"Find" command not navigating to file in the Finder

[mtalio]

A few weeks ago, I was using Alfred App with no problems whatsoever. It was great finding files in my Box Sync folder on my Mac. When I executed the Find command, it would navigate to the file I was searching for and would select it. I switched to Box Drive and realized Alfred can't work with Box Drive. I just switched back to Box Sync. Now, whenever I execute a Find command, it doesn't navigate to my intended search result (it appears that this happens especially when the intended result is in my Box Sync folder). Often times, it will open the folder containing my intended result but I then have to navigate to the file I want within the folder. It's annoying. It's like it's missing the last step.

 

Does anyone have any ideas? Am I being clear enough? Thanks in advance.

Edited July 2, 2020 by mtalio

[Andrew]

@mtalio could you please update to the 4.1 pre-release which has added in a file indexing troubleshooter.

 

Once installed, navigate to Alfred's Prefs > Help > Troubleshooting > File Search Troubleshooting > Run Troubleshooting, and drag in one of the files which can't be found. This should give an indication as to why files can't be found.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[mtalio]

To be clear, it was finding the files, it was not selecting them. It would only open the enclosing folder but would not highlight the file/document within the folder as it did before.

 

For instance, I have the Box Sync folder which contains all my client folders (with files in this folders). Now, if I search for the folder for a particular client by typing "find last name", the Box Sync folder opens but the client folder is not highlighted. Before, I could do a search with Find and it would open the Box Sync folder and take me right to my client's folder. I have hundreds of clients so it was very useful. I use the "Open" command (space before my search term) and it finds folders beautifully. However, if I do that for a document, it will, of course, open the document. I don't always want that. I'd prefer "finding" it with the Find command b/c sometimes I want to act ON the file and not IN the file.

 

In other words, FIND used to work for Folders and documents/files. Now, it works for documents/files only.

OPEN works great for folders for me but I don't always want to open documents/files.

My workaround is to use the OPEN command for folders and FIND for documents/files. 

 

FIND used to just work for both.

Now that I've made my explanation potentially more circuitous and long, do you recommend I still follow your previous suggestion? I don't want to "break" what now currently works.

 

Thanks Andrew!

 

 

 

 

[M4L]

@Andrew

 

I have the exact same problem since some weeks, it doesn't navigate to the selected folder anymore, but to the folder one level up.

 

A fix would be greatly appreciated.

Edited September 22, 2020 by M4L

[deanishe]

37 minutes ago, M4L said:

I have the exact same problem since some weeks, it doesn't navigate to the selected folder anymore, but to the folder one level up.

 

This is a Catalina bug, isn't it? "Reveal in Finder" doesn't work properly (from any application).

[Vero]

@M4L @deanishe After some investigating a few days ago, Andrew was able to work out what's happening.

 

 It seems to be specifically related to the column view in Finder. If you change the default Finder view to items or list, then it works as expected.

 

The workaround is to change the Finder view, or to use "Open File" instead of "Reveal in Finder", as this will open the folder in Finder, but also select it.

 

This is clearly a bug in Catalina, and we tried various workarounds to this issue using Apple's APIs to no avail. You get the same behaviour if you cmd+return in Spotlight on a folder. This is a bug that didn't exist on the older Mojave version of macOS, but unfortunately is exhibited in Big Sur's latest beta.

 

Cheers,
Vero

[M4L]

Thanks @Verofor the information, in this case I will use open for folders and find for files.. Hopefully Apple fixes this at some point, weird.

[phw]

I disabled (not checked) showing the Documents folder in Finder preferences:Sidebar → Spotlight and Alfred ARE NOT able to reveal files in Finder column view.

Re-enabling (checked) showing the Documents folder in Finder preferences:Sidebar → Spotlight and Alfred ARE able to reveal files in Finder column view.

 

Hope this solves the issue for others.