External Boot Drive and Alfred

[rxstuve]

I am using an external drive as my boot drive and purchased Alfred thinking that I could accomplish what I could not get spotlight to do.  I can not start an app by opening Alfred and typing the name of the app.  The results in Alfed always come up with web search options.  How do I tell Alfred to use the external boot drive as the drive to search?  I have the applications directory from the external boot drive in the search parameter choices.  I also tried the root of the external drive and I can not find files that I know are on the desktop of the boot drive.  Perhaps its. a system setting?

[Andrew]

The external drive still needs to be indexed by macOS if you'd like file search results on this drive. Make sure this drive isn't listed in Spotlight's Privacy prefs, then in Terminal, check the indexing status of this drive by typing the following:

 

mdutil -s /Volumes/name-of-your-external-volume

 

If indexing is enabled on this drive, adding the volume to Alfred's default search scope should be all you need to do.

 

Alternatively, if it's just apps you'd like to launch from this drive without indexing enabled, there are a few ways you could achieve this. The most simple being using Alfred's file system navigation to navigate to the Apps folder on the external drive, then type and filter down to the app to launch from here. You can even set up a workflow to jump to exactly this location using a hotkey.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[deanishe]

1 hour ago, Andrew said:

adding the volume to Alfred's default search scope should be all you need to do

 

Would that be necessary? If it's the boot drive, standard folders (/Applications etc.) will be on that drive.

[Andrew]

9 minutes ago, deanishe said:

Would that be necessary? If it's the boot drive, standard folders (/Applications etc.) will be on that drive.

 

Hmm, you're probably right actually.

 

@rxstuve Also try using Alfred's built-in file troubleshooter which may give more indication into what's going on:

 

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/indexing/

[rxstuve]

Starting Diagnostics...

File: '/'
Path: '/'

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check file cache database...

✅ File cache integrity is ok

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check if file is readable...

✅ Alfred has permissions to read this file.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check if volume '/' is indexed by macOS...

✅ Indexing is enabled on this drive

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check direct file metadata...

⚠️ Direct metadata is missing, this file is likely not indexed by macOS

Display Name: 
 Other Names: 
Content Type: 
   Last Used: 

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check mdls file metadata...

❌ macOS metadata missing essential items

-----------------------------------------------------------

❌ Troubleshooting failed
 

I can not get indexing to create the file.