Alfred 4.0.6 Toggle Breaks on Catalina

[Sigsegv]

Hello,

 

I'm using Alfred 4.0.6 on macOS Catalina (10.15.1). Every few days, the toggle stops working. I can still bring up the Alfred menu item and open preference, but neither the toggle option on the menu item nor the toggle keystroke (ctrl-space for me) works. The only way to get it working again seems to be to quit Alfred, then restart it.

 

I'm not sure what other useful information I can provide would be useful, but I'd be happy to provide what I can. I did check with a cow-orker who also uses Alfred. He's also on the current release, but is on 10.14 and he's not seeing this problem. 

 

Thank you.

[Sigsegv]

This is weird. Normally, I use Alfred all the time, so when it gets in this weird state, I still reflexively toggle it, curse, then use Spotlight. Turns out that the toggle doesn't permanently break until the process is restarted. This time, I kept Alfred running in its weird state for a bit, in case there was more debugging info I could collect. I kept accidentally toggling it and cursing, but just now, after cursing, I realized that it has started responding to the toggle again. I seems that it might get in this weird state for a limited time, then something happens that causes it to recover. I don't think I did anything unusual to cause the recovery aside from waiting a while. 

[Vero]

@Sigsegv Take a look at the questions here, and let me know whether you think this applies to you as well. 

 

I'm suspecting that Alfred appears off-screen because Catalina has lost resolution of how big your visible screen area is.

 

Next time it happens, try popping up the invisible Alfred and typing the name of an app to launch. Does it launch? If so, Alfred is running but not visible. After a while, Catalina recalculates where the visible screen area is, resulting in Alfred appearing on screen again.

 

In Alfred's Appearance > Options, make sure that "Save position when dragging Alfred main window" is unchecked.

 

Let me know how you get on  

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Sigsegv]

Thanks, Vero. I'll try that the next time that I see this behavior. I checked that setting and it was off. 

[Sigsegv]

On 12/7/2019 at 5:22 AM, Vero said:

I'm suspecting that Alfred appears off-screen because Catalina has lost resolution of how big your visible screen area is.

 

Next time it happens, try popping up the invisible Alfred and typing the name of an app to launch. Does it launch? If so, Alfred is running but not visible. After a while, Catalina recalculates where the visible screen area is, resulting in Alfred appearing on screen again.

 

Yes, this is exactly what happens. 

 

On 12/7/2019 at 5:22 AM, Vero said:

In Alfred's Appearance > Options, make sure that "Save position when dragging Alfred main window" is unchecked.

 

This is option is already unchecked. 

 

Is there anything else that can be done to prevent this from happening? 

 

BTW, I just updated to macOS 10.15.2 yesterday and rebooted. 

 

Thank you.

[Sigsegv]

 

After a while, Catalina recalculates where the visible screen area is, resulting in Alfred appearing on screen again.

 

 

How much longer is "after a while"? It's been 3+ hours now and it's still not displaying on screen.

 

FWIW, this is on Catalina 10.15.2. I have one external monitor and work with my 2017 rMBP open to the left of my monitor. The default screen is the monitor with Slack, Messages, and Spotify running on the laptop screen. I'm running in dark mode. 

 

I've reset the appearance to use "Alfred Classic" (from Modern Avenir). "Save position when dragging Alfred main window" is unchecked. "Show Alfred on" is set to "mouse screen." 

[Vero]

@Sigsegv As we haven't encountered this ourselves on our Catalina Macs, and users don't tend to come back and provide more details once their personal issue is resolved, I don't know how or when Catalina re-calculates screen positions.

 

You can try popping up Alfred's Appearance Options and dragging Alfred in the small box on the right, which would re-position Alfred. See if that makes it appear in a visible part of the screen?

 

For anyone else coming across this thread, could you please provide more details about your setup? 

• Which version of macOS are you using?
• Which version of Alfred are you using?
• What Mac + monitor setup do you use? (e.g. retina or not, do you change setup between laptop and external screen)

 

When Alfred doesn't appear on screen, please try launching an app using your usual Alfred hotkey. Please confirm if the app launches (which confirms that Alfred is present, but likely off-screen because of a miscalculation by Catalina).

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Acidham]

Today I experienced the same issue with Spotlight and @Vero you were right, even if I am not seeing Spotlight and/or Alfred I can type e.g. an App and it will be opened. This means Alfred and Safari is hidden after I plugged in my second monitor. It seems the issue was introduced with macOS 10.15.2 and it seems not to be related to Alfred.

[Sigsegv]

On 12/14/2019 at 4:38 AM, Vero said:

@Sigsegv As we haven't encountered this ourselves on our Catalina Macs, and users don't tend to come back and provide more details once their personal issue is resolved, I don't know how or when Catalina re-calculates screen positions.

 

You can try popping up Alfred's Appearance Options and dragging Alfred in the small box on the right, which would re-position Alfred. See if that makes it appear in a visible part of the screen?

 

For anyone else coming across this thread, could you please provide more details about your setup? 

• Which version of macOS are you using?
• Which version of Alfred are you using?
• What Mac + monitor setup do you use? (e.g. retina or not, do you change setup between laptop and external screen)

 

When Alfred doesn't appear on screen, please try launching an app using your usual Alfred hotkey. Please confirm if the app launches (which confirms that Alfred is present, but likely off-screen because of a miscalculation by Catalina).

 

Cheers,
Vero

 

@Vero I've been trying to get a reply out all morning. Until just a minute or two ago, Alfred had been drawing off-screen(s) since the 13th. I was not able to test the repositioning you suggested, but it looks like it's back to drawing on-screen(s) now. 

 

[Sigsegv]

6 hours ago, Acidham said:

It seems the issue was introduced with macOS 10.15.2

This has been happening for me since 10.15.1 at least, if not earlier.

[ionstorm]

Hi! I'm from the other thread.

 

You're right about Alfred rendering off-screen. I'm using an MBPR 2015.

 

The last thing I did was - when I put my computer to sleep, I had already disconnected the external monitor. Before I opened the lid today, I had already connected the external monitor. That said, i'm not able to replicate this behaviour consistently.

 

In any case, the workaround was for me to reconnect the external monitor. Happy to live with this till there's a fix.

[Vero]

@ionstorm Could you help us get a reproducible case if you have a moment? We would then be able to report this to Apple, and hopefully get it resolved.

 

It's my understanding from other users that the same issue happens with Spotlight, so if it can be replicated using Spotlight instead of Alfred, that's even better (as Apple will take it more seriously rather than blame third-party software...)

 

Looks like you've established that in a scenario where you disconnect the second screen > put Mac to sleep without a second screen attached > Reconnect second screen > Wake Mac, you get the behaviour where Alfred appears of screen the first time you show Alfred on screen.

 

If, when waking your Mac using the same order of actions as above, rather than immediately trying to show Alfred, you interact with Safari, launch another app, etc THEN show Alfred, does Alfred show on screen? If you do the above, but with Spotlight, does the same thing happen?

 

This would indicate that in the time where you're fiddling with other apps first, macOS recalculates the screen dimensions, resulting in apps like Alfred and Spotlight showing where they're supposed to, rather than based on some previously-cached screen dimension.

 

It'd be superbly helpful to get a reproducible order of events so that we can let Apple know that it occurs with Spotlight. And then maybe we'd all get a fix as a Xmas present  (A girl can wish, right?)

 

Thanks in advance,

Vero

 

[ionstorm]

I just wanted to let you know that I did try to test it out in as systematically as I could - however I could not replicate the problem by going through the test cases like this. The waking and sleeping alone doesn't produce this problem. Maybe it has to go into hibernation in order to manifest itself.

 

Machine Type: MacBook Pro 2015
OS: macOS Catalina 10.15.2

 

[dromard]

This has been happening to me a for a while. Here was my procedure to reproduce the issue. Apologies for the granularity:

 

1. 13" 2016 MBP (10.15.2) connected via HDMI to a LG Ultra HD display (3008 x 1692 @ 60 Hz)

       - Alfred was working correctly during daily activities.

       - The LG display acts as the Main display: this is where the Alfred input field appears.

2. Disconnected from the display and used the MBP for a couple of hours.

       - I did not close the MBP before disconnecting.

3. Closed the MBP for the night.

4. Open the MBP in the morning and used it a couple of hours.

5. Closed the MBP.

6. Connected the MBP to the LG Ultra HD display again.

7. Open the MBP

       - The LG wakes as the main display with the login filed.

8. Upon login, Alfred is now displaying off-screen, but does accept query actions.

 

Does Alfred retain any logging of it's own that can be pulled from somewhere?

 

I've collected all instances of "Alfred" from the System log that I will email separately.

 

D.

[dromard]

I found a workaround for myself. I disconnected the external display then used the hotkey to bring up Alfred. It drew in the middle of the MBP display. I reconnected the external display and tried again. It drew on the MBP display again. I dragged back onto the external display and its working there again, for now.

 

It's clunky, but it gets me the input field where I can see it.

 

D.

[frank]

Can confirm: both bug and workaround when it happens (disconnect external screen when Alfred is supposed to be open, leave box open once you see it, re-attach screen).

 

 

[Andrew]

For people experiencing this issue, would you please quit Alfred and replace the app with the one in the following dmg:

 

NOTE: LINK REMOVED - This is now in 4.0.9 b1141 pre-release available from Alfred's Update preferences.

 

With this build, if the number of screens has changed when attempting to show Alfred, the main window is released and re-initialised from scratch. I'm hoping that this will have the same effect as restarting Alfred, which has been reported to have fixed the issue for some.

 

Let me know how you get on, and if you're able to reproduce the issue with build 1139.

 

Cheers,
Andrew

[Mephistopelus]

On 2/13/2020 at 3:46 PM, Andrew said:

For people experiencing this issue, would you please quit Alfred and replace the app with the one in the following dmg:

 

https://cachefly.alfredapp.com/Alfred_4.0.9_1139.dmg

 

With this build, if the number of screens has changed when attempting to show Alfred, the main window is released and re-initialised from scratch. I'm hoping that this will have the same effect as restarting Alfred, which has been reported to have fixed the issue for some.

 

Let me know how you get on, and if you're able to reproduce the issue with build 1139.

 

Cheers,
Andrew

So far so good, can't reproduce the issue anymore! Thank you!

[Acidham]

Same here, I used it for a week with 2-3 times per day attach/detach monitor situation...works!

[Andrew]

Thanks! That sounds promising

[Andrew]

Note: I've now put this out as a pre-release, the link above has been removed

[xeyr]

I have had this problem intermittently since upgrading to Catalina and just found this thread.

 

Unfortunately I hit the same issue after upgrading to 4.0.9 [1142].

 

My workflow was:

1. Using laptop solo
2. Put laptop to sleep
3. Attach 2 external monitors
4. Wake laptop
5. Invoke alfred

I was able to use Moom + keyboard shortcuts with the Alfred window active + offscreen to bring it back to my primary monitor.

System Version: macOS 10.15.3 (19D76)

[frank]

Hi,

 

The problem went away with an earlier release, but now seems to be back. Probably/Maybe related to updating to the latest Catalina (10.15.5 build 19F101). I am using latest (?) Alfred (4.0.9, build 1144).

 

 

[frank]

Just happened again, Catalina 10.15.5 (19F101) and Alfred 4.1 (1165). Same behaviour, same "workaround" (disconnect second screen, open alfred, plug second screen back in when Alfred search window is open)

[John Studdard]

Running macOC Catalina 10.15.6 and am experiencing the issue when going from Office external monitor + MacAir Display -> close lid and go home -> connect to Home external monitor (same brand and model as office) + MacAir Display and Alfred prompt is not visible. I have been "Force Quit" and restarting the app and then it works fine. Just found this thread and have not done the testing by try to launch an app in the blind to see if Alfred is actually still there, just off screen somewhere.