Alfred preferences syncing under the new Dropbox, does it work? any gotchas?

[dburr]

So apparently the "new Dropbox" (the one that moves its files to ~/Library/CloudStorage) is now out of beta, and I am now being "encouraged" to upgrade to it. So I've been doing some research and apparently there have been problems of Alfred not being able to search for files in the new location, but those appear to have been solved by a recent Alfred update. Great. But what about Alfred preference syncing?  Does it work? Are there any gotchas? What actions (if any) will I need to take once I've upgraded Dropbox and it has moved everything to ~/Library/CloudStorage?

 

[Stephen_C]

See this post.

 

Stephen

[Vero]

@dburr For some users (but not all), Dropbox's change has caused an issue in the underlying macOS index scoping.

 

If you're one of those who encounter this issue, you can work around it; Select the Alfred Preferences > Default Results > Search Scope > Reset... then select Reset to Applications and Home. This removes the Folders in Home option, and adds your home folder directly.

 

[vitor]

8 hours ago, dburr said:

But what about Alfred preference syncing?  Does it work?

It does. The thing to make sure is that Alfred’s sync folder remains downloaded (i.e. Dropbox doesn’t make it online-only and delete the local copy).

[cameronreilly]

I'm having the same problem. Alfred doesn't find any of my files in Dropbox (which happens to be ALL of my files). I did the RESET TO APPLICATIONS AND HOME trick yesterday and it fixed it for a while, but this morning the problem had returned. When I did the RESET again, this time is hasn't fixed the problem. I've also made sure my preferences folder (also in Dropbox) is downloaded and set to be offline, but this hasn't helped, either. I also had a problem today where Alfred didn't pick up my Workflows, but a Mac reboot seems to have fixed that problem for now. 

[Stephen_C]

It's always helpful to mention what versions of macOS and Alfred you are using. I assume you're on Alfred 5.0.6 and macOS 13.2.1: is that correct?

 

Stephen

[Vero]

6 hours ago, cameronreilly said:

When I did the RESET again

 

You say you needed to do the reset again. Is this because you switched back to "Reset to Alfred Defaults"? Or because your configuration switched back by itself?

 

If it's because you switched back manually, just to clarify, you will need to leave your search scope as "Reset to Applications and Home" - this isn't something where you switch to then switch straight back to Defaults.

 

If it's the latter, it's a sign that your preferences aren't being saved correctly.

 

I've been using Dropbox in the new CloudStorage location for a few weeks now on Ventura, and all files are found reliably with the "Reset to Applications and Home" scope. You may need to use the File Troubleshooter to establish whether your files are correctly indexed by macOS.

[cameronreilly]

On 3/9/2023 at 8:03 PM, Vero said:

 

You say you needed to do the reset again. Is this because you switched back to "Reset to Alfred Defaults"? Or because your configuration switched back by itself?

 

If it's because you switched back manually, just to clarify, you will need to leave your search scope as "Reset to Applications and Home" - this isn't something where you switch to then switch straight back to Defaults.

 

If it's the latter, it's a sign that your preferences aren't being saved correctly.

 

I've been using Dropbox in the new CloudStorage location for a few weeks now on Ventura, and all files are found reliably with the "Reset to Applications and Home" scope. You may need to use the File Troubleshooter to establish whether your files are correctly indexed by macOS.

 

Yes, the config seems to have broken multiple times. When I first had problems with it finding my files and workflows, I did the reset to applications and home, and it worked again.... until the next day, when it stopped working. So I repeated the process. But the reset didn't work the next time. I tried again a day later, and the reset worked. But just now, Alfred has stopped working again. I've just hit the reset, and it still isn't working (meaning it doesn't find my files or workflows). 

 

MacOS 13.2.1

Alfred 5.0.6

[cameronreilly]

Okay, another update. I ran reset again and then restarted Alfred. That seemed to fix it. For now. 

[Vero]

11 hours ago, cameronreilly said:

I ran reset again and then restarted Alfred

 

Can I clarify what you're doing here? You'll need to leave the search scope set to "Applications and Home", rather than temporarily set it, then switch back to Alfred Defaults.

 

If the search scope is spontaneously resetting itself to defaults, it means that your preferences aren't being saved correctly, and we're then looking at a different issue altogether. 

[cameronreilly]

Hi Vero. I just rebooted my Mac and found Alfred couldn't find my files again. However, I opened up "Request Permissions" again and noticed that it had lost permissions for "Full Disk Access". So I gave it permission again, and now it can find my files, etc. So I'm not sure if that's the root cause of the problems, but it might be. 

 

[Stephen_C]

macOS Ventura seems to be notorious for forgetting permissions granted to it. Every so often I have a similar problem (although not with Alfred, but with other apps) which I'm able to resolve only by rebooting my computer (sometimes more than once). It's not just us—there are comments all over the Net about the problem.

 

Stephen

[Vero]

6 hours ago, cameronreilly said:

Hi Vero. I just rebooted my Mac and found Alfred couldn't find my files again. However, I opened up "Request Permissions" again and noticed that it had lost permissions for "Full Disk Access". So I gave it permission again, and now it can find my files, etc. So I'm not sure if that's the root cause of the problems, but it might be. 

 

 

If permissions set in macOS (e.g. in the System Settings) aren't sticking between restarts, that's not something Alfred can control, and there may be some deeper corruption on your macOS user account (e.g. caused by an OS upgrade or using Migration Assistant to transfer data from a previous backup / older Mac). 

 

If customisations you've made in Alfred's own preferences are being reverted, it could be that Alfred doesn't have permissions to save to disk or could be because you're saving your preferences somewhere unreliable (e.g. a drive that isn't available at startup, resulting in Alfred creating a new set of preferences). 

 

According to what you're describing, your issue is with the first scenario, and is a macOS issue. If you grant permissions in System Settings then restart right away, are they still set or have they been removed?