iTunes mini player no longer works on macOS Catalina

[bzzzl]

hello,

 

I upgraded to the Catalina beta software last night and for some reason I can’t get Alfred to launch the mini player.  When launching the mini player it displays “Launching iTunes”. I tried resetting my library through Alfred preferences.  Alfred recognizes the correct .xml file but for some reason it’s  stuck on the ”Launching iTunes” message.  

Edited June 25, 2019 by bzzzl

[robertovg]

Hi, I just updated my Mac to Catalina, and facing exactly the same issue, actually I still have Alfred 3, and was thinking to update to V4 but first would like to be sure if upgrading my Alfred version will fix the problem. Thanks in advance.

[Andrew]

Apple removed iTunes (and the underlying XML support) in Catalina, and as such, the Mini Player no longer works in Alfred 3. In the latest version of Alfred 3, this is explained in Alfred's iTunes preferences.

 

I'm in the process of adding support for Apple's Music.app in Alfred 4, and in the latest version of Alfred 4.0.4, the Mini Player should generally operate as expected. I'll be improving this over time in further Alfred 4 updates.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[dannydb]

Hi, I'm having trouble with the mini player in 4.0.4 and 4.0.5 on Catalina. Alfred appears to only be displaying downloaded music from my library.

[hardeaux]

Please work to include Apple Music library (Track Type: Remote) tracks in Catalina  Mini-Player. I realize this new API has thrown a large wrench into the plugin, but really miss this functionality

 

Thanks and keep up the great work!

 

-chris

[Andrew]

If you update to the 4.0.6 b1119 pre-release, I've added in parsing for remote music. Note that this is a beta feature at this point and certain things may not work (e.g. artwork).

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[hardeaux]

Yay - works 😁

 

you rock Andrew!  bet you'll get that artwork figured out   

 

now you got me wanting to play with this new api... 

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/applemusicapi/artwork 

 

 

 

[Hattrick]

I have updated Alfred to the newest 4.0.5 [1118], but there are still bugs with Alfred and the mini player on Catalina.

 

I have found that my playlists don't show up when I search for them through the mini player; "Alfred Playlist" is the only playlist that shows up. Going directly from the mini player to playlists with ⌘+4 still only shows "Alfred Playlist" as the only playlist. My playlists show up Apple's Music app just fine, but they're not there in Alfred's mini player.

[Vero]

@Hattrick Please update to Alfred 4.0.6 pre-release (by going to the Update tab > choosing "pre-releases" from the dropdown at the bottom and updating), which includes iTunes specific improvements.

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Hattrick]

@Vero Thanks, the 4.0.6 pre-release fixes it  

[hardeaux]

hello again -

 

mini player has been much improved, however...

 

seems recent releases have broken the ability to launch custom or apple-generated playlists.  This was working recently I believe.  

 

Is it just me??

 

Thanks again - 

 

[hardeaux]

FIXED! in 4.0.8 pre-release build 1134

 

you folks are on it!