octothorpe

Technically it’s a folder. It’s a bundle so you can right-click → Show Package Contents.
 
Do you want to try a few terminal commands? In the following, replace /PATH/TO/ALFRED_PREFERENCES with the correct path on your machine. You can do it easily by dragging and dropping the Alfred.alfredpreferences into the terminal’s window. Mind the spaces!
 
 
Assuming iCloud Drive uses the folder’s modification date for that, you can:


touch /PATH/TO/ALFRED_PREFERENCES

Or you can do do it to every file and folder in the Preferences:


find /PATH/TO/ALFRED_PREFERENCES -print0 | xargs -0 touch

Those simply change the modification and access times, nothing else is modified.
 
There are other things we can try, but one thing at a time. If that works let me know and I can e.g. make you a small self-contained file which will run the command every day at a specified time. I’ll need to know the full path to your Alfred.alfredpreferences and the time you’d want it to run.

You should be using yyyy, not YYYY.
 
YYYY specifies the ISO "week of year", whereas yyyy specifies the calendar year.

@pontus Shortcuts integration is definitely on Alfred's roadmap  More to come in the near future!

macOS likes to get confused about that. Go into System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility, remove Alfred from the list (really remove, not just uncheck!), then re-add it.

Hi Rodrigo,
Your very handy workflow doesn't work anymore in Big Sur. Do you have a new one?
Kind regards,
Rutger

That's good to hear. It would be a huge win if iCloud Drive improved to the point that it works well enough to sync Alfred's preferences. Especially as Dropbox has been going downhill for some time now.

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I've been using iCloud Drive to sync Alfred preferences for maybe six months and it's working just fine for me. The "pinning" feature doesn't seem to exist in Catalina but I've found that once I right-clicked the Alfred Preferences folder and picking "Download Now" the folder has stayed reliably synced -- even though I don't have room on this Mac to turn off Optimize Storage. The one thing I do miss from Dropbox was the selective sync controls. It's become bloatware otherwise, though, and I'm glad to be rid of it.
 
I'll add here that I also keep my Sublime Text preferences synced through iCloud Drive (using some symlinking of folders) and that, too, works reliably and quickly.  
 
 
Yep. I got that feeling too. It's not just this thread either. Kind of offputting! 

Looks like macOS Catalina allows this functionality without having to resort to Dropbox. You can now 'Pin' files and folders in iCloud, which presumably keeps them local, regardless of your Mac optimisation.
 
Just have to mention that the "expert" answers in this thread are probably on the mark, but felt hostile and like gatekeeping. Throwing that critique out there, do with it what you will.

@octothorpe if you manually use the macOS lock combo of control+command+Q does this lock your Mac?
 
If so, try quitting Alfred, then removing him from the macOS Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility preferences, and re-adding him back again. If there is an underlying mismatch in the macOS privacy prefs, Alfred may have been blocked from simulating a lock.
 
If this combo doesn't work, then you can check what combo is expected under the Apple logo in the top right of your screen for "Lock Screen". This is the combo you'll need to manually configure in a workflow.
 
Cheers,
Andrew

I've been using Alfred Powerpack since v1 and love it. The one huge omission is that there should really be a better way of discovering themes and workflows. Alfred is a mature, polished and well-developed app by now, and it seems weird to send people to either trudge through forum threads or go to some third-party site instead of coming up with something official. 
 
These guys are doing it in a really smart way that feels much more inviting and fun -- a gallery which accomodates user-submitted themes: https://styles.ulyssesapp.com