wealthychef Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 This happens all the time to me. I am trying to open a known file on my disk. It's located at "/Volumes/2_TB_SSD_external/Projects_2TB/fun/sports/exercise and fitness/Strength training/Beach Body/P90X/P90X workout videos/P90X 06 - Kenpo X.mp4". I want to avoid pawing through folders and just use Alfred to open it. When I type "Kenpo X" into the Alfred search, I get a bunch of irrelevant results and this file never shows up. I ran the diagnostics (see below) and it says this file should be in its scope. So why is it not showing up in results? Any help? Thanks! ``` Starting Diagnostics... File: 'P90X 06 - Kenpo X.mp4' Path: '/Volumes/2_TB_SSD_external/Projects_2TB/fun/sports/exercise and fitness/Strength training/Beach Body/P90X/P90X workout videos' ----------------------------------------------------------- Check file cache database... ✅ File cache integrity is ok ----------------------------------------------------------- Check if file is readable... ✅ Alfred has permissions to read this file. Unix Permissions: 420 Underlying Type: NSFileTypeRegular Extended Attributes: ( "com.apple.lastuseddate#PS", "com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags", "com.apple.metadata:kMDItemOMUserTags", "com.apple.quarantine", "org.openmetainfo.time:kMDItemOMUserTags", "org.openmetainfo:kMDItemOMUserTags" ) ----------------------------------------------------------- Check if volume '/Volumes/2_TB_SSD_external/' is indexed by macOS... ✅ Indexing is enabled on this drive ----------------------------------------------------------- Check direct file metadata... ✅ Direct metadata available Display Name: P90X 06 - Kenpo X.mp4 Other Names: Content Type: public.mpeg-4 Last Used: 2023-05-02 07:23:34 +0000 ----------------------------------------------------------- Check mdls file metadata... ✅ Metadata contains required items _kMDItemDisplayNameWithExtensions = "P90X 06 - Kenpo X.mp4" kMDItemAestheticScore = 0.1938477 kMDItemAudioBitRate = 164 kMDItemAudioChannelCount = 2 kMDItemCodecs = ( "H.264", "MPEG-4 AAC" ) kMDItemContentCreationDate = 2017-07-16 04:27:11 +0000 kMDItemContentCreationDate_Ranking = 2017-07-16 00:00:00 +0000 kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2017-07-16 07:12:04 +0000 kMDItemContentRating = 0 kMDItemContentType = "public.mpeg-4" kMDItemContentTypeTree = ( "public.mpeg-4", "public.movie", "public.audiovisual-content", "public.data", "public.item", "public.content" ) kMDItemDateAdded = 2017-10-03 18:46:30 +0000 kMDItemDisplayName = "P90X 06 - Kenpo X.mp4" kMDItemDocumentIdentifier = 0 kMDItemDurationSeconds = 3598.176 kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2017-07-16 07:12:04 +0000 kMDItemFSCreationDate = 2017-07-16 04:27:11 +0000 kMDItemFSCreatorCode = "" kMDItemFSFinderFlags = 0 kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon = (null) kMDItemFSInvisible = 0 kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = 0 kMDItemFSIsStationery = (null) kMDItemFSLabel = 0 kMDItemFSName = "P90X 06 - Kenpo X.mp4" kMDItemFSNodeCount = (null) kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID = 99 kMDItemFSOwnerUserID = 501 kMDItemFSSize = 245670420 kMDItemFSTypeCode = "" kMDItemInterestingDate_Ranking = 2023-05-02 00:00:00 +0000 kMDItemKind = "MPEG-4 movie" kMDItemLastUsedDate = 2023-05-02 07:23:34 +0000 kMDItemLastUsedDate_Ranking = 2023-05-02 00:00:00 +0000 kMDItemLogicalSize = 245670420 kMDItemMediaAnalysisLastAttempt = 2023-04-09 20:16:11 +0000 kMDItemMediaTypes = ( Video, Sound ) kMDItemPhotosCharacterRecognitionAnalysisVersion = (null) kMDItemPhotosSceneAnalysisVersion = (null) kMDItemPhotosSceneClassificationConfidences = (null) kMDItemPhotosSceneClassificationIdentifiers = (null) kMDItemPhotosSceneClassificationLabels = (null) kMDItemPhotosSceneClassificationSynonyms = (null) kMDItemPhotosSceneClassificationSynonymsCounts = (null) kMDItemPhysicalSize = 245673984 kMDItemPixelHeight = 272 kMDItemPixelWidth = 362 kMDItemProfileName = "SD (6-1-6)" kMDItemStreamable = 0 kMDItemTotalBitRate = 541 kMDItemUseCount = 4 kMDItemUsedDates = ( "2021-04-09 17:00:00 +0000", "2023-04-24 17:00:00 +0000", "2023-05-01 17:00:00 +0000" ) kMDItemVideoBitRate = 377 ----------------------------------------------------------- Check file is in search scope... ✅ File exists within Alfred's default search scope ----------------------------------------------------------- Check MDQuery file search... ✅ macOS returned a match for this file in your search scope. File Search Results for search scope ( "[0] /System/Volumes/Data/Volumes/2_TB_SSD_external/Projects_2TB/fun/sports/exercise and fitness/Strength training/Beach Body/P90X/P90X workout videos/P90X 06 - Kenpo X.mp4" ) File Search Results for ~/ ( ) File Search Results for / ( ) ----------------------------------------------------------- ✅ Troubleshooting passed ``` Link to comment
Vero Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 @wealthychef It's possible that it's a matching result but there are so many that it's further down the list. If you only want mp4 files from your external volumes, I would suggest creating a File Filter workflow for it: https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/inputs/file-filter/ This would allow you to set the scope to search, as well as the file types you want to include in your search. Alternatively, the Dynamic File Filter allows you to set the search scope on the fly: https://alfred.app/workflows/alfredapp/dynamic-file-search/ If you need further help creating your own File Filter, share your workflow-in-progress and we'll be here to help. Link to comment
wealthychef Posted May 7, 2023 Author Share Posted May 7, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, Vero said: @wealthychef It's possible that it's a matching result but there are so many that it's further down the list. Hi, thanks for the reply! This is not possible actually, as the shown items are the exhaustive list. I know this because I cannot scroll down like I can when the list is in fact longer. The rest of your answer does not seem to address my question. I don't want to narrow my search, I want to know why my file does not show up. Look at what happens when I search for the full file name, I get zero results. These names are copy/pasted from the Finder, so I know it's the correct name, and by the test I ran, I know the file exists. Edited May 7, 2023 by wealthychef Link to comment
Tsunami Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 Unless you enabled it, Alfred doesn't show files in its default results. Use the 'open' keyword to find files, or press the Spacebar before typing the filename. vitor and wealthychef 1 1 Link to comment
vitor Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 2 hours ago, Tsunami said: Unless you enabled it, Alfred doesn't show files in its default results. Indeed this would explain it. The top screenshot shows files that would appear when Alfred Preferences → Features → Default Results → Extras → Text Files is ticked, but the file in question is a media file. Adding the mp4 under Advanced… should then work, though it’s recommended to keep the amount of extras to a minimum to not pollute results. 2 hours ago, Tsunami said: Use the 'open' keyword to find files, or press the Spacebar before typing the filename. And this would cover everything. More information in the documentation. wealthychef 1 Link to comment
wealthychef Posted May 8, 2023 Author Share Posted May 8, 2023 5 hours ago, Tsunami said: Unless you enabled it, Alfred doesn't show files in its default results. Use the 'open' keyword to find files, or press the Spacebar before typing the filename. Thank you. I must say, that's a surprising revelation that Alfred doesn't show files in its default results. Counterintuitive to say the least. What are people searching for if not files? I also just noticed there is a "find" keyword as well which also shows the Kenpo X file if I use it and matches what I expect a search dialog to do, which is search for files. Thanks for the help, I'll have to make a note of that as it's very strange behavior to my brain. Link to comment
vitor Posted May 8, 2023 Share Posted May 8, 2023 13 minutes ago, wealthychef said: What are people searching for if not files? Showing workflow results, including but not limited to File Filters. It’s about focused searches, using few keystrokes to hone in on what you want instead of jumbling everything together. Terminal and wealthychef 2 Link to comment
wealthychef Posted May 8, 2023 Author Share Posted May 8, 2023 3 hours ago, vitor said: Showing workflow results, including but not limited to File Filters. It’s about focused searches, using few keystrokes to hone in on what you want instead of jumbling everything together. Interesting, thanks for the response. Led to the mother of all rabbit trails and I ended up installing a cool new plugin "Shimmering Obsidian". Thanks for the tip. Link to comment
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