Search and open iCloud Drive application folders

[Allfried]

Hey Community,

Legendary Supporter here.

 

I love using iCloud Drive (most of the time) and am regularly scanning documents with an iOS app called "SwiftScan" (previously ScanBot, ScanPro...). It saves the scans into its own iCloud Drive folder named after the application.

 

Now, among the other iCloud Drive folders I'd like if Alfred shows them just like my other folders. Currently, they are not included in my search results at all.

This only affects automatically created application folders.

 

What can I do except making Workflows targeted by keyword?

[dfay]

If you look at the metadata the kind of these is “App Library” not “Folder”.  But I’m not sure if that will help with a solution - I set up a targeted workflow as you describe for ScanBot & it still works despite the app name changes.

 

I just tried dragging one into a file filter and its kind is as if it’s a folder even though it’s not.  

Edited January 28, 2021 by dfay

[Allfried]

I’m sure it has to do with Apple doing their own mumbo jumbo on their file APIs and in the Finder window.

 

It might be possible for Alfred devs to reverse engineer it.

In ~/Library/Mobile Documents are all the folders in their own weird app bundle kind of naming scheme. They include a Documents folder which is ultimately where the contents of these application folders is.

 

Are Alfred devs reading here?

[dfay]

One alternative I just figured out is to create an alias to the folder App Library.  The alias will be found by Alfred even though the original will not.

 

Update: on further testing this works with native searching, but not with workflows that act on folders.

Edited January 29, 2021 by dfay

[dfay]

11 hours ago, Allfried said:

Currently, they are not included in my search results at all.

But the contents are, at least in my setup, which has ~/Library/Mobile Documents in the search scope.

[Vero]

10 hours ago, Allfried said:

Are Alfred devs reading here?

 

I would trust @dfay's observations as much as my own, as he's a long time community member and very astute Alfred user

 

If all you're trying to do is return the folder (app library) in search results, you could create a tiny workflow with a keyword connected to that folder, as I did in the "keywords as nicknames" header in this post:

https://www.alfredapp.com/blog/tips-and-tricks/how-to-get-the-results-you-want-in-alfred-every-time/

 

Cheers,
Vero

[dfay]

Thanks Vero.  The tagging approach in the link you posted also works - I had tagged all the app libraries with UsedByApps to enable easier sorting in Finder, and realized that if I search tags u, all the corresponding Document folders appear in Alfred:

 

and you can then action them as ordinary folders.