Alfred no longer searching emails

[Trapper Dave]

Hi everyone,

 

I've just rebuilt my machine and upgraded to v3.

 

Unfortunately Alfred is no longer searching for emails - which it was on this machine before I applied the licence key; I think I must have messed up a seting somewhere.

 

Under File Search > Don't show > I have unticked everything and I'm still not getting emails returned in the search.

 

Can anyone help me with this?

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

[vitor]

Welcome @Trapper Dave,

 

Have you tried the troubleshooting steps?

[Trapper Dave]

Hi Vitor,

 

I have tried the troubleshooting steps and I'm still having problems.

 

Dave

[Vero]

@Trapper Dave Could you please provide more details so that we can help you?

 

- Which version of Alfred and macOS are you using?

- How are you searching? What are you typing exactly in Alfred?

- Are the emails you're hoping to find in Mail.app? Or a third-party email client?

- Were you previously using a workflow, or showing emails in your file search results?

- Please provide screenshots of your Default Results and File Search preferences so we can see what settings you've chosen

 

For example, if you were previously searching using a Mail.app search workflow like this one, you may need to import the workflow to get started.

 

If you can provide more information, we'll be happy to help you.

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Trapper Dave]

Hi Vero,

 

- Which version of Alfred and macOS are you using? v3.7.1 [946] 10.14.2

- How are you searching? What are you typing exactly in Alfred?  I am searching for a subject line by just typing it into Alfred.

- Are the emails you're hoping to find in Mail.app? Or a third-party email client?  It's using Alfred.

- Were you previously using a workflow, or showing emails in your file search results?  I was not, it worked on the demo version and when I only noticed the change once I'd entered my licence key.

- Please provide screenshots of your Default Results and File Search preferences so we can see what settings you've chosen.  I've attached them below

[Trapper Dave]

I'm unable to upload any more screenshots due to filesize.

[vitor]

4 minutes ago, Trapper Dave said:

I'm unable to upload any more screenshots due to filesize.

 

You can upload them to imgur (no account required). Pasting the link into the response box will load the image directly.

 

You can also use WebScreenshot (disclaimer: I’m the author) to auto upload the screenshot.

[Trapper Dave]

I have uploaded it to imgur - https://imgur.com/a/QNGZUvK

 

I will have a look at your software, it looks very interesting.

[Vero]

27 minutes ago, Trapper Dave said:

- Are the emails you're hoping to find in Mail.app? Or a third-party email client?  It's using Alfred.

 

 

Alfred isn't an email client; Are your emails in Mail.app, a third-party app like Outlook, or web-based like Gmail? This will help establish where the emails are so that we can help you work out how to ensure you can search for and find your emails

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Trapper Dave]

Hi Vero,

 

I'm so sorry, I'm half-asleep still!

 

It's using mail.app.

 

Apologies,

 

Dave

[Vero]

@Trapper Dave There are a few ways to search for Mail.app emails...

 

1. Use a workflow

 

Use the one I linked to earlier, or create your own. This is the tidiest and most efficient way to search for emails specifically without cluttering your results.

 

You can then prefix your search term with one of the terms:

• emfrom to search the sender's name and email address
• em for a general subject + content search
• emsubj to search specifically for a subject line

 

2. Add Mail results to your File Search results

• Add ~/Library/Mail/ to your Default results
• In File Search, ensure that Emails is unchecked next to "Don't show"
• Search by prefixing your search term with "open" (or pressing the spacebar as a shortcut)

 

3. Add to your default results (not recommended)

 

This will result in the most messy results, and I would not recommend it at all. You can add the Mail file type to the Advanced file types in Default Results, and the ~/Library/Mail/ path to your default results.  Again, I do not recommend this as finding essentials like apps amongst the overload of emails will make search far less useful.

 

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Joe O.]

I use Outlook for Mac (v16.22) and Alfred doesn't see any of the email or calendar events. I have added it to search results, or least tried to. See below, the 2011 was an older version still in finder.

 

 

I have also tried Outlook workflows, but it doesn't see the Outlook Database:

 

 

Does anyhow have any idea on how to fix this?

[peppegrass]

Hi Vero,

 

I just installed Alfred and purchased the power pack. I followed your advice and installed your workflow.

 

However, it does not seem to work properly, see imagur screenshots below

 

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<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/H13fKHB" data-context="false" ><a href="//imgur.com/a/H13fKHB"></a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Could you please help me out?

Thanks

Giuseppe

 

[StefanAIC]

On Catalina here, latest version of Alfred and powerpack user.
The only option that actually works is "email" (for sending an email). All the others revert to a web search.

I am using the native Mail client.

 

Any idea on how to fix this?

Edited November 10, 2019 by StefanAIC

[deanishe]

47 minutes ago, StefanAIC said:

Any idea on how to fix this?

 

Complain to Apple. Catalina blocks other applications from searching Mail.app's email.

[tjluoma]

Have you granted Alfred "Full Disk Access" in System Preferences?

 

 

[fuorviatos]

I confirm the mail searching function falls back to the web results on Catalina.

I've enabled alfred the access to the whole disk but it still does not work

[Vero]

2 hours ago, fuorviatos said:

I confirm the mail searching function falls back to the web results on Catalina.

I've enabled alfred the access to the whole disk but it still does not work

 

As I've explained here, Apple have made changes in Catalina, which means third-party apps like Alfred can no longer access Mail data:

 

If Apple get enough feature requests, they may re-grant access for this.

 

Cheers,
Vero

[fuorviatos]

 

5 hours ago, Vero said:

As I've explained here, Apple have made changes in Catalina, which means third-party apps like Alfred can no longer access Mail data:

 

 

Thanks for explaining the concept clearly. I really hope they do but after having read another discussion here and poked at the apple developer forum, I have serious doubts.

 

[Jim Munchbach]

I'm a new user. Bummer, I loaded this (Email Search) workflow FIRST and I've spent a couple hours trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Seems like you may want to remove the workflow from like EVERYWHERE because (as a new user) it kind of stinks to start off the way I started off with Alfred... Now, on a totally unrelated topic... How does Alfred search email from GMAIL? Is that even possible?

 

Thanks

Jim

Edited May 26, 2020 by Jim Munchbach

[deanishe]

Hi, Jim, welcome to the forum.

 

12 minutes ago, Jim Munchbach said:

Seems like you may want to remove the workflow from like EVERYWHERE because (as a new user) it kind of stinks to start off the way I started off with Alfred...

 

I totally appreciate where you're coming from, but removing the workflow isn't the right solution. Most Alfred users aren't on Catalina yet, precisely because it has caused so many problems like this one.

 

If you mean this workflow, there is a warning directly in the first post that it doesn't work on Catalina. In any case, I've edited Vero's post to make that warning big and red.

 

[MJS-UK]

It is frustrating.  I've just bought Alfred today to replace the brilliant X1 that runs on my PC but doesn't run on a Mac.  Now I have spent an hour tracing this discussion through the Forum, I can see that this the Email wording on the home page doesn't actually say that it searches inside emails, but when I read it before parting with my £49 it seemed as though it allows you to find files "inside your email" and attach them to a new email.  The word "new" kind of implies that you have found the file in an "old" email. I think you should make it clear that it kind actually search your email. 

[Vero]

@MJS-UK Welcome to the forum

 

As we've discussed earlier in this thread, Apple have a habit of moving the goalposts without warning. Email search worked in every version up to Mojave, where the files were indexed as part of the macOS metadata index.

 

In Catalina, the files are still there but, without notice, Apple intentionally chose to no longer return the email files in the indexed metadata. 

 

This may be a temporary or permanent change; we're not privy to this information from Apple, so we do our best to make as much of your Mac's data available, but this is a good example of things that are completely out of our control. You can trust that we are frequently checking to see if any of this is changing for the better again.

 

In terms of the wording on the website, I'm sorry you found it confusing; This highlighted feature relates to attaching files and emailing contacts, rather than referring to searching emails. Given the confusion, I'll keep that in mind and see if we can make this even clearer.

 

I would encourage you to take a look at the broad range of other Alfred features that will no doubt catch your eye - and the workflows shared by our awesome community here on the forum

 

Cheers,
Vero

[dhanya]

Houdah has announced that their latest version can search email. Can you replicate what they’re doing?

[Vero]

40 minutes ago, yashodhankhare said:

Houdah has announced that their latest version can search email. Can you replicate what they’re doing?

 

Would you have any links to their announcement? I've had a look at their tweets and blog and could only find the ones stating that they can no longer search in Catalina, dating from around a year ago.

 

If there's a way to do it without bodging and hacks, I'll be overjoyed to look into it!

 

Cheers,
Vero