alexcr

Looks like I posted this too fast.

Here’s what happened:

- couldn’t find files

- followed Alfred diagnostics, including reindexing the volume, etc.

- STILL couldn’t find files after reindexing finished

- rebooted my macbook

- reindexing went for a second (??) pass for some reason

- finding files now works

Case closed. I’ll be filing this under the "odd macOS behaviors" folder.

Alfred has been working absolutely fine for months, even after upgrading to Ventura. Then all of a sudden it can’t find some files.

What is troubling is that running Diagnostics gives different results each time I run it!

First time:

Starting Diagnostics...

File: 'Notes de réunion Paul.md'
Path: '/Users/alexandre/Documents/academic/3-research'

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

Check file cache database...

✅ File cache integrity is ok

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

Check if file is readable...

✅ Alfred has permissions to read this file.

Unix Permissions: 420
Underlying Type: NSFileTypeRegular
Extended Attributes: (
    "com.apple.lastuseddate#PS",
    "com.apple.macl"
)

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

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

Second time:

Starting Diagnostics...
File: 'Notes de réunion Paul.md'
Path: '/Users/alexandre/Documents/academic/3-research'
-----------------------------------------------------------
Check file cache database...
✅ File cache integrity is ok
-----------------------------------------------------------
Check if file is readable...
✅ Alfred has permissions to read this file.
Unix Permissions: 420
Underlying Type: NSFileTypeRegular
Extended Attributes: (
    "com.apple.lastuseddate#PS",
    "com.apple.macl"
)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Check if volume '/' is indexed by macOS...
⚠️ Indexing may not be enabled on this drive
/:
    Index is read-only.
-----------------------------------------------------------
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

I have tried to reindex the macOS volume (Advanced-->Rebuild macOS Metadata) and multiple times to `reload` the Alfred cache.

Spotlight cannot find this file either.

Any idea what could be wrong here?

Index rebuilt, Alfred’s cache reloaded: everything now appears to work fine.

This is however a bit odd because I had rebuilt Spotlight’s index not too long ago actually.

Anyway, thanks for your help @deanishe!

Quote

This can sometimes be obvious because Spotlight won't show any results either, but in some cases, Spotlight may still be showing old cached data. Rebuilding the index will allow macOS to reindex all files, refreshing the results it provides you.

You should rebuild your Mac's index even if Spotlight appears to be showing the right results.

Right I’ll rebuild and update this thread.

Hey thanks a lot for the reply.

Ran the troubleshooter on a file Alfred couldn’t find.

Strange thing is that it says metadata is missing but Spotlight can find it. It can that be possible?

Starting Diagnostics...

File: 'Academique.bib'
Path: '/Users/alexandre/'

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

Check file cache database...

✅ File cache integrity is ok

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

Check if file is readable...

✅ Alfred has permissions to read this file.

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

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

I have two exported Zotero libraries in a subfolder of my home folder: A.bib and B.bib. Spotlight can find both of those files. For some reason, searching either through [space], open or find with Alfred only finds A.

This happens with all other files at random: two files with the same extension, in the same folder, and Alfred can find one but not the other.

Can someone help me figure out what is wrong here?

Sorry pulled all my files out of this "driveFS" ; lost too much time already with this.

Thanks though.

22 minutes ago, vitor said:

 

That’s only temporary.

A temporary fix is better than no fix.

The point of my post was to show the discrepancy between what files Spotlight can find, and what files Alfred can find.

Been affected by this too ; just rebuilt the Spotlight index with

mdutil -E -a

and although mdutil says "Error: unknown indexing state" on some folders (both in and out of my drive folder, weird) I can now find with Spotlight files both "streamed" from the new GDrive app and specific folders synced to Google Drive without problem.

However, Alfred, even after reloading its cache, can’t find neither with the file search feature.

I migrated the Google Backup & Sync app to their new Google Drive for Desktop app. Now part of my google drive looks cached somewhere buried in ~/Library (I chose to "stream" part of my Google Drive as I have 1.5TB of data in there, can’t sync that to my MBP) and the app thus created what looks like a NFS mount point in /Volumes/Google Drive. Problem is, adding that path to the search scope in Alfred hasn’t helped: all my drive files now aren’t found anymore through Alfred’s search feature.

Anything special about mount points which would prevent searching in that location? I’ve reloaded Alfred’s cache; nothing.

Thanks!

Yeah that’s what I supposed! Maybe migrating my library had overloaded the OS or something. Anyway, now it’s working again! 🙂

Hey actually I just tested it again and no error 🤔

Maybe restarting my machine/alfred/etc has cleared some cache/memory or something!

Yes specific to the workflow, I missed the workflow help section.

Thanks.

I’m in the process of migrating my Zotero library and am using the ZotHero plugin. However, reloading the data ("zotconf" followed by "Reload Zotero Data") lead repeatedly to the following message by Alfred (after a long wait) :

Reason: Failed to set posix_spawn_file_actions for fd -1 at index 2 with errno 9

It's likely that the folder required to run this task has somehow been deleted, perhaps syncing?

This error isn't that serious, just try again :)

Related Workflow Info...
Name: 'ZotHero'
Folder:/Users/[USERNAME]/Library/Application Support/Alfred/Alfred.alfredpreferences/workflows/user.workflow.4ADAB1AB-6919-4451-BD86-F74F418792DB

The workflow was working fine before the migration (which added many items in my library). Is there anything I could do? Is this a bug in Alfred? It seems to be "lower-level" than the Python script in which the workflow is written (i.e. too many file descriptors opened?)

Alfred version: 4.5 (1253)

OS: Big Sur 11.4