Cannot Delete Snippet Collection

[Horo]

I accidentally created a snippet collection when I meant to create a snippet. When I try to delete the collection (now named Delete Me Please) I get the message "The file "Delete Me Please" could not be moved to the trash." I can add and remove snippets from the collection, and any snippets I put in it work correctly. 

 

I can't find this message in the documentation or the support board, so any help would be appreciated. I'm using 5.0.6 (2110) on MacOS 13.1.

 

UPDATE: In continuing to investigate, I discovered that Alfred is not on the list of apps for Automation preferences. However, I cannot add it. Whether I access the pane through System Settings or by using the Request Permissions flow in Alfred, there is no "+" button and I cannot drag Alfred from the Applications folder to that pane.

 

Is this related? Thoughts?

Edited January 16, 2023 by Horo
Further investigation

[Vero]

@Horo Welcome to the forum

 

First, regarding your screenshot: Alfred needs Accessibility for snippets, rather than Automation. Alfred will request Automation as and when needed, so no need to worry about that one.

 

As for being unable to delete snippets collections, could you please let me know exactly what error message you're seeing? E.g. if it's a red message, can you take a screenshot?

 

Out of interest, are you syncing your preferences, and if so, which service are you using? I recall seeing in the past that users who a particular sync service (possibly Google Drive, if memory serves me right!) were sometimes unable to delete a snippet collection. If you manually navigate to it, you'll be able to find and remove the folder, but it would be helpful to know which sync service you're using. 

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Horo]

Hi, thanks for the response. The message is "The file "Delete Me Please" could not be moved to the trash.". Screenshot attached.

 

I am syncing via Dropbox. Since I'm on Ventura, the folder specified in Preferences is ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox. I note that the Alfred preferences file is NOT set to be online only. I took a peek inside the Alfred.alfredpreferences file and the "Delete Me Please" collection is listed. I didn't manually manipulate it at all, since I'd like to solve this for the future. 

 

Please let me know if you need any further information

Edited January 16, 2023 by Horo
Bad typist!

[Vero]

@Horo Sounds like Alfred doesn't have permission to modify files in that location, which could be the result of the move Dropbox did.

 

Could you please create a brand new folder in Dropbox, make sure it's set to be stored locally, then set that as your new sync folder? Everything will be copied to it, so you can test whether deleting the collection now works.

 

If it does, you can delete the old folder to avoid confusion in the future.

 

Let us know how you get on as this might be of interest to other users too

[Horo]

Hi, no joy. First, I mention that Alfred had been able to add the collection to the file, so it was able to modify. 

 

It turns out my preferences file was in the top level of the Dropbox folder. There was also an "Alfred" folder with an old preferences file, and a Dropbox (Archive) folder on my hard drive (from the Ventura changes to Dropbox, I believe) that also had an Alfred folder. with a preferences file in it I deleted the Alfred folder from the Dropbox directory and created a new empty one, and I deleted the file in the (Archive) folder. I created a new Alfred folder on Dropbox and changed the Alfred preferences to point to it. After Alfred restarted and was pointing to the new folder, I tried to delete the collection again, but I got the same error message. I then deleted the preferences file from the root of Dropbox, and I've verified that the one I just made is now the only alfredpreferences file on my Mac. I still can't delete the collection.

 

Any other thoughts are appreciated. Please let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to supply.

[Vero]

@Horo I've passed this on to Andrew to investigate further; It's possible that the new Dropbox version doesn't have a proper Trash.

 

For now, you can manually delete the collection as you discovered, and we'll be taking a look into this.

[Horo]

@Vero Thanks. Unfortunately it didn't occur to me that I wouldn't be able to delete the snippet folder in question with BBEdit. I can only delete the plist items within it. Is there an editor I can use to delete it? (I had Xcode for a previous job, but I no longer have it.)

[Vero]

@Horo You can navigate to it within Finder or via Alfred, there's no need to use any particular editor.

 

You can paste ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox into Alfred then navigate to the relevant location by opening the Alfred preferences package until you're in the right folder. You can then reveal it in Finder and delete the collection you no longer require. 

[Horo]

When I navigate to the file as suggested and try to delete it, I get the "one or more required items can't be found" message seen in the attached screenshot.

 

This is more an annoyance than a huge issue for me, but I think it should be solved overall. If you folks just want me to wait until you find a solution, that's fine. Just let me know, please. 

[Vero]

16 hours ago, Horo said:

If you folks just want me to wait until you find a solution

 

Given the issue occurs in Finder as well, this isn't something we can resolve; Alfred uses standard methods to request for the folder to be deleted, so if Finder is refusing to delete it as well, there's either an issue in Dropbox or in macOS stopping you from having the necessary permissions. I would suggest raising this with Dropbox.

[Horo]

Thanks for your assistance. The thought of trying to get support from Dropbox seemed scary, so I just quit Alfred and moved the preferences file to the desktop. There, I was able to delete the collection, and then I moved the file back where it belonged. All good!

Edited January 23, 2023 by Horo