Hotkey trigger doesn't output macOS selection

[everyonesdesign]

Both Alfred 3, Alfred 4 on macOS Big Sur 11.0.1

 

1. Create a hotkey trigger
2. Use selection in macOS as argument

 

Expected:

The selection is passed to the next actions

 

Actual:

No value passed

 

Simple reproduction case: Dropbox link

[Andrew]

@everyonesdesign it's likely Alfred has lost the permissions he needs to simulate keyboard events. Try removing and re-adding permissions listed here:

 

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/getting-started/permissions/

 

Specifically, the Accessibility ones.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[everyonesdesign]

Thank you, @Andrew, for the response. Unfortunately, it didn't do it for me. I disabled and re-enabled the permissions, however I still have the issue.

 

Do you have any other ideas? If you need me to run/try something to debug the issue, please, let me know.

[Andrew]

@everyonesdesign did you quit Alfred, and fully remove him from the Accessibility prefs rather than just un-tick and re-tick?

[everyonesdesign]

Yes. I re-tried it again, and now I also re-started macOS in between the steps (after disabling all the Accessibility preferences, and then after re-enabling again). I still cannot get selection text in a workflow it seems.

[Andrew]

@everyonesdesign I wonder if something on your main profile is blocking Alfred.

 

Could you please temporarily create a new user account, switch to that user, activate Alfred and see if it works there?

[everyonesdesign]

OK, it seems that the problem is in my setup. I killed all the other apps and it started working. I think some other app started acting up a bit differently after upgrade to Big Sur.

 

Sorry to bother you, I guess the issue can be closed. 

 

I'll look into that and maybe will post what app caused that, so that other people bumping into that will see it.

[everyonesdesign]

BTW, @Andrew, thank you very much for the Alfred tool. I literally cannot imagine my workflow without it now.

[everyonesdesign]

The app causing that was TickTick, because my shortcut (Cmd+Shift+O) seemed to coincide with its default global one (and by strange coincidence, the other shortcut I used for testing, Cmd+Option+Cmd+Z, coincided as well).

 

Thank you again for quick response and have a nice day! 

Edited November 21, 2020 by everyonesdesign

[weqopy]

I met the similar situation

url="{query}"
if [[ ${url:0:7} == "http://" || ${url:0:8} == "https://"  || ${url:0:4} == "www." ]] 
then
	open $url
else
    open https://www.google.com/search?q="$url"
fi

It was fine on MacOS 10.15 before, but this hotkey disabled frequently after updating to 11.1

 

And the hotkey disabled for two scenes:

1. delay to open the url

2. occur an error which is like (open /usr/****/https://www.google.com/search?q='$url') and I forgot save a screenshot. (I will upload it when this situation happens next time)

[weqopy]

this is the second situation

And for now this only happens when search Chinese character(Number and English characters is Okey). (And it did happened when search English characters before)

 

@Andrew 

[theSquashSH]

I'm still experiencing this issue today on macOS 10.15.7 (19H15), with Alfred 4.3 Build 1205 (Monday 14th December 2020).

I have no language inputs enabled on my system other than English (QWERTY), so I don't think it's an issue specific to users with Pinyin input enabled.

My workflow to reproduce the issue is in the screenshot below (inside the Large Type action is just `{query}`). It never triggers however because query is always empty.

If I change it to `{query} abcd` it triggers but shows only `abcd` in large type, confirming that the key command is working fine, it's just the pass "Selection in macOS" that's failing to grab text from the active application.

I've already tried removing all of Alfred's permissions in System Preferences and re-enabling, as well as restarting Alfred and the computer altogether. Nothing seems to fix it, "Selection in macOS" is always empty regardless of which foreground app I try triggering the workflow from.

 

[Andrew]

@theSquashSH Alfred needs to be able to simulate ⌘C to get the selection in macOS, so there must be something which is stopping this from happening.

 

Could you first try the lock command in Alfred, which simulates the macOS ⌃⌘Q shortcut and see if this works?

[bcometa]

I was having an issue where selection hot key wasn't working. Finally realized it just doesn't work for video files (e.g., mov, m4v). Maybe Alfred update can fix this?

[theSquashSH]

@Andrew sorry for the tremendously late reply.

I can confirm the issue is still happening in the latest version (Alfred 4.3.4 on macOS 11.2.3).

Several Alfred features that require simulating key commands don't work, including "Show Large Type" and some of my workflows. 

I just tested the Lock command in Alfred and it didn't work either, so something seems to be preventing it from simulating key events in general.

I have all permissions checked for Alfred under System Preferences > Security > *, so I don't think it's that.

Any ideas?


(and the others ^, e.g. Files and Folders, Automation, etc. are all checked as well)

Thanks for the help!

Edited May 13, 2021 by theSquashSH

[Vero]

2 hours ago, theSquashSH said:

Several Alfred features that require simulating key commands don't work, including "Show Large Type" and some of my workflows. 

 

Could you please open the Accessibility preferences, remove Alfred using the minus symbol, then re-add Alfred to the Accessibility list? Based on what you're describing, it seems that macOS has forgotten the permissions, so re-setting them should resolve that.

 

Let me know how you get on

 

Cheers,
Vero

[theSquashSH]

That fixed it, thank you!

[alfredpanda]

I am experiencing this same issue.

 

The below is not working - it is instead taking the value of the clipboard, not what is being selected.

 

I have toggled on and off Alfred 5 in the Accessibility permissions to no avail.

 

Thanks

 

@Vero @Andrew

 

 

Edited April 3 by alfredpanda

[Andrew]

@alfredpanda change the hotkey trigger mode to "Simulate modifier keys released" or "Wait until modifier keys are released", otherwise when Alfred simulates the ⌘C, you'll still be holding the option key. You can do this by clicking the teal symbols to the right of the hotkey config field.

 

Note that Alfred's default option is Simulate, so this should work by default.

[alfredpanda]

22 hours ago, Andrew said:

@alfredpanda change the hotkey trigger mode to "Simulate modifier keys released" or "Wait until modifier keys are released", otherwise when Alfred simulates the ⌘C, you'll still be holding the option key. You can do this by clicking the teal symbols to the right of the hotkey config field.

 

Note that Alfred's default option is Simulate, so this should work by default.

 

Thank you so much!! I was tearing my hair out with that one. Really appreciate the swift reply, and so glad this is working now 🙂