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Alfred can't find (hardly) any files after restoring from time machine


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Powerpack: [removed for privacy by admin]

 

After a factory reset and time machine restore, Alfred cannot find most files on my system, (potentially not any?). Interestingly, it can find files on an external drive. Note that this is strictly for file search (as in the "open" command). Application search and web bookmarks work fine.

 

I've run through all the steps here: https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/indexing/#filesearch, including deleting .Spotlight-V100 and rebuilding the index.

 

Diagnostics don't reveal any problems.

 

Starting Diagnostics...

File: 'woomba.txt'
Path: '/Users/fred/Documents'

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check file cache database...

 File cache integrity is ok

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check if file is readable...

 Alfred has permissions to read this file.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check if volume '/' is indexed by macOS...

 Indexing is enabled on this drive

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check direct file metadata...

 Direct metadata available

Display Name: woomba.txt
 Other Names:
Content Type: public.plain-text
   Last Used:

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check mdls file metadata...

 Metadata contains required items

_kMDItemDisplayNameWithExtensions      = "woomba.txt"
com_apple_metadata_modtime             = 703894192.4402229
kMDItemContentCreationDate             = 2023-04-22 22:09:52 +0000
kMDItemContentCreationDate_Ranking     = 2023-04-22 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate         = 2023-04-22 22:09:52 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate_Ranking = 2023-04-22 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentType                     = "public.plain-text"
kMDItemContentTypeTree                 = (
    "public.plain-text",
    "public.text",
    "public.data",
    "public.item",
    "public.content"
)
kMDItemDateAdded                       = 2023-04-22 22:13:20 +0000
kMDItemDateAdded_Ranking               = 2023-04-22 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName                     = "woomba.txt"
kMDItemDocumentIdentifier              = 0
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate             = 2023-04-22 22:09:52 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate                  = 2023-04-22 22:09:52 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode                   = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon                 = (null)
kMDItemFSInvisible                     = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden             = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery                  = (null)
kMDItemFSLabel                         = 0
kMDItemFSName                          = "woomba.txt"
kMDItemFSNodeCount                     = (null)
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID                  = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID                   = 501
kMDItemFSSize                          = 0
kMDItemFSTypeCode                      = ""
kMDItemInterestingDate_Ranking         = 2023-04-22 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemKind                            = "Plain Text Document"
kMDItemLogicalSize                     = 0
kMDItemPhysicalSize                    = 0

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check file is in search scope...

 File exists within Alfred's default search scope

-----------------------------------------------------------

 Troubleshooting passed

 

Starting Diagnostics...

File: 'callaway-wire.pdf'
Path: '/Users/fred/Downloads'

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check file cache database...

 File cache integrity is ok

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check if file is readable...

 Alfred has permissions to read this file.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check if volume '/' is indexed by macOS...

 Indexing is enabled on this drive

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check direct file metadata...

 Direct metadata available

Display Name: callaway-wire
 Other Names: callaway-wire.pdf
Content Type: com.adobe.pdf
   Last Used: 2023-04-22 20:53:30 +0000

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check mdls file metadata...

 Metadata contains required items

_kMDItemDisplayNameWithExtensions      = "callaway-wire.pdf"
kMDItemAlternateNames                  = (
    "callaway-wire.pdf"
)
kMDItemAuthors                         = (
    Laura
)
kMDItemContentCreationDate             = 2023-04-22 19:03:57 +0000
kMDItemContentCreationDate_Ranking     = 2023-04-22 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate         = 2023-04-22 20:55:50 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate_Ranking = 2023-04-22 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentType                     = "com.adobe.pdf"
kMDItemContentTypeTree                 = (
    "com.adobe.pdf",
    "public.data",
    "public.item",
    "public.composite-content",
    "public.content"
)
kMDItemCreator                         = "Acrobat PDFMaker 19 for Excel"
kMDItemDateAdded                       = 2023-04-22 19:03:57 +0000
kMDItemDateAdded_Ranking               = 2023-04-22 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName                     = "callaway-wire"
kMDItemDocumentIdentifier              = 1480
kMDItemEncodingApplications            = (
    "macOS Version 12.3.1 (Build 21E258) Quartz PDFContext"
)
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate             = 2023-04-22 20:55:50 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate                  = 2023-04-22 19:03:57 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode                   = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 16
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon                 = (null)
kMDItemFSInvisible                     = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden             = 1
kMDItemFSIsStationery                  = (null)
kMDItemFSLabel                         = 0
kMDItemFSName                          = "callaway-wire.pdf"
kMDItemFSNodeCount                     = (null)
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID                  = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID                   = 501
kMDItemFSSize                          = 307133
kMDItemFSTypeCode                      = ""
kMDItemInterestingDate_Ranking         = 2023-04-22 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemKind                            = "PDF document"
kMDItemLastUsedDate                    = 2023-04-22 20:53:30 +0000
kMDItemLastUsedDate_Ranking            = 2023-04-22 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemLogicalSize                     = 307133
kMDItemNumberOfPages                   = 1
kMDItemPageHeight                      = 792.0004
kMDItemPageWidth                       = 612.0001831054688
kMDItemPhysicalSize                    = 307200
kMDItemSecurityMethod                  = "None"
kMDItemUseCount                        = 17
kMDItemUsedDates                       = (
    "2023-04-22 04:00:00 +0000"
)
kMDItemVersion                         = "1.4"
kMDItemWhereFroms                      = (
    "https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WireTransferInfoRequest.pdf",
    "https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WireTransferInfoRequest.pdf"
)

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check file is in search scope...

 File exists within Alfred's default search scope

-----------------------------------------------------------

 Troubleshooting passed

 

Link to comment

@fredcallaway Restoring from Time Machine can result in macOS returning the wrong results (in particular when moving from a version of macOS where files were in one location to a newer version where Apple have moved files).

 

Could you please open your preferences to Features > Default Results, and under the Search Scope > Reset... button, first choose "Reset to Applications & Home" and see if you can find your files then. If needed, switch to "Reset to Full Disk" instead.

 

This will allow you to work around the issue in macOS :) Let me know how you get on.

 

Cheers,
Vero

Link to comment

Resetting to Applications & Home gets me back where I started—no files come up. I'm on Monterey (12.3.1).

 

I would be fine with manually excluding folders, but adding alfred:ignore seems to have no impact even after clearing cache, and if I try to exclude ~/Library in spotlight settings, I see a warning that it could break things...

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