File Search issue in MacOS Monterey after Migration Assistant

[rdj]

I think it would be a good idea to edit the top post on this thread which is now marked as resolved to indicate that creating (and logging in with?) and deleting a new user profile fixes your existing user profile. I think many of us linked to this thread read it and dismissed it as a useless "fix" because we weren't willing to switch user profiles.

 

Hopefully somebody who knows for sure can clarify whether it's even necessary to log into the new user profile. I didn't try Alfred again on my original account after creating the profile but before logging in with it.

[jhutch]

@rdj - Unfortunately, I was not able to reproduce your results on my system.

[rdj]

Hmm, that's certainly unfortunate. I'll see if I can list all the steps at some level of detail in case there's anything in there that could matter.

1. System Preferences > Users and Groups > Click the lock to make changes
2. + button > New Account: Administrator
3. Apple Menu > Lock Screen
4. Login Screen > Switch User
5. Login as the new user
6. Skip all of the OOBE stuff: no iTunes account, no siri, no TouchID, etc.
7. Run Alfred 4 under the new account
8. Add /Users/ryan (my original account) to the search path
9. Test a "find" command in Alfred, which discovered things under my home directory (though due to file permissions, it could find e.g. stuff in my Downloads but not my Dropbox)
10. Apple Menu > Log out
11. Login as my original user
12. Test a "find" command in Alfred, seems to be working now
13. System Preferences > Users and Groups — delete the temporary user

The only thing that's popping out at me as a possible important variable is that I created a new Administrator account, not a Standard Account. Not sure which you tried.

Edited November 3, 2021 by rdj

[jhutch]

Thanks for taking the time to provide detailed steps - perhaps someone else will have better luck. As it turns out, I did all of that in my run through (different /Users/[name] obviously) and was unsuccessful. Fingers crossed that something else comes about that restores the functionality.

[jhutch]

@vero - New profile can see a file in ~/Downloads (test.zip), however it CANNOT see same file in ~/.

[Vero]

14 hours ago, rdj said:

I think it would be a good idea to edit the top post on this thread which is now marked as resolved to indicate that creating (and logging in with?) and deleting a new user profile fixes your existing user profile. I think many of us linked to this thread read it and dismissed it as a useless "fix" because we weren't willing to switch user profiles.

 

There's a good chance that this is coincidence rather than caused by the creation and deletion of a secondary profile. 

 

I'm pleased to hear it now all works for you, and I'll happily eat my words if everyone comes back with the same observation as you did, but I suspect something else may have happened in the background. E.g. have you updated to a newer build of Monterey perhaps?

 

Could I please ask anyone in this thread still experiencing the issue to ensure they're up to date with Monterey (Currently, I believe that's 12.0.1) as I've had a couple of users report by email that the issue has resolved itself after updating.

 

Please include which Monterey version you're using when replying to this thread.

[andreas0]

I'm on 12.0.1 and it seems like the one thing I ruled out from the beginning seems to fix things: Rebuilding the index

 

EDIT: This can be done through the Alfred preferences -> "Advanced" -> "Rebuild macOS Metadata" (I did not delete the Spotlight files)

 

Reindexing is still running but it looks like it works and I'm curious if it does help other users affected by this too.

Edited November 4, 2021 by andreas0

[jhutch]

I am also on 12.0.1 and amongst the first troubleshooting steps I tried was to rebuild the index and that did not resolve things.

[jcrisp16]

12.0.1 here as well which I believe was the release version and there hasn't been an update since. thanks.

[rdj]

Both my old and new Macs were 12.0.1 Apple Silicon. I explicitly upgraded the new macbook to 12.0.1 and then erased it and started over before doing my migration. I'd already been using the computer for a day or so when I realized the problem with Alfred, because I was trying to find a deeply nested folder in which I file a monthly bank statement. At that point I tried some things on my own like granting Alfred full disk access. When nothing I tried helped, I found the troubleshooting steps (https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/indexing/) and followed all those steps. That's the point where I found this forum thread. I guess it's not impossible there was just some kind of time-delayed mds background magic going on the whole time, but definitely spotlight worked, and definitely the top-level home directory folders were findable but no files nested within. I did not upgrade macOS versions or even reboot or logout, I just created that new user and switched to it and back. As the new user, the unfindable files were instantly findable with no sort of delay or anything. I didn't immediately try finding them back on my original user account, but within 20 minutes or something I was going back through everything I had tried and when I searched for them on the original account they showed up. If it's helpful, I did email you my Alfred diagnostics file after doing the standard troubleshooting steps but before I started creating new accounts.

[jhutch]

While I did this initially during the troubleshooting phase, I did not check the "Delete .Spotlight-V100 before reindex" option before doing the "Rebuild macOS Metadata" process under Advanced. I gave it another try and the full file search functionality has been restored to Alfred. Even on a loaded new MBP, this reindexing process will legit take awhile.

 

Additional note: Make sure you manually add Terminal.app (Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app) to Full Disk Access. It ain't gonna add itself (or prompt you to provide permissions or anything else like that) and you will NOT be able to delete .Spotlight-V100 (despite using su/sudo).

 

Hope other folks have similar positive results.

[Vero]

For anyone who hasn't done so yet, please rebuild your Mac's index properly, as this may be all that's needed, as seems to have been the case with some users.

 

Even if you believe you've already reindexed, please follow the steps below specifically (as it involves deleting a cache first and ensuring Terminal has suitable permissions).

• First, please pop open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access and add Terminal
• Once you've done this, go to Alfred's Advanced preferences, choose "Rebuild macOS Metadata"
• Ensure that you check "Delete .Spotlight-V100 before reindex"
• Follow the steps in Terminal, and keep a close eye for any error messages relating to your index.

Please let me know if there are any errors. Otherwise, if it proceeds smoothly, you may need to wait up to an hour for the reindex to complete. Once this is done, make your searches again and see if your results are more as expected.

 

Do let us know how you get on

[smokedalmond]

4 hours ago, Vero said:

For anyone who hasn't done so yet, please rebuild your Mac's index properly, as this may be all that's needed, as seems to have been the case with some users.

 

Even if you believe you've already reindexed, please follow the steps below specifically (as it involves deleting a cache first and ensuring Terminal has suitable permissions).

• First, please pop open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access and add Terminal
• Once you've done this, go to Alfred's Advanced preferences, choose "Rebuild macOS Metadata"
• Ensure that you check "Delete .Spotlight-V100 before reindex"
• Follow the steps in Terminal, and keep a close eye for any error messages relating to your index.

Please let me know if there are any errors. Otherwise, if it proceeds smoothly, you may need to wait up to an hour for the reindex to complete. Once this is done, make your searches again and see if your results are more as expected.

 

Do let us know how you get on

@vero This worked for me. Thank you!! 

[jcrisp16]

7 hours ago, Vero said:

For anyone who hasn't done so yet, please rebuild your Mac's index properly, as this may be all that's needed, as seems to have been the case with some users.

 

Even if you believe you've already reindexed, please follow the steps below specifically (as it involves deleting a cache first and ensuring Terminal has suitable permissions).

• First, please pop open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access and add Terminal
• Once you've done this, go to Alfred's Advanced preferences, choose "Rebuild macOS Metadata"
• Ensure that you check "Delete .Spotlight-V100 before reindex"
• Follow the steps in Terminal, and keep a close eye for any error messages relating to your index.

Please let me know if there are any errors. Otherwise, if it proceeds smoothly, you may need to wait up to an hour for the reindex to complete. Once this is done, make your searches again and see if your results are more as expected.

 

Do let us know how you get on

This worked for me as well, thank you!

[Vero]

Most recent reports seem to be that either the issue resolves itself after a little while from upgrading to Monterey, or that rebuilding the index properly resolves the file search issue.

 

Could anyone who reported an issue earlier on and hasn't yet responded please let us know what behaviour they're seeing now and whether it's all sorted for you as well? It would be very helpful for us (and the rest of the community) to hear from you! 

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Drabideaux]

I haven’t had any luck resolving this issue. I upgraded to Monterey on day one and I’ve tried all the suggested fixes in this thread. Spotlight is finding things that Alfred isn’t. 
I’m on a M1 MacBook Pro. 

[Andrew]

One further thing to try is unchecking the option to include "Folders in Home" in Alfred's Features > Default Results > Search Scope, then specifically drag your home folder in (which will add ~). Then delete some of the additional items in there to make your search scope look like this:

 

 

This will cause the underlying macOS Metadata service to craft a slightly different query over the data which may give you results.

 

If you're having problems, and the other solutions above haven't helped, let me know if you try this and it helps.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[Drabideaux]

This worked for me. Thanks!

 

actually it’s still not launching/finding certain apps. 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Drabideaux

[Vero]

29 minutes ago, Drabideaux said:

actually it’s still not launching/finding certain apps. 

 

Could you please provide specifics? Which apps, where are they located, are they new or were they installed before your upgrade? What do they show when you drag them into the File Troubleshooting tool? 

 

The more information you can provide, the more likely we'll be able to help you find a solution (which may also help other community members!)

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Drabideaux]

Lightroom Classic, Paprika, Panda are the apps not showing up. They’re in the applications folder. 
all apps appear to be ok in troubleshooting as far as I can tell. 
 

Starting Diagnostics...

 

[snip snip - Vero]

Edited November 13, 2021 by Vero
Cut file diagnostics details out to keep the thread most readable, as it didn't provide any additional insight

[Vero]

19 hours ago, Drabideaux said:

They’re in the applications folder. 

 

@Drabideaux Could you please go to Alfred's Default Results preferences, uncheck the "macOS Applications folder" box at the top of the search scope, then drag in the individual Applications folders, which are:

 

/Applications
/System/Applications

 

and let me know how you get on?

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Drabideaux]

Alfred still doesn’t find a lot of my applications. Let me know if there is any other info I can provide that might be helpful. I sent an email with my diagnostics file. 

[Andrew]

@Drabideaux Could you be a bit more specific on which apps aren't being found...

• is it just the Microsoft apps (from your email screenshot), as sometimes, these can be categorised incorrectly by macOS.
• Also, are all apps in the main /Applications folder now being found other than the MS apps?
• How about files in general, e.g. in your home folder?

When you reindexed, did you delete the .Spotlight-V100 folder?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[Drabideaux]

It’s not just Microsoft apps. I’ll give you a list of the apps I have installed and the ones not being found. Do you prefer it via email or in the forum? 

[Drabideaux]

On 11/9/2021 at 4:39 PM, Andrew said:

@Drabideaux Could you be a bit more specific on which apps aren't being found...

• is it just the Microsoft apps (from your email screenshot), as sometimes, these can be categorised incorrectly by macOS.
• Also, are all apps in the main /Applications folder now being found other than the MS apps?
• How about files in general, e.g. in your home folder?

When you reindexed, did you delete the .Spotlight-V100 folder?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

 

• I did delete the .Spotlight-V100 folder

• There does not seem to be any problem finding general files

• There are a significant number of apps that are not being found. I can't figure out a pattern. Both old and new apps, from the App Store and not, It finds Microsoft Word, but not Excel.

 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Vero
Removed long list of found/not found apps