solved [SOLVED] Migrating from 2 to 4, install won't complete

[Andy Matthews]

I can't get Alfred 4 to complete the installation process. I've tried a half dozen times now and each time it fails with some variation of the following error.

 

Quote

“Alfred.alfredpreferences” couldn’t be moved to “Alfred” because either the former doesn't exist, or the folder containing the latter doesn't exist.

 

I'm currently using Alfred 2.9 (build 446).

I'm trying to install Alfred 4.0.4 (build 1111).

I'm syncing Alfred through Dropbox using the Mackup Python client.

 

Here's the steps I'm taking.

1. Download and unzip.
2. Drag Alfred 4 into /Applications
3. Double click icon
4. Click "Begin Setup…"
5. I have powerpack, so I include my PP details, click Activate Powerpack, get success page.
6. Click Migrate Data:
   1. Select Copy Preferences
   2. Select Migrate Local Data
   3. Click Begin Migration
7. Receive error.
   1. Note that I get variations on the error whether I select "No Migration", "Copy Preferences", or "Migrate Local Data".
8. On previous attempts I've updated my macOS permissions so allow Alfred to work it's magic.

 

At this point I can still use Alfred 2, but I'd really like to start using Alfred 4 since I've paid for it, and it's got some nice new features.

 

Can anyone offer input as to why this might be failing? I'm thinking it's got something to do with the aliasing that Mackup uses, but I'm not sure.

Edited October 13, 2019 by Andy Matthews

[vitor]

Welcome @Andy Matthews,

 

1 hour ago, Andy Matthews said:

I'm syncing Alfred through Dropbox using the Mackup Python client.

 

I’ll advise against that, for several reasons:

1. mackup’s syncing is done via symlinks, which is imperfect and problematic in many cases.
2. Alfred has its own update mechanism. That’s what you should use.
3. Last I checked, mackup’s developer (to their credit) refused to add Alfred syncing because that feature is part of Alfred’s PowerPack. Are you sure it’s working?

 

1 hour ago, Andy Matthews said:

I'm thinking it's got something to do with the aliasing that Mackup uses, but I'm not sure.

 

That might or might not be the case, but that’s what you should check for first. Unsync Alfred from mackup and try again. If it works, use Alfred’s syncing in the future; you’ll save yourself some trouble.

[Andy Matthews]

Thanks for the kind welcome, and for the offer of assistance, appreciated.

 

I've done a bit more digging and there's some oddities. I've dug into my use of Mackup and it appears that even though my Alfred backup files were in the Mackup directory, they weren't placed there by Mackup. I probably put them there myself. So I've turned on syncing in Alfred, and set it to back up to the root of my Dropbox folder:

$  ls Dropbox | grep Alfred
Alfred.alfredpreferences

Expecting that this should resolve the issue I then went to install Alfred 4.

1. Double clicked Alfred 4.app
2. Entered my Powerpack license information, clicked Activate Powerpack
3. Click Migrate Data…
   1. Found preferences now shows as ~/Dropbox/Alfred.alfredpreferences
   2. Found Local Data now shows as  ~/Library/Application Support/Alfred 2
   3. A warning is displayed at the bottom:
      1. Due to the significant differences between Alfred 2 & 4, a few settings won't be migrated.
      2. I backed up the settings just in case.
4. I get a few errors of the following types:
   1. “Alfred.alfredpreferences” couldn’t be moved to “Alfred” because either the former doesn't exist, or the folder containing the latter doesn't exist.
   2. “actions.alfdb” couldn’t be moved to “Databases” because either the former doesn't exist, or the folder containing the latter doesn't exist
5. I click macOS permissions
   1. I give access to Accessibility, Contacts, but Full Disk Access is greyed out
6. I click Restart Alfred and receive error (see attached image)
   1. Go to step #5

I'm not sure I mentioned this previously but I'm currently on OS 10.12.6. Does Alfred 4 require a newer OS?

 

[Andrew]

@Andy Matthews OS X 10.12 doesn't need full disk access permissions, this was only added by Apple in Mojave.

 

The issues you are seeing are almost certainly down to incorrect permissions within your home folder, or symlinks for folders which aren't expected to be symlinks.

 

One workaround could be to temporarily create a new user account on your Mac, get Alfred working there to do the migration, and then copy back the migrated preferences into your main user account. Then repair permissions on Alfred's preferences using the following guide to ensure they match your main user and what's expected:

 

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/preferences/

 

Finally, if you have snippets in Alfred 2, these aren't migrated to Alfred 4, but I have a separate conduit app which will do this migration. Send an email to our info@ address if you need this and I'll send it over.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[Andy Matthews]

I discovered one symlink hiding out in the /Application Support directory:

lrwxr-xr-x    1 andymatthews  Alfred -> /Users/andymatthews/Dropbox/github/config/alfred/Alfred

Edit: Scratch that, turns out it was a dotfiles repo I created many years ago that has since been deleted.

 

Is there a way to easily identify any other folders which Alfred is looking for that might be symlinks?

Edited October 19, 2019 by Andy Matthews

[Andrew]

The default folders Alfred uses are listed in this guide to reset Alfred:

 

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/reset-alfred/

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[Andy Matthews]

Aha, that was the problem. There were two files being symlinked to the previously mentioned `config` directory (which didn't exist). Surprised Alfred ran at all in fact. V4 is now installed!