Workflows dont appear in results

[QuaCKeReD]

Hi,

 

Never found pattern to cause of this, but quite often my workflows stop appearing in results.  A restart of Alfred resolves this, but I cant find any other solution that does.

 

i.e.

trigger alfred

type workflow keyword

no results seen

restart alfred

type workflow keyword

results seen

 

This then resolves issue for some time, until they disappear again.

 

I have tried the advanced 'Clear Application Cache', and even the 'Rebuild macOS Metadata', but neither resolves the issue without a restart of the app, too.

 

Attached is screenshots of it failing, then again after a restart

[Andrew]

@QuaCKeReD if you open Alfred's preferences to the workflows tab, select the workflow which isn't working and open the debugger, is there any information shown when trying to use the workflow and the items not appearing?

 

Also, perhaps try opening Console.app and see if any information is logged when items don't appear.

[QuaCKeReD]

Hi,

 

It seems that ALL workflows disappear during this issue

 

1. Nothing in the debug menu of the workflow

2. I cant find any Alfred category for logs within console.  A search only shows following (from time I enter search parameter);

  default    09:42:10.656385 +0100    Alfred 3    LSExceptions shared instance invalidated for timeout.
  default    09:42:58.662499 +0100    Alfred 3    Rebroadcasting external notification ABDistributedDatabaseChangedNotification from process AddressBookSourceSync (<private>)

  default    09:42:58.664933 +0100    Alfred 3    Rebroadcasting external notification ABDistributedDatabaseChangedNotificationPriv from process AddressBookSourceSync (<private>)
 

and, by 'Activities'

  09:42:01.782563 +0100    Alfred 3    Loading Preferences From User CFPrefsD For Search List
 

[Vero]

@QuaCKeReD The logs above don't provide much insight into what's happening, so could you please answer these few questions?

 

* Do you sync your preferences? If so, which services do you use and what path is set as your sync folder?

* Which version of macOS and Alfred are you using?

* Is there anything unusual about the setup of your Mac? E.g. User directory in a non-standard location, data on external/network drives. etc?

* How long do you use your Mac after a restart before you see this issue again? When you open your preferences, do you see workflows populating the left sidebar of the Workflows section?

 

As this isn't a common issue, the more information you can provide, the more likely we can help you establish exactly what's happening on your Mac

 

Cheers,
Vero

[QuaCKeReD]

Hi Vero,

 

Glad it wasn’t just me that got nothing from them ?

 

* Do you sync your preferences? If so, which services do you use and what path is set as your sync folder?

I am syncing, yes, using Resilio Sync to sync the folder to my other Macs - the folder is '~/etc/Alfred 2'

 

Although it is synced to various places, I only actually use Alfred on 2 machines - the MacBook Pro with the issue and an iMac (not sure I have the issue on my iMac - not been able to sit at that for any real time in past several months ? )

 

 

* Which version of macOS and Alfred are you using?

macOS - 10.13.4

Alfred - 3.6.1 [910]

Though, this has presented over several versions of both

 

 

* Is there anything unusual about the setup of your Mac? E.g. User directory in a non-standard location, data on external/network drives. etc?

No weirdness in terms of setup.  Its a pretty new MacBook Pro (2017 15” Touch Bar), which was restored from a SuperDuper! backup.

 

 

* How long do you use your Mac after a restart before you see this issue again? When you open your preferences, do you see workflows populating the left sidebar of the Workflows section?

Never spotted a pattern in terms of time from restart, except that it is always after ’some’ time - i.e. never right away.

Though, if I open Alfred Prefs, yes, all workflow do show.

 

 

Thanks

Mark

[Vero]

@QuaCKeReD I'm not familiar with Resilio Sync, but this is the only non-standard element in your responses, so is the likely source of your issues.

 

Could you please temporarily set your sync folder to a location on your local Mac, e.g. an Alfred folder in your Documents, then see whether you get the same behaviour? If this fixes your issue, it'll confirm that Resilio Sync isn't a suitable solution for syncing your preferences.

 

We recommend Dropbox as the tried-and-tested way of syncing preferences, as files are stored locally on your Mac, and Dropbox copes admirably with file conflicts. On the other hand, we advise against using iCloud and Google Drive, which have proven to be unsuitable due to files being unavailable on startup (in GD's case) and both struggling with resolving file conflicts.

 

More details here:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/advanced/sync/

 

Let us know how you get on.

 

Cheers,
Vero

[QuaCKeReD]

Hiya

 

Resilio Sync was formerly BitTorrent Sync, and is very similar to Dropbox; files stored on local machine.  Big difference is they are ONLY stored on my machines ? 

 

I shall all check the ‘availability at startup’, only as I recently started to use Espionage to encrypt some folders (laptop and data risk), and that location may be part of that! ? 

 

[deanishe]

1 hour ago, QuaCKeReD said:

is very similar to Dropbox

 

In terms of what it does, but it's how it works that matters here.

 

Your description of the issue closely matches what Alfred would do if its sync folder were not available when Alfred starts: Alfred goes back to using its default folder in ~/Library/Application Support. But it remembers your sync folder, so if it has come back when Alfred is started again later, it goes back to using the sync folder.

 

Using Espionage would 100% lead to that behaviour if Alfred is starting before Espionage has mounted its folders. So definitely check that first.

 

Resilio could also cause issues with Alfred. The data in Alfred's sync folder can change very rapidly, and many sync systems (including iCloud and Google Drive) can't handle that,  get confused and screw up your data.

Edited April 18, 2018 by deanishe

[QuaCKeReD]

Hi @deanishe 

 

Not sure what happens -

Issue was NOT apparent upon startup - admittedly, I was not using Alfred until logged in and Espionage was unklocked; are you suggesting that at startup it showed default settings, then switched to my settings when it coulkd?

 

The issue only presented after using laptop for a while - when I trigger Alfred, the workflows dont show, yet when I open prefs I can see them all.  This is after Espionage has been unlocked.

 

Update;

I moved the sync location to a none encrypted location last night, so prefs file will be available from startup and right through. 

It is still synced via Resilio Sync, as I dont use Dropbox client.

 

Will see how it goes

 

[deanishe]

1 hour ago, QuaCKeReD said:

are you suggesting that at startup it showed default settings, then switched to my settings when it coulkd?

 

That's what Alfred would do if your sync folder weren't available when Alfred starts. I don't think it would switch folder while running. Perhaps if the sync folder disappeared? Only @Andrew can answer that.

 

1 hour ago, QuaCKeReD said:

The issue only presented after using laptop for a while

 

If they're disappearing while Alfred is running, it's something else.

 

1 hour ago, QuaCKeReD said:

It is still synced via Resilio Sync

 

If the issue persists, you should try turning sync off. Just to see if it is Resilio causing the issue. An awful lot of sync systems do screw up Alfred's files.