solved Text expansion doesn't work [Resolved in Alfred 3.7 beta]

[Ovi]

Alfred 3.6.2

Build 922

 

Mojave 10.14 Beta (18A336e)

 

Text expansion doesn't work even when Alfred is allowed in Security & Privacy -> Accessibility 

 

 

[Vero]

@Ovi Welcome to the forum. Could you please also provide screenshots of your Alfred Snippets preferences?

 

Could you also help me understand at what stage it doesn't work as expected for you?

 

1. Is expansion set up properly on your Mac? E.g. did you check all appropriate boxes in Alfred's preferences?

- Enable "Automatically expand snippets by keyword"

- Create a snippet with a keyword within a collection and check the box next to it to auto-expand

 

2. Using TextEdit, when you type your keyword, does the keyword disappear but your snippet doesn't appear? Do you hear the text expansion sound? An error sound?

 

3. Have you changed the default Cmd + V hotkey away from pasting? Or do you have any third-party keyboard modifiers or another snippet/hotkey app that could be interfering?

 

If you could please provide more details than "it doesn't work", I'll be able to help you out, as we've thoroughly tested this feature on Mojave and it works as expected

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Ovi]

Hi Vero,

 

I have the same settings as before (High Sierra) the upgrade to Mojave. The only tool for text expansion is Alfred and didn't change the paste shortcut. I've attached a screenshot with the Alfred settings and the default snippet !now that wasn't expanded. There is no sound, the keyword doesn't disappear..it seems like nothing is triggered.

 

Cheers,

  Ovi 

 

[Vero]

@Ovi Given you've upgraded to Mojave rather than done a fresh install, I would encourage you to disable "Automatically expand snippets by keyword" and remove Alfred Text Service from the Accessibility preferences, then set it up from fresh again. 

 

Let me know how you get on

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Ovi]

Hi @Vero,

 

I did reinstall Alfred from scratch but that didn't change anything, still, the snippets are not triggered. The strange part is that on the other mac i have the same setup, also upgraded to Mojave from High Sierra and there the snippets are expanded without any issue. I checked also the settings in both machines and they match exactly, so i'm clueless why only on the MacBook I see this problem.

 

Cheers,

   Ovi

[Tomas]

I have the same issue. Today I have upgraded to Mojave 10.14 Beta 3 (18A336e) from previous beta 2. On Beta 2 everything went well. On Beta 3 after Alfred 3 start I get message

 

 

 

Security setting looks OK:

 

 

and Alfred Preferences -> Snippets -> Automatically expand is Uncheck, I can check it, but after a reboot this still unchecked.

 

 

 

[seth9341]

I also have this issue since updating to the 3rd public beta of Mojave. I know that expansion worked on the first two betas because I use it several dozen times each day in my workflow.

[Neilio]

Yeah, there seems to be some kind of weird bug or issue with the DP4/PB3 release. I've noticed this issue with other apps that need accessibility access so it's probably a regression of some kind.

 

Not sure how I should file this with Apple but I'll open a radar and see what they say.

[Andrew]

I've just tested this again and am not experiencing either of the issues above - Text expansion is working, and Alfred Text Service remains in the Accessibility preferences.

 

Having said that, our Mojave test machine is a fresh install so may not be exhibiting macOS bugs which come about by upgrading.

 

Would it be possible to try creating a new user account on your Mac, switching to that user, and seeing if the issue still exists?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[Ovi]

Hi @Andrew,

 

It's working on a newly created account, just tested that, but i have no clue why it doesn't on the existing account. Is there a way to debug this on my machine or send some logs?

 

Cheers,

  Ovi

Edited July 20, 2018 by Ovi
update

[Vero]

 

@Ovi Thanks for confirming it works on a new account.

 

On 7/19/2018 at 11:38 AM, Ovi said:

I did reinstall Alfred from scratch but that didn't change anything,

 

My earlier suggestion did not involve reinstalling Alfred, but rather following these steps:

 

1. Disable text expansion in Alfred's Features > Snippets preferences

2. Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility and remove Alfred Text Service

3. Go back to Alfred, enable text expansion, and follow the setup process again (which will re-add Alfred Text Service to the Accessibility prefs)

 

This allows the permissions to be set once again, which may be sufficient to tell the newly upgraded macOS that you give Accessibility access to Alfred Text Service.

 

Let me know how you get on.

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Neilio]

4 hours ago, Vero said:

1. Disable text expansion in Alfred's Features > Snippets preferences
2. Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility and remove Alfred Text Service
3. Go back to Alfred, enable text expansion, and follow the setup process again (which will re-add Alfred Text Service to the Accessibility prefs)

 

 

Incidentally, I had the same issue with Textexpander but removing it and letting the app re-request access worked.

 

I've tried this multiple times and even deleted the listing from Accessibility and logged out and back in. Still not working.

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by Neilio

[Ovi]

Hi @Vero,

 

I followed the exact steps and it's working now, thanks. But the Alfred Text Service is no longer in the list.

[ninewb]

Unfortunately still a problem for me.  On High Sierra I was fine and then it quit working after working with the beta (and I understand this is beta).  My symptoms are the same.

 

- I've unchecked, removed the items from security menu and had them added back on recheck.

- I've tried a different (new) login account.

 

None of these worked for me.  Oddly I have Magnet as well and that one seems to be functioning fine.

 

Alfred Build 922 - I can type "snip <snippet>" into alfred and it recognizes it and will paste it into underlying app.

Edited July 22, 2018 by ninewb

[teyze]

On 7/20/2018 at 8:26 PM, Vero said:

 

@Ovi Thanks for confirming it works on a new account.

 

 

My earlier suggestion did not involve reinstalling Alfred, but rather following these steps:

 

1. Disable text expansion in Alfred's Features > Snippets preferences

2. Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility and remove Alfred Text Service

3. Go back to Alfred, enable text expansion, and follow the setup process again (which will re-add Alfred Text Service to the Accessibility prefs)

 

This allows the permissions to be set once again, which may be sufficient to tell the newly upgraded macOS that you give Accessibility access to Alfred Text Service.

 

Let me know how you get on.

 

Cheers,
Vero

 

 

There should be one more step after the troubleshooting: Toggle ALL the "Auto expansion allowed" box for the snippets they'd like to enable. For some reason, doing this seemingly unnecessary step after the steps you mentioned solved my problem...

 

A somewhat interesting detail when following the troubleshooting steps you mentioned: After re-enabling text expansion from Alfred, the Alfred Text Service automatically launches, guided me to grant the permission in System Preferences. But after enabling it in accessibility tab, the text service sometimes kept appearing in the dock instead of disappearing, and no window showed up when I tried to switch to it. Other times, it just went away. Now switch to Alfred, the checkbox for "expand snippets" is still off. When I tried to tick it, Alfred either launches text service "setup wizard" again with the dock icon or just silently ticked the box without any trace of text service's window or in the dock.

[Andrew]

It looks like there are issues in the latest Mojave beta with regards to Accessibility access. Apps arbitrarily become unticked in the preferences, or even when listed and ticked, they don't actually have Accessibility access granted in macOS.

 

In the latest Mojave Beta 4, with Alfred at least, it looks like either Alfred 3.app OR Alfred Text Service.app is allowed accessibility access, not both even though they are separate apps. It's a new requirement for an app to have accessibility access to dispatch a key combo (which Alfred and Alfred's workflows do). This is why macOS automatically shows the dialog to add Alfred 3 to the list of accessible apps, and once added, for some reason, this stops Alfred Text Service from having accessibility even though it's still ticked.

 

I'm going to have a think about this. I originally created Alfred Text Service to keep Alfred 3 out of the list of apps needing accessibility, but with Mojave, this may just be complicating things. I may just move the text expansion features into Alfred's core, and then just have Alfred 3 as accessible with no separate text service app.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[Chris Spiegl]

I'm looking forward to an update on this subject. I'm experiencing the same problems as described by everybody (and also tried all the fixes).

 

Hoping for an update soon (from Apple and the Alfred Team) ?.

 

Alfred 3.6.2
Build 922

 

macOS Mojave

Version 10.14 Beta

Build 18A336e

[Andrew]

I've just posted an update with a link to an Alfred 3.7 beta you can try:

 

[Ovi]

1 hour ago, Andrew said:

I've just posted an update with a link to an Alfred 3.7 beta you can try:

 

Thank you @Andrew , this version works fine. Text expansion is instant. The issue can be closed.

[eternali]

@Andrew Thanks for the hard work, this update is working fine with me. Keep up the good work! 

[Neilio]

This issue seems to be fixed globally (for all apps that use accessibility) in the latest OS beta.