jackbrannen

Yeah, unfortunately. And I'm not using a recent enough version of Alfred to use that workflow.

Hi there, I'm having trouble getting Alfred to show my bookmarks. I have bookmarks turned on in Alfred prefs. It was working before. What other info is needed to troubleshoot this?

Thanks

Resolved. Looks like a new Adobe CC update created a new file type for InDesign files. 

There are some files on my system that Spotlight can find, but Alfred can't.

Alfred CAN see

- Other files of this filetype

- Other files in the same folder as these files

Help!

Thank you, that solved it! My Alfred shortcut conflicted with my "toggle input source" shortcut.

Title says it all. I have a "Force keyboard layout…" option set in Alfred's preferences, but Alfred is ignoring it.

Ok, thanks.

@Vero Thanks. Two things. First, I have only selected what I need. Second, it shouldn't matter. Alfred shouldn't randomly escalate low-score results to the top of the list?

@Andrew Thanks, this helps. Not a great UX, but I can live with it.

Hi again guys,

I'm having another, related problem. When I type in the exact keywords for some of my web searches, the web searches will be WAY down in the results sometimes (like #20 or below) beneath apps and things I never use.

Thanks!

Thanks. Do I trigger it just by typing the keyword in Alfred, then?

Quote

If there are certain folders which you call often which you want to open with abbreviations, it might just be best to create a workflow with a keyword connected to an open file, with the keyword fixed to e.g. di and the open file as "Design Inspiration". This way, the results will always match regardless of whether the Mac's metadata is broken or not.

Is this something I can activate from within the Alfred search only, or does it have to be tied to a universal hotkey? (I don't want a universal hotkey.) Otherwise, that would be great.

Thanks

Thanks, Andrew. What leads you to believe that the metadata is only working intermittently?

Hi Andrew, just wanted to follow up on this. As I wrote above, I had already tried what you suggested.

Have you tried adding the Dropbox (Personal) folder directly to Alfred's Features > Default Results > Search Scope?

Thanks, Andrew. I had done this already.

Hi guys,

Today Alfred suddenly lost the ability to find my "Design Inspiration" folder with the Spotlight comment "di" attached to it. I ran the folder through the Alfred Metadata tool:

/Users/jack/Dropbox (Personal)/Design Inspiration

 

Internal File Metadata

======================

 

 Display Name: Design Inspiration

    Alt Names: 

    File Type: public.folder

     Comments: di

     Keywords: 

    Last Used: 2016-08-29 20:45:12 +0000

 

Raw mdls File Metadata

======================

 

_kMDItemOwnerUserID            = 501

kMDItemContentCreationDate     = 2014-06-04 18:05:01 +0000

kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2016-08-29 20:45:12 +0000

kMDItemContentType             = "public.folder"

kMDItemContentTypeTree         = (

    "public.folder",

    "public.directory",

    "public.item"

)

kMDItemDateAdded               = 2014-06-06 01:40:25 +0000

kMDItemDisplayName             = "Design Inspiration"

kMDItemFinderComment           = "di"

kMDItemFSContentChangeDate     = 2016-08-29 20:45:12 +0000

kMDItemFSCreationDate          = 2014-06-04 18:05:01 +0000

kMDItemFSCreatorCode           = ""

kMDItemFSFinderFlags           = 1034

kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon         = (null)

kMDItemFSInvisible             = 0

kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden     = 0

kMDItemFSIsStationery          = 1

kMDItemFSLabel                 = 5

kMDItemFSName                  = "Design Inspiration"

kMDItemFSNodeCount             = 2216

kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID          = 20

kMDItemFSOwnerUserID           = 501

kMDItemFSSize                  = (null)

kMDItemFSTypeCode              = ""

kMDItemKind                    = "Folder"

kMDItemLastUsedDate            = 2016-08-29 20:45:12 +0000

kMDItemUseCount                = 8

kMDItemUsedDates               = (

    "2016-08-22 04:00:00 +0000",

    "2016-08-23 04:00:00 +0000",

    "2016-08-26 04:00:00 +0000",

    "2016-08-29 04:00:00 +0000"

)

kMDItemUserTags                = (

    Inspiration,

    DGN

)

 

 

 

Hi Jack,

 

As per Andrew's post on 23rd June, could you download the Metadata tool and drag in one of your problem folders so we can take a look at the metadata for it?

 

Also, when Alfred can't find it based on the Spotlight comment, could you check whether Spotlight itself is able to find the folder using the same spotlight comment?

 

All of the replies we've provided in the thread above is pretty much exhausting the suggestions we can make; Alfred is essentially at the mercy if the metadata provided to him by OS X, so if you find that results are periodically not returned, the culprit is the metadata index. There are numerous things that could cause issues with metadata that are outside of Alfred's control. 

 

If the results ARE available via the metadata and it's just a case of presenting the results you want at the top of your search, one of the easiest ways to do this is to create a file filter for the exact file type(s) you want to search. You can search specifically for Spotlight comments, and you can set a keyword as simple as a single character (e.g. using the \ or ! character).

 

You can find out more about creating file filters here: 

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/inputs/file-filter/#workflow

 

Cheers,

Vero

 

Hi Vero,

Thank you.

It looks like Spotlight is also having trouble finding the files. So maybe this isn't something we can fix.

Out of interest, do you have the "Features > File Search > Advanced > Touch folders after opening them" option ticked? If not, OS X may have been gradually de-ranking these folders over time such that they are no longer seen as relevant when Alfred requests for search results matching.

 

If this is unticked, tick it and then find the folder using its original name. Once you've opened it (and Alfred has fettled with it), OS X should see this as relevant for Alfred again.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Thank you. Yes, it is ticked.

Hi,

Any new thoughts here? I'm frustrated that this isn't working.

Just now I typed "dd" which is supposed to latch to my Dropbox Documents folder. It has been doing this for months with no trouble. Then today, all of a sudden, the top result was "DVD Player," which shouldn't be anywhere NEAR the top, as I never open it.

What's more, the "Dropbox Documents" result is missing entirely.

Thanks, Vero

1. Are the "uncommon" files regularly accessed by Finder or via other apps, causing their "last modified" date to be updated? This could cause Alfred to weigh some files higher than you might expect.

 

2. If the knowledge feels like it's being periodically cleared, are you running any cleaners/organisers that could be causing your knowledge files to be deleted? Can you identify a frequency or situation where this happens (e.g. when you restart your Mac, every week, every month?)

1. I don't think so, but let's suppose that they are. Is Alfred supposed to weight them ABOVE a direct match to spotlight comments?

2. I'm not running any cleaners or organizers.

Latching appears to be working.

Hi Andrew, just to be clear, my original problem is not resolved. Alfred continues to forget top results.

Is latching working as expected? I.e. use the exact typed keyword and select the result you want two or three times, that should then latch to that combo.

Latching appears to be working.

Hi, just wanted to check in again about my question above.

I am also having problems with Alfred randomly escalating uncommon search results over others when I use common shortcuts.

Are the apps being found normally in Alfred? If so, for one which is failing for fuzzy, could you drag one of the apps into this metadata tool and let me know the output?

 

https://cachefly.alfredapp.com/tools/AlfredMetadataTool_v1.1.zip

 

Cheers,

Andrew

It was one folder, and it appears to be working again. Next time I can reproduce the issue, what should I do?

Try typing 'reload' into Alfred to refresh the cache. If that doesn't work, try finding the file first by name, then seeing if the spotlight comment works after that.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

This is happening again for me, and reloading the cache is not fixing it.