thatbadboy

@andreoliwa your solution worked for me - thanks!

I actually couldn't follow all your steps, since SIP must be disabled in order to run the following:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

I was in the middle of work and I couldn't take time to reboot and disable SIP. I just tried my luck and ran:

sudo mdutil -a -i off
sudo mdutil -a -i on

All my applications now show up in the search results and I see no more errors when troubleshooting.

4 hours ago, andreoliwa said:

Hi all, just posting what worked for me, it might help anyone else.

TL;DR: run the commands in the box below, then "Rebuild macOS Metadata".

 

I'm also using Alfred (4.2.1 [1187]) and I installed Big Sur (11.0.1) recently.

I was not seeing applications nor folders in Alfred.

The "File Search Troubleshooting" showed similar responses as in the posts above: "Direct metadata is missing, this file is likely not indexed by macOS".

 

I tried these solutions from posts above with no luck:

• Alfred Preferences / Advanced / Clear Application Cache
• Alfred Preferences / Advanced / Rebuild macOS Metadata
• Remove and add back folders in System Preferences / Spotlight / Privacy

These commands worked for me:

sudo mdutil -a -i off
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
sudo mdutil -a -i on

I found the solution in this article: How to fix Spotlight search not working on macOS.

This was the output:

$ sudo mdutil -a -i off
/:
2020-11-24 21:16:03.161 mdutil[65865:26582587] mdutil disabling Spotlight: / -> kMDConfigSearchLevelFSSearchOnly
        Indexing disabled.
/System/Volumes/Data:
Error: invalid operation.
        Error: unknown indexing state.
✘-1 ~
$ sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
✔ ~
$ sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
✔ ~
$ sudo mdutil -a -i on
/:
        Indexing enabled.
/System/Volumes/Data:
        Indexing enabled.

Just to be sure, I ran: Alfred Preferences / Advanced / Rebuild macOS Metadata.
Now everything works.

 

I don't know if it's related, but I have Apple's System Integrity Protection turned off.

 

I didn't want to format and reinstall Big Sur to solve the problem.

I refuse to format and reinstall fresh unless it's the very last resort.

 

Thank you all!

@dd852 I had already tried your suggestion, but unfortunately it didn't solve the issue. Thanks for sharing, however!

9 hours ago, dd852 said:

Hi - this has now been solved after writing Alfred support. The troubleshooting that worked for me was: 

"

First, open macOS's System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access and grant Terminal Full Disk Access. This will ensure that a reindex is done properly.

 

Next, type "?rebuild" into Alfred. When the window pops up, check the box to Delete Spotlight-V100 before rebuilding. This will ensure macOS is able to do the most thorough reindex. 

 

Once you're in Terminal and you type your password, pay attention to any error messages in the Terminal window. If there are any issues starting the reindex, Terminal should tell you there.

 

If the reindex starts properly, wait an hour or so, then look at the metadata results again to see whether the metadata is complete.

 

Some users have opted for a full reinstall of Big Sur, as the issue you're seeing would affect any apps relying on the metadata, not just Alfred, but I appreciate that this is a more time consuming undertaking so can be saved as a last resort."

@Vero I am sure that the issue is caused by the wrong permissions on Big Sur, I just find it strange that Spotlight works as expected and that none of the usual fixes can solve the problem. In any case, thanks for the help 🙂

@Vero I totally agree that running a new OS that was installed as an upgrade can lead to permission issues and data corruption. With that said, I thought that I would report my findings since it appears to be a bug with Alfred and it was reported by at least one more user.

With regard to your questions:

1. The metadata isn't fixed, as reported by the file search troubleshooting, unless/until I launch the application from the Finder, first.

2. Tried that, but the issue persists.

3. Haven't tried that yet, but I can give it a try.

I will be definitely doing a clean installation of Big Sur at some point and hopefully the issue will be solved.

@Andrew I had already reindexed the macOS metadata:

Quote

many of the apps I have installed won't show up in the search results, even after clearing the application cache and rebuilding the macOS metadata

I actually tried both approaches (the one suggested in the Apple support page and the "Rebuild macOS Metadata" and it doesn't make any difference. I just tried to rebuild the metadata once again, waited for the indexing to be completed as indicated in Spotlight, but the issue persists.

This is what happens when I try to search for "XConvert", first in Spotlight and then in Alfred:

I seem to have the same issue reported  here. Unfortunately there are no updates to that issue since August and I don't know if it was ever resolved.

In a nutshell, I installed Big Sur yesterday and now I have an issue where many of the apps I have installed won't show up in the search results, even after clearing the application cache and rebuilding the macOS metadata. Things I observed:

• all the apps can be launched from Spotlight, so the issue seems to be only with Alfred 😒
• if I launch one of the "missing" apps with Spotlight and then search for it in Alfred, the app still won't show up in Alfred's search results 🤬
• if I launch one of the "missing" apps directly from Finder, I am then able to launch it in Alfred as it will start showing up in the search results 🤨

I ran the troubleshooting on one of the apps that weren't showing up and these were the results:

Quote

 

Starting Diagnostics...

File: 'Meeter.app'
Path: '/Applications'

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check file cache database...

✅ File cache integrity is ok

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check if file is readable...

✅ Alfred has permissions to read this file.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check file is in search scope...

✅ File exists within Alfred's default search scope

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check if volume '/' is indexed by macOS...

✅ Indexing is enabled on this drive

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check direct file metadata...

⚠️ Direct metadata is missing, this file is likely not indexed by macOS

Display Name:
 Other Names:
Content Type:
   Last Used:

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check mdls file metadata...

❌ macOS metadata missing essential items

kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = (null)
kMDItemFSCreationDate      = (null)
kMDItemFSCreatorCode       = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags       = (null)
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon     = (null)
kMDItemFSInvisible         = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = (null)
kMDItemFSIsStationery      = (null)
kMDItemFSLabel             = (null)
kMDItemFSName              = (null)
kMDItemFSNodeCount         = (null)
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID      = (null)
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID       = (null)
kMDItemFSSize              = (null)
kMDItemFSTypeCode          = ""

-----------------------------------------------------------

❌ Troubleshooting failed

 

This is also the first time that I installed a version of macOS on a separate partition rather than taking the whole drive - not sure if it might help troubleshooting the issue. Basically, I did the following:

1. create a new APFS partition on my SSD
2. launched the Big Sur installer, instructing it to install the OS on the new partition
3. once Big Sur was installed, I picked the option to import applications, files and settings from another installation of macOS, pointing to the partition where Catalina is installed