Abnormal display of results when searching and in Universal Actions

[yinan]

Hi Alfred team!

 

I recently came across an abnormal display when typing something in Alfred, basically there will be some annoying blank area at the top of the search results when doing a random search and at the top of the window when using Universal Actions.

 

These blank spots will disappear in a few seconds, making the texts below them jumping up and down (because blank spots appear and disappear as I type.)  This happens a lot more frequently when I set more visible results.

 

Please see attachments.

 

 

I tried a few attempts like disable workflows, tuning appearance etc ..  I still do not know what could be the cause.

 

I would really appreciate it if you could help with this!

[Stephen_C]

Please just confirm your Alfred and macOS version numbers.

 

Edit …and also exactly what universal action/workflow you are using when you see those results.

 

Stephen

Edited September 16, 2023 by Stephen_C

[yinan]

Thanks for your message and your attention into this issue.

 

I am using:

- macOS Sonoma Version 14.0 （23A339）which was pushed on Sep 13th.

- Alfred 5.1.2 ［2145］

- I am not in a virtual machine and using my M1 Macbook Pro.

 

Other information might be related: 

 

The problem on the default search page and on universal control happen when I set results display to higher number such as 9, If I set to results display to 5, the problem seems to disappear, but this is still not ideal.

 

The Universal control bug was triggered when selecting anything and type in some random 'word' without result.

 

Hope this helps, Thanks for look into this.

[Vero]

@yinan What is your screen configuration? Are you working directly on your laptop screen or are you connected to one or more external screens?

 

Also, could you please confirm which Alfred theme you're using?

 

We are on the same Sonoma build, and have been unable to replicate this. We're very keen to work out in what scenario this quirk can be seen, so any additional information about your configuration would be helpful.

[yinan]

@Vero Thanks! I am working directly on my laptop screen (14 inch) with 1352 × 845 resolution.

 

I am using this theme, https://www.alfredapp.com/extras/theme/SF7ZcvDGDt/. However, I don't think this is because of themes, since the same issue is still there with default Alfred theme. please see the screenshot below.

 

One thing I need to note though, it is an occasional but frequent bug, meaning it cannot be triggered everytime, but it is still quite frequent. 

[Vero]

@yinan Thanks for the additional information, I really appreciate your prompt response   We'll be investigating this further.

[Vero]

@yinan We were able to reproduce this issue, and have taken two paths to resolving it:

 

1. We've reported it to Apple with a reproducible case so that they can resolve the underlying issue.

 

2. We've made a few changes in Alfred 5.1.3 that will mitigate the issue in the meantime, so please update to Alfred 5.1.3 which is currently in pre-release.

 

You should see the issue less frequently, but we've also offered a workaround. Open Alfred's General preferences and you'll see a turquoise box, where you can opt to set Alfred's height to a fixed size:

 

 

We'll be keeping the Sonoma Rendering Bug KB page updated as more information becomes available.

 

[yinan]

Hi @Vero, Thanks you for the quick response and looking into this, with the updates to 5.1.3, the problem seems to been less frequent even without checking the box (so far no issue at all).

 

Would you please keep this thread as updated as more information becomes available? Thanks! And thank you together with Alfred team again for the attention and the very quick bug fix.

[Vero]

@yinan The underlying issue in macOS causing this rendering bug appears to be fixed (with the Sonoma Rendering bug checkbox in Alfred's General preferences disabled) in the macOS 14.1 developer beta 3.

 

We don't yet know when this update will be rolled out to the general public, but please keep an eye out for it - or if you're a developer, please do test and let us know if it appears fixed for you too.