New to Alfred, need help with file search

[Paulinnate]

hi everyone,   bit of a frustrated new user because I'm finding that spotlight is able to find things much better than Alfred so far.  I hope it's just user error but not sure how else to trouble shoot the lack of results i'm getting.  i tried searching for an older mp3 that i know is stored in icloud, but spotlight is able to see it.  what am i doing wrong, i hope i provided enough info, thanks for the help.   i did allow Alfred to have full disk access as the error suggested.

 

 

[Paulinnate]

Also, this is a new imac,  so it came preloaded with Catalina.   also, i know alfred can't search mail on catalina but i also have an older macbook, would running alfred on both machines allow it to see mail from that OS,  mojave.   thanks for the help again!!

[deanishe]

1 hour ago, Paulinnate said:

I hope it's just user error

 

Did you configure Alfred to find MP3s? What happens when you search using the open keyword?

 

I think you might be misunderstanding how Alfred is supposed to be used. It's not intended to be an all-in-one general search tool like Spotlight. You're expected to create many targeted searches, not try to include everything in Alfred's main search. So for example, you would create a separate search using a File Filter just to search music files, or another one for PDF documents or images. You'll get much more out of Alfred if you use it that way.

 

Also, you don't need to add all of those folders to your Search Scope. Adding ~/Desktop includes all of its subfolders, too, and you don't even need ~/Desktop because you've selected "Folders in Home".

 

2 hours ago, Paulinnate said:

would running alfred on both machines allow it to see mail from that OS,  mojave

 

Are you asking whether Alfred can search other machines? If so, no.

[Paulinnate]

Ahh, this is a big help...   makes a lot more sense.  Having targeted and narrower results is even better... i just need to learn how to target my search queries better.   And yes, i was treating Alfred as an enhanced spotlight search.  I just found the File Filter Input help guide...   so thank you...   also appreciate the advice on the Search Scope...  I was frantically adding every folder i could find thinking it would help.   Appreciate the response and pointing me in the right direction.  

Edited August 22, 2020 by Paulinnate