Alfred 5 snippets are not working and existing snippets cannot be deleted

[Jingyun Li]

snippets are not working despite all privacy setting is correct and auto expansion is on. And I cannot remove any existing pack, even though I can still add new snippet pack.

[Vero]

@Jingyun Li Welcome to the forum

 

Could you please let me know where your preferences are stored and whether you use Alfred's preferences sync? This error can crop up if your preferences are stored on an external drive or one without a Trash. 

 

[Jingyun Li]

I stored my preference on icloud drive to sync with another macbook of mine. And the snippets work fine on another macbook. But not on this one. 

[Vero]

@Jingyun Li Could you check whether you've got Optimised Storage disabled? 

 

You'll find this in your System Settings > iCloud > Optimise Mac Storage, where you should ensure it's disabled.

[Jingyun Li]

Both macbooks had Optimised Storage on, but I turned it off now on the macbook where Alfred Snippets doesn't work. Unfortunately the snippets still doesn't work and I couldn't edit the file. 

 

By the way the Alfred which is working on another macbook is an old version of alfred 4. Snippets won't work after I updated on another macbook. 

[Vero]

@Jingyun Li It's a requirement for syncing to have Optimised Storage disabled, as otherwise your Mac can arbitrarily decide to move files to online-only, making your preferences unavailable. This is why it can work sometimes, but not other times; macOS may hold the files locally one one Mac or on a given day, but switch them to online-only without your knowledge at any time.

 

I would suggest to temporarily move your preferences to a folder in your root folder (e.g. ~/Alfred/) as this is a non-iCloud-synced location, and will allow you to test whether you can now delete the snippet collection normally.

 

As a manual workaround, you can reveal your preferences in Finder via the Sync preferences' "Reveal in Finder" button, then browse into the Alfred.alfredpreferences to find the snippet collection you want to delete. However, it'd be best to resolve the core issue instead so that you can get a smooth experience in the future too

[Jingyun Li]

Hi thank you for the suggestion!!

I moved it to a local folder, now I can remove the old snippet sets. But snippet is still not working (it is not automatically expanding) 🤔 

[Jingyun Li]

besides that everytime I open alfred the permission window pops up, although I have already granted alfred 5 access. Even if I choose "do not show again" it still pops up. I wonder if it is related to snippets not working. 

 

[Vero]

@Jingyun Li Good to hear you were able to delete the snippet collection.

 

In terms of using iCloud for preferences, lots of people use it for syncing their Alfred prefs - but it requires Optimised Storage to be disabled. Otherwise it may be best to pick one of the other sync services.

 

(Annoyingly, once upon a time, Apple beta-tested allowing individual folders to be "pinned" to always be stored locally in iCloud, but that feature was scrapped before release, so it's an all or nothing for iCloud Optimised Storage.)

 

5 minutes ago, Jingyun Li said:

But snippet is still not working (it is not automatically expanding)

 

Could you please provide more details on what stage the snippets don't work?

• If you launch TextEdit (a simple and native app, ideal for testing) and try to expand your snippet, what do you see? Does the keyword disappear, does the snippet content appear, do you hear an error beep?
• If your snippet expands in TextEdit, in which apps do you see a different behaviour?
• What is your snippet keyword? What is the content that should be pasted?
• Have you remapped Cmd + V to anything other than the built-in macOS paste command?

[Jingyun Li]

thank you! But unfortunately snippet doesn't work in TextEdit and there is no error beep 😳 

[Vero]

@Jingyun Li Could you answer the other questions I asked in my earlier post? Is Cmd + V remapped in any way that could interfere with pasting? Does the snippet keyword disappear?

 

The more information you can provide, the easier we'll be able to help you troubleshoot the issue.

[Vero]

@Jingyun Li Could you please provide your Diagnostics file, which you can get by typing "?diagnostics" into Alfred? You can then email it to our info@ address so that I can take a look.

 

[Jingyun Li]

sorry!! 

- non of the snippet works (I've got more than 20 snippets). For example I'm trying to got "ddd" to work for example which expands to "{date:dd.MM.yyyy}". I've also got other snippets such as "tf" to my number and keywords in letters (such as "gm1") which should expands to my email address (pure text).

- command +v is still paste command 

[Jingyun Li]

I just sent the diagnostics file. Thank you ❤️ 

[Vero]

@Jingyun Li Taking a look at your Preferences, everything looks normal.

 

Once again, could you please confirm if the keyword disappears or not when you type your "ddd" keyword in TextEdit?

 

 

[Jingyun Li]

In TextEdid the keyword doesn't disappear, but doesn't auto expand either.  

 

There is another problem with my Alfred - I also couldn't use clipboard history as before. When I click on enter on a certain entry, it does not paste the text anymore. The command+1 (or commond +2/3/4/5...) shortcut also doesn't work for pasting. It seems that it is just copied. Instead I have to manually type cmd + v to paste. I somehow feel like these problems are related..

Edited October 26, 2023 by Jingyun Li

[Vero]

@Jingyun Li If the keyword doesn't disappear, it indicates that the Accessibility permissions are probably not granted to Alfred properly on your Mac.

 

Here are the instructions for re-granting permissions:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/getting-started/permissions/#regrant

 

Once you're able to get the keyword to disappear, we can look at working out why pasting isn't working on your Mac. If you're using any third-party clipboard manipulation apps, please quit these to work out whether they're interfering with normal clipboard operation.

[Jingyun Li]

amazing!! This is a great solution. snippet and clipboard history starts to work again! Thank you for the detailed, patient and professional support!

[Christopher Edwards]

I"m having similar problems after using Migration Assistant to move to a new Mac.  My snippets don't work. I tried to fix things by resetting in terminal and requesting all the permissions again.  Even though I added Alfred as requested, my snippets don't expand.  I should note that the clipboard is fine.

[Christopher Edwards]

I should add that I tried deleting and then recreating the snippet.  It didn't expand.

[Christopher Edwards]

Never mind!  The Automatically expand snippets box was no longer checked.