow here:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ws3f30s2q0fz3isnbi5va/File-Search-including-System-Files.alfredworkflow?rlkey=a389nnqqhiib40rmcmj3m7wyf&dl=0

Use the keyword "sys" followed by the name of a file you want to search for. Note that this may still not find all files, as macOS doesn't include all files from locations like the Library in the index it provides.

For these, your best bet is to search for the enclosing folder, then use the right arrow and browse the folder in Alfred. You'll then be able to filter within that folder specifically.

@yinan We were able to reproduce this issue, and have taken two paths to resolving it:

1. We've reported it to Apple with a reproducible case so that they can resolve the underlying issue.

2. We've made a few changes in Alfred 5.1.3 that will mitigate the issue in the meantime, so please update to Alfred 5.1.3 which is currently in pre-release.

You should see the issue less frequently, but we've also offered a workaround. Open Alfred's General preferences and you'll see a turquoise box, where you can opt to set Alfred's height to a fixed size:

We'll be keeping the Sonoma Rendering Bug KB page updated as more information becomes available.

@kinwolf Welcome to the forum!

Could you please let us know which version of Alfred and macOS you’re using so that we can give relevant tips?

8 hours ago, ccsameer said:

This helped me with a completely different app called Altab

If you're using other keyboard modifier apps, I would highly recommend taking a look at those too. Quitting them temporarily to see what behaviour you get would be a useful next step, as these may be interfering in ways you're not expecting.

@ccsameer Could you let us know what your default Alfred hotkey?

If it's conflicting with the Spotlight hotkey (e.g. Cmd + Space), it's possible that pressing Esc closes the (invisible) Spotlight window.

Here's how you can make sure there's no conflict:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/cmd-space/

Let us know how you get on

@igor.wojda You'll find this default hotkey in the preferences under Features > File Search > Navigation.

You can either change to another combo, or select the field and press backspace to clear it out.

@brookter Thanks for sending this across.

The first thing to try is to uncheck all Universal Actions keys under Features > Universal Actions > Show Actions. Once you've done this, search for Safari and press Enter. Does this now launch the app as expected?

If it doesn't, please fully quit Keyboard Maestro and Key Cue and try again. It may not be that there are conflicting shortcuts, but there may be some event manipulation causing interference. What behaviour do you see now?

If you're now able to launch apps normally, re-open Alfred's preferences to Features > Universal Actions and check the right arrow to be your Actions key. Search for something in Alfred and use the right arrow; This should now show you the list of all available actions for this file type, rather than Recent Documents specifically.

Let me know how you get on and what your findings are