solved Snippets don't work until Accessibility is re-granted in macOS Permissions [Solved]

[tvil]

Hello,

Snippets don't work https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aj16T_Ds0bkv01sNX5l03gGKMWl_

 

- Alfred 4.3.4

- MacOS 11.4

 

Regards

[Jezper]

Yeah, snippets broke for me too with updating Alfred to 4.3.4, specifically the auto expansion part of it. I'm on a 2019 MBP running macOS 11.2.3.

[Vero]

@tvil @Jezper Could you please both open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility? Unlock the padlock, then remove Alfred completely (using the minus symbol, not just by unchecking the box) then re-add Alfred 4 to have Accessibility permissions.

 

This will re-set Alfred's permissions and ensure that macOS remembers that Alfred is allowed to perform actions such as auto-expansion. 

 

Could you both let me know how you get on?  

 

Cheers,
Vero

[tvil]

OK! It's good for me 👍

Thanks!

[Jezper]

That worked!

[Vero]

Thanks to you both for confirming that's all it was - looks like macOS is losing resolution of permissions, so I've updated the title so that this thread can be useful to anyone who finds it in the future

 

Cheers,
Vero

[stoyle]

This did not work for me. Tried booting my Mac without permission and re-adding it after, still does not work.

 

Anywhere I can look? I am a developer, so logs etc would be fine. Snippets are essential for my everyday workflow, so important for me to get fixed.

 

Cheers,

Alf

 

EDIT:

Alfred 4.3.4 on macOS 11.4 if that is any help at all.

 

Edited June 22, 2021 by stoyle
Added versions

[Vero]

@stoyle Could you please make sure that Alfred is fully removed from Accessibility using the minus symbol (not just unchecked), then re-added?

 

Next, please take a look at the troubleshooting steps for snippets here, ensuring that you test using TextEdit, as it's the simplest most native app:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/snippets/#no-expansion

 

Please provide more details if your issue persists so that I can help you further (e.g. what are your settings in all the locations highlighted by the Troubleshooting, whether this worked previously and what has changed on your Mac since, etc) 

 

Cheers,
Vero

[stoyle]

Sure done all this!

 

Removed:

 

Added:

 

Also did a boot, between these.

 

I am pretty sure these stopped working after the latest macOS update. As far as the troubleshooting.

 

And my expansions are example:

 

These used to work perfectly. Trying in "simple application" like sublime text and iterm, and many other places. But at least these should not interfere.

 

Are there any logs or anything like that I can check? I can of course try unistalling and re-installing alfred, but seems a bit drastic.

 

Cheers,

Alf

 

 

 

 

[stoyle]

I tried un-installing with AppZapper, and re-installing. Still does not work.

 

Are there no logs or anything I can check? This is very frustrating.

 

Cheers,

Alf

[Vero]

@stoyle A few more questions to help establish what the current status is on your Mac:

• Can you please try using Alfred's Clipboard feature? Open a new file in TextEdit, pop up Alfred's Clipboard History and press return to paste to the frontmost app. Does this work? If so, Accessibility does work, and the issue is specific to snippets
• How about using system commands like Screen Saver and Lock? Do these work?
• If you open Alfred's preferences to the Snippets prefs, do you see a red "secure entry" error message when trying to expand text? This will be a telling sign of whether a third-party app is interfering, or whether the permissions are deeper in macOS.
• Do you have any other keyboard manipulation or snippet apps running on your Mac?

Please do any testing in TextEdit only, not in apps like Sublime Text and iTerm, as both of these have their own clipboard manipulation as well. Let me know how you get on

 

Cheers,
Vero

[stoyle]

Thanks.

 

• Clipboard history works fine. Without it I would be lost
• Lock works, screen saver works.
• No warnings in snippets
• No, no global ones. Only regular dev tools, which, as you point out, often have such tools.

 

Did all the testing in text edit.

 

There are no logs hidden away somewhere which can show the issue?

[Vero]

@stoyle Thanks for the answers: What this confirms is that it doesn't appear to be an accessibility permissions issue then.

 

Could you confirm exactly what you're typing into TextEdit for your snippet? And could you open the Auto Expansion Options in the top right, and check you don't have any apps other than Alfred and Alfred Prefs in the "Don't expand snippets in..." area?

[stoyle]

Sure.

 

 

Three variations, last one with a space as well.

 

 

 

Probably not relevant. But this is "Tweaking"

 

I've been using this feature for many years, so these snippets are almost muscle memory to me. Stopped working after a Mac update I guess. I am 99,9% sure I haven't changed any settings which should stop it from working.

 

Cheers,

Alf

 

 

[Vero]

@stoyle Unless I'm missing something glaringly obvious because I've got Friday brain, I just can't think why this wouldn't work for you...

 

Could you please temporarily create a new user account on your Mac, activate your Powerpack and set up accessibility & snippets there? I appreciate that's a little more time consuming troubleshooting, but I just want to confirm that on a vanilla account on your Mac, you're able to use snippets normally.

 

Let me know how you get on.

 

Cheers,
Vero

[stoyle]

Yup! That worked 🤯

 

I have no idea why this does not work on my current account. But using a new one is a bit more work than I'd like to do.

 

I am happy to do some remote debugging of anything like that, if that would be helpful? Find it hard to believe that I am the only one with this issue, but then again, maybe I am...

 

Cheers,

Alf

[Vero]

@stoyle The objective isn't to get you to switch account, just to narrow down where and when the issue occurs.

 

We've so far established that 1. It's seemingly not caused by Accessibility if other features that require it are working, 2. It's exclusively on your primary user profile, 3. it isn't caused by secure entry being locked by third-party apps (at least not visibly).

 

Given this is usually a very straightforward feature to enable, and issues are normally solved by resetting accessibility permissions, I'm at a bit of a loss.

 

At this point, the kind of debugging that is needed is, as suggested before, to quit all apps and disable any that are set to launch at startup automatically. Restart, and go straight to TextEdit, and try again. No opening browsers that may have plugins, etc. 

 

Could you also email to info@ your snippet collection and your Diagnostics file (which you can get by typing "?diagnostics" into Alfred) so that I can take a further look without asking you to share details publicly?

 

Cheers,
Vero

 

[stoyle]

Ok, so after exporting diagnostics and then rebooting it started working. I haven't done anything else.

 

If anyone else experiences this, I really cannot say what changed.

 

Anyways, thanks for your help Vero. Have a great weekend!

 

Cheers,
Alf