Issues after upgrading to Monterey and also how to re-import settings.

[UKDEVELOPER]

So I had Alfred installed on a master machine and also had the preferences on dropbox for a backup machine. 

The master machine died so purchased a new one which had Monterey installed.

But Im not sure how to bring the preferences back into Alfred. at the moment it's using the dropbox ones (as if I have two backup machines) and im wondering if that's contributing to my other issues which are constant "XXX seems to be preventing text expansion by locking secure entry" errors. 

 

I reboot and within 5 mins it's back again, making Alfred completely unusable for me at the moment. 

Any help would be great. 

[vitor]

On 1/15/2022 at 1:43 PM, UKDEVELOPER said:

But Im not sure how to bring the preferences back into Alfred.

 

Alfred Preferences → Advanced → Syncing. Set it to the directory where your old preferences are and Alfred should pick those up and use them.

 

On 1/15/2022 at 1:43 PM, UKDEVELOPER said:

at the moment it's using the dropbox ones (as if I have two backup machines)

 

What does that mean in practice?

[UKDEVELOPER]

So I have managed to sort the preferences issue out and now have all preferences local again which is good. 

 

But Alfred is still completely unusable do the the XXX seems to be preventing text expansion issue. 

 

It's happening so often now that im literally using Alfred as a way to cut and paste info stored in snippets into where I need them. 

[Vero]

@UKDEVELOPER What is the XXX that's being reported?

 

Have you followed the steps we provide here to narrow down what is locking secure input?

 

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/snippets/#secure-input

 

You should be able to establish whether it's caused by a browser plugin, for example, or a particular app. The more information you share with us, the more we'll be able to help you out.

 

On 1/15/2022 at 1:43 PM, UKDEVELOPER said:

at the moment it's using the dropbox ones (as if I have two backup machines)

 

As a clarification, there's no primary/secondary Mac concept as far as syncing preferences is concerned. Alfred stores the preferences in the sync folder you set, and - once set up correctly - both Macs use the preferences and can change/save to them equally.

[UKDEVELOPER]

Sorry if it was a bit vague. This is all new to me. 

So the preventing text expansion error seems very random. For instance, I could be working, then notice text expander isn't working is I check Alfred. I may see "safari seems to be preventing text expansion" so I close safari completely. 

Then it instantly changes to "telegram seems to be preventing text expansion". So I close telegram and it reports "Firefox seems to be preventing text expansion" so again I close Firefox and it then shows "process 1234 seems to be preventing text expansion" and then I have no idea where to go from there. 

 

I hope this makes things a little clearer. 

[deanishe]

5 hours ago, UKDEVELOPER said:

Then it instantly changes to "telegram seems to be preventing text expansion". So I close telegram and it reports "Firefox seems to be preventing text expansion" so again I close Firefox and it then shows "process 1234 seems to be preventing text expansion" and then I have no idea where to go from there.

Yeah, this happens sometimes.
 

Unfortunately, there's no proper API to ask macOS which program has turned on secure text entry, so Alfred tries to figure it out based on other clues, but this isn't always reliable.

 

When it can't reliably identify the problematic app, all you can do is log out and back in, or reboot.

 

Secure text entry is an important security API, and macOS will only allow it to be turned off by the program that turned it on.

 

As such, problems with secure entry can only be properly solved by the developers of the app that's not turning it off when it should.

Edited January 19, 2022 by deanishe

[Vero]

@UKDEVELOPER I would encourage you to go through the step-by-step I linked above.

 

As a rough guide:

• Quit all apps on your Mac, disable any launch-at-startup apps, and restart with as minimal a setup as possible.
• Open Alfred's Snippets preferences so that you can see any errors popping up (keep in mind that this updates every 10 seconds or so, so don't rush).
• Open a single app and use it, taking into consideration how you usually use it, e.g. think of the plugins as well when using your browser and disable them if needed to narrow down further.

By doing one app at the time and not opening the dozen apps we all normally have open when we work, you should be able to narrow down which app or plugin causes the secure input issue. You'll need to be methodical, but as I said above, browsers and plugins are a good starting point as I recall LastPass, BitWarden and some other passwordy plugins causing issues in the past.

 

Let us know your findings and we might be able to help you further.

 

Cheers,
Vero

[UKDEVELOPER]

Thanks for your suggestions guys. I've narrowed down the issue. 

It turned out it was my crypto LEDGER app logging out after a period of inactivity. Within 10 seconds of it logging out Alfred complains. As soon as I log back in Alfred is happy again. 

 

So all good. 

 

Thanks for all your help.