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Alfred does not seem to import settings from other computer when running in Big Sur beta


mattselby

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I recently installed Alfred on a Mac running the Big Sur beta. I followed the instructions for setting up a second Mac from here in order to sync settings from another machine. However, on restarting Alfred none of my settings were imported. No workflows, no snippets, or anything else as far as I can tell.

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

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@mattselby Welcome to the forum.

 

Can you provide more details?

  • Which Big Sur beta?
  • Which version of Alfred?
  • What is your sync service? Did you give it enough time to download all of your data to the new Mac BEFORE setting up sync as indicated in that page?
  • When setting the sync location, did the location selection menu say new preferences would be created, or that it would use the existing preferences you pointed it to?
  • Are your preferences still all in place on the original Mac?

Please provide as much information as possible, as this is unlikely to be a Big Sur issue. If you just set up your sync location without Dropbox (or other sync service) having time to sync all your cloud data to your Mac, Alfred will have created a new preferences file as there isn't one in existence.

 

Cheers,
Vero

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Hi @Vero!

 

Thank you for the quick response.

 

Here are the details you asked for:

  • macOS version 11.0 (20A5354i)
  • Alfred 4.1.1 [1172]
  • I am not syncing settings as much as I am migrating them, I copied the .alfredpreferences file from my previous install (which was synced via Dropbox -- I'm not using Dropbox on my new machine) to a local folder on my newly set up machine and pointed Alfred at that folder. I note that when I "show package contents" on the .alfredpreferences file (and the one nested inside of it) I can see my snippets and workflows
  • When setting the sync location, the location selection menu said that it would use the existing preferences. On restart, it didn't appear to do that
  • As I said, this was more of a migration than a sync

Let me know if you need any further info. Perhaps it is something with changing from Dropbox to no longer using Dropbox.

 

Thanks!

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@mattselby I'm wondering if you might've grabbed the wrong version of your preferences from your old Mac and the Alfred.alfredpreferences you chose could have contained the default preferences rather than your more recent workflows and snippets. Did you check on the old Mac what path you had set under Advanced > Sync? This is where you should find the right version of your file.

 

If you navigate in Finder to the location of your preferences, right-click and choose Show Package Contents, then go into the Snippets folder, is there anything there?

 

If you think you may have selected the wrong set of preferences, go back to the old Mac, make sure your preferences are the correct ones (maybe create a new snippet collection to see the new name added to the list in Finder). You can then copy these to the appropriate location on your new Mac, and set the location in Advanced preferences.  :) 

 

Once Alfred restarts, go check in Advanced that the correct location is still set.

 

Let me know how you get on.

 

Cheers,
Vero

 

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I'm pretty sure I got the right file. Here is a peek at the contents of Alfred.alfredpreferences > Alfred.alfredpreferences:

 

image.thumb.png.bc0de3966dda9551cb15ab9de9b39b39.png

 

The snippets and workflows appear to be the right ones (based on looking inside). These are the current preferences set to be used by Alfred. However, workflows and snippets are empty.

 

Thanks!

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@mattselby If the location is set correctly in the preferences, Alfred will use these preferences. What location is set in Advanced > Sync? And where is that folder located in Finder?

 

Are none of your collections listed in the Snippets preferences? And none of your workflows in the workflows tab?

 

This seems odd, so could you type "?diagnostics" in Alfred and email the resulting file to our info@ address. 

 

Cheers,
Vero

 

 

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To conclude this thread, the user worked out that there was some corruption in their preferences file downloaded from Dropbox. They deleted this version of the preferences, and took a new version of it from their Time Machine backup, which worked right away.

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