Visual artifacts when changing appearance [Workaround Available]

[Hervé]

Hi,

As you can see on the images, I have graphical glitches with all the Alfred's appearances (but not with Alfred Classic).

 

 

I'm running 4.0.4 (I also tried 4.0.5) on Mojave (10.14.6).

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

 

[Vero]

@Hervé Are you running VLC? There's a bug between macOS and VLC, which can be seen occasionally in Alfred and in macOS native pop-up menus. If you quit VLC, the issue should go away.

 

Cheers,
Vero

[hammylikey]

I'm having exactly the same behaviour when I'm working in Final Cut Pro - It looks like it might be something to do with GPU usage (my Mac has a separate GPU). If I minimise FCP and wait for a few seconds and then re-open Alfred, it works.

 

I didn't know that Classic would behave normally - just tried that now and it seems OK. Maybe it's something to do with transparency on some of the appearances?

 

I've tried disabling Automatic Graphics Switching and the issue keeps happening - maybe it's to do with how Alfred renders while something else is using the GPU?

 

[Andrew]

Try duplicating the theme you'd like to use, setting the background opacity to fully opaque, and set the blur amount for the theme to 0.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[Andrew]

Also, are you seeing visual artefacts on the macOS (top of the screen) drop down menus at the same time you're seeing them in Alfred?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[scottpie]

Hi, I'm also having this issue whenever FCPX is running. On a Macbook Pro with GeForce GT 750M. As soon as I quit FCPX behavior is back to normal.

 

After reading through this thread where people were having similar issues but with VLC, I'm wondering if there's some rendering bug with Nvidia cards maybe? Like that thread, when I use a theme with no blur, the issues resolve.

 

In that thread it was suggested to contact VLC devs but it seems that either Apple or Alfred might be where the focus should lie (probably Apple, frankly).

 

 

[LittlePaolo]

Same problem here. On every appearance except Alfred Classic. I'm not running VLC. Doesn't matter what app I'm running the glitches always appear and render Alfred unusable.

Problems started with update too 4.0.5.

[Vero]

@scottpie @LittlePaolo This is an issue that's very much in Apple's camp, as some users are seeing it in various apps like VLC, Final Cut, and even simply showing macOS menus on Macs where Alfred isn't even installed.

 

As suggested by Andrew, you can get around the issue as far as Alfred goes by duplicating the theme you'd like to use, setting the background opacity to fully opaque, and set the blur amount for the theme to 0.

• To change the opacity, click the theme background and ensure that the opacity is set to 100% on the colour picker.
• To change the blur, click the fuzzy circle icon in the top left of Alfred's Appearance preferences and set the blur to None.

Cheers,
Vero

[scottpie]

2 hours ago, Vero said:

@scottpie @LittlePaolo This is an issue that's very much in Apple's camp, as some users are seeing it in various apps like VLC, Final Cut, and even simply showing macOS menus on Macs where Alfred isn't even installed.

 

As the best thing to do is probably submit feedback to Apple since they'll need to be the ones to fix this, as developers do you have any recommendations to what we should put in the comments that might hit their "sweet spot" so to speak and get them to take it seriously?