Jacob Graf Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 I have tried everything, and can't seem to figure this out. I've done all the troubleshooting steps for Alfred as well as rebuilt my Spotlight indexes, etc. File/folder search still works with native Alfred find and open commands, but I can't get any file/folder results to work with any workflows. The files/folders are found in Spotlight, so I don't think it's a Spotlight indexing issue. Here is the workflow I am trying to use, but none of them work, including the "Simple Folder Search" workflow I downloaded from your site. https://s3.amazonaws.com/graftechnology/temp/alfred-workflow-code.alfredworkflow Finally, this Mac is fairly new and was restored using a Time Machine backup. Not sure if that matters, but wanted to mention it. Thanks for any help you can give! Link to comment
Vero Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 @jacobgraf Could you please share at least a few outputs for relevant files in the File Troubleshooting tool? I've tried the workflow and it works as expected, returning folders within the ~/Sites/ folder. If you've just set up your Mac using a Time Machine backup, it's not unheard of to have issues with search until the index has been rebuilt, even if Spotlight appears to be returning results. The next best step would be to fully rebuild your Mac, following step 6 here: https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/indexing/ Let us know how you get on. Link to comment
Jacob Graf Posted December 12, 2023 Author Share Posted December 12, 2023 @Vero That's the thing. The troubleshooter shows green across the board. I am trying the metadata rebuild, but I am pretty sure I did that a few weeks ago without any luck. I'll let you know how it works! Thanks! Link to comment
Vero Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 @Jacob Graf The troubleshooter may still provide some insight, but most of all, a deep reindex including deleting the Spotlight-V100 metadata should get rid of any gremlins that were copied across with the Time Machine migration. Link to comment
Jacob Graf Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 @Vero unfortunately, the rebuild didn't work. 😔 Here is the output from the ~/Sites troubleshooting... Starting Diagnostics... File: 'Sites' Path: '/Users/jacobgraf' ----------------------------------------------------------- Check file cache database... ✅ File cache integrity is ok ----------------------------------------------------------- Check if file is readable... ✅ Alfred has permissions to read this file. Unix Permissions: 493 Underlying Type: NSFileTypeDirectory Extended Attributes: ( "com.apple.provenance" ) ----------------------------------------------------------- Check if volume '/' is indexed by macOS... ✅ Indexing is enabled on this drive ----------------------------------------------------------- Check direct file metadata... ✅ Direct metadata available Display Name: Sites Other Names: Sites Content Type: public.folder Last Used: 2023-12-12 15:56:34 +0000 ----------------------------------------------------------- Check mdls file metadata... ✅ Metadata contains required items _kMDItemDisplayNameWithExtensions = "Sites" kMDItemAlternateNames = ( Sites ) kMDItemContentCreationDate = 2021-06-08 19:54:04 +0000 kMDItemContentCreationDate_Ranking = 2023-10-27 00:00:00 +0000 kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2023-12-12 15:34:52 +0000 kMDItemContentType = "public.folder" kMDItemContentTypeTree = ( "public.folder", "public.directory", "public.item" ) kMDItemDateAdded = 2023-10-27 23:09:37 +0000 kMDItemDisplayName = "Sites" kMDItemDocumentIdentifier = 0 kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2023-12-12 15:34:52 +0000 kMDItemFSCreationDate = 2021-06-08 19:54:04 +0000 kMDItemFSCreatorCode = "" kMDItemFSFinderFlags = 0 kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon = (null) kMDItemFSInvisible = 0 kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = 0 kMDItemFSIsStationery = (null) kMDItemFSLabel = 0 kMDItemFSName = "Sites" kMDItemFSNodeCount = 33 kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID = 20 kMDItemFSOwnerUserID = 502 kMDItemFSSize = (null) kMDItemFSTypeCode = "" kMDItemInterestingDate_Ranking = 2023-12-12 00:00:00 +0000 kMDItemKind = "Folder" kMDItemLastUsedDate = 2023-12-12 15:56:34 +0000 kMDItemLastUsedDate_Ranking = 2023-12-12 00:00:00 +0000 kMDItemUseCount = 10 kMDItemUsedDates = ( "2023-10-31 05:00:00 +0000", "2023-11-21 06:00:00 +0000", "2023-11-30 06:00:00 +0000", "2023-12-12 06:00:00 +0000" ) ----------------------------------------------------------- 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 ( "[22] /System/Volumes/Data/Users/jacobgraf/Sites" ) File Search Results for ~/ ( ) File Search Results for / ( "[22] /System/Volumes/Data/Users/jacobgraf/Sites" ) ----------------------------------------------------------- ✅ Troubleshooting passed Link to comment
Vero Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 @Jacob Graf Could you please drag a folder that is within your search scope of ~/Sites/ rather than the Sites folder itself as it'll provide more useful information? Can you also please let me know exactly what you're typing into Alfred? Screenshots could be useful here, so that I can see exactly what you're doing. Is file search in general working for you? E.g. If you type the "open" keyword (or press the spacebar) followed by the name of one of your folders within ~/Sites/, are these folders found? Finally, have you granted Alfred Full Disk Access? https://www.alfredapp.com/help/getting-started/permissions/#integration Link to comment
Jacob Graf Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 @Vero Here is a short video trying to use it. You'll notice it goes to a Google search right away. Not sure. It's like it's not using the keyword and space variable properly. e.g. `code foldername`. https://cln.sh/QLdmcx9Mwm4jFbCH747M Also, here is the troubleshooting info from a folder within the ~/Sites directory... Starting Diagnostics... File: 'maizzle' Path: '/Users/jacobgraf/Sites' ----------------------------------------------------------- Check file cache database... ✅ File cache integrity is ok ----------------------------------------------------------- Check if file is readable... ✅ Alfred has permissions to read this file. Unix Permissions: 509 Underlying Type: NSFileTypeDirectory Extended Attributes: ( ) ----------------------------------------------------------- Check if volume '/' is indexed by macOS... ✅ Indexing is enabled on this drive ----------------------------------------------------------- Check direct file metadata... ✅ Direct metadata available Display Name: maizzle Other Names: Content Type: public.folder Last Used: ----------------------------------------------------------- Check mdls file metadata... ✅ Metadata contains required items _kMDItemDisplayNameWithExtensions = "maizzle" kMDItemContentCreationDate = 2022-09-22 13:46:20 +0000 kMDItemContentCreationDate_Ranking = 2023-10-27 00:00:00 +0000 kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2023-09-10 19:27:09 +0000 kMDItemContentType = "public.folder" kMDItemContentTypeTree = ( "public.folder", "public.directory", "public.item" ) kMDItemDateAdded = 2023-10-27 22:59:05 +0000 kMDItemDisplayName = "maizzle" kMDItemDocumentIdentifier = 0 kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2023-09-10 19:27:09 +0000 kMDItemFSCreationDate = 2022-09-22 13:46:20 +0000 kMDItemFSCreatorCode = "" kMDItemFSFinderFlags = 0 kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon = (null) kMDItemFSInvisible = 0 kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = 0 kMDItemFSIsStationery = (null) kMDItemFSLabel = 0 kMDItemFSName = "maizzle" kMDItemFSNodeCount = 16 kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID = 20 kMDItemFSOwnerUserID = 502 kMDItemFSSize = (null) kMDItemFSTypeCode = "" kMDItemInterestingDate_Ranking = 2023-09-10 00:00:00 +0000 kMDItemKind = "Folder" ----------------------------------------------------------- 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 ( "[1] /System/Volumes/Data/Users/jacobgraf/Sites/maizzle" ) File Search Results for ~/ ( ) File Search Results for / ( "[1] /System/Volumes/Data/Users/jacobgraf/Sites/maizzle" ) ----------------------------------------------------------- ✅ Troubleshooting passed Link to comment
Vero Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 @Jacob Graf I can indeed see that it's not returning the expected results. As mentioned earlier, I've tried your workflow and have no issues on either my own Mac or our test Mac. My suspicions are still on the likelihood that a migration from Time Machine has caused underlying issues which are being exhibited in Alfred but caused by macOS. If you search for those folders using Alfred's file search (i.e. "[spacebar]maizzle"), do you see the results? I would recommend temporarily creating a new user account on your Mac, populating the ~/Sites/ folder with a few things, then searching using both the spacebar shortcut and your workflow to see if you're seeing results. It will help establish whether the issue is specific to your primary profile, which I think is likely, or a broader issue on your Mac. Let me know how you get on. Link to comment
Jacob Graf Posted December 13, 2023 Author Share Posted December 13, 2023 Yes, it shows up when I search from Alfred. Are there any other diagnostic steps I can take? Creating a new user account and doing all that seems like a pain. Screenshot: https://cln.sh/RdN2JBDgJRV68G7Sdb2l Link to comment
Andrew Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 @Jacob Graf Your workflow is working as expected for me. To try narrowing down which aspect of indexing isn't working by fettling with your File Filter to see if you can ascertain behaviour changes. For example, try first removing the public.folder from the types, and see if it finds any file types in ~/Sites. If not, try changing the scope to / instead of ~/Sites and adding back public.folder, then seeing if any folders are found. Let me know how you get on. Cheers, Andrew Link to comment
Jacob Graf Posted December 14, 2023 Author Share Posted December 14, 2023 @Andrew Good ideas! So I removed the folder filter and got the same results. I then changed the scope to / and that worked! I set it back to ~/Sites and it was once again broken. During this process, I did find something interesting! If I type an S in the search, it shows me the ~/Sites folder (https://cln.sh/MRTJP494ZHhd2Whz5qTC) This tells me that the scope is searching the parent ~/Sites, but it doesn't appear to be searching WITHIN the ~/Sites folder. When I had the scope set to /, I was able to find folders within the ~/Sites directory, so I know they at least live within the index. Any ideas where to go next here? Link to comment
Andrew Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 @Jacob Graf If you set it to a different folder in your home folder such as ~/Downloads, does it work then? If not, if you create a new folder in your home folder, add in some files, set it to that folder, does it work? It could be something whacky like a some index corruption or a filesystem node is borked where ~/Sites isn't _actually_ in that location, so setting the scope to that folder is breaking. I'm trying to ascertain if other folders work. Link to comment
Jacob Graf Posted December 14, 2023 Author Share Posted December 14, 2023 @Andrew Nope. If I change to ~/Downloads, it does the same thing. I can't get any results for anything within the folders, but if I type `code d` I see ~/Downloads as a search result Also, I created a brand new folder in ~ and same thing. Can't see anything within the folder, but if I type `code t` it shows me ~/Test Folder as a search result. So weird! Link to comment
Andrew Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 @Jacob Graf The folder set as scope will always be found as Alfred internally returns this result manually (the macOS metadata query doesn't only returns results inside the scope folders), which is why you're seeing e.g. code t return ~/Test Folder. Just to double check - did you reindex including deleting the .Spotlight-V100 folder as Vero suggested? Link to comment
Jacob Graf Posted December 14, 2023 Author Share Posted December 14, 2023 @Andrew Yes I did, but just to be absolutely positive, I'll do it again right now and report back. Thanks! Link to comment
Jacob Graf Posted December 14, 2023 Author Share Posted December 14, 2023 @Andrew Ok, did the spotlight delete, rebooted, waited for it to reindex, did an Alfred Reload. Same results. I am so stumped here. This is making no sense. Argh. Link to comment
Vero Posted December 15, 2023 Share Posted December 15, 2023 @Jacob Graf I would still recommend creating a new user profile, which should only take a few minutes, activating your Powerpack and testing your workflow there with newly created workflows. This will help establish whether there's an issue with the profile data that was imported from your Time Machine, or agnostic to a new or old profile. Based on our experience with past versions of macOS where community members used Time Machine and Migration Assistant to transfer data across, we've seen how hangups from previous installs can be carried across. This has an impact on much more than just Alfred's search - though it tends to be the first thing you spot. This can usually be cleared with a deep reindex but it seems that for a small number of users, it could only be sorted with a fresh install (or fresh user account). Link to comment
natepaschall Posted December 21, 2023 Share Posted December 21, 2023 I encountered a similar issue almost at the same time last week using the same workflow. I have had this workflow on my Alfred (current v. 4.8) for years and never had any issues until last week. The only folder listed in my "Search Scope" was "~" (preceded by a folder icon). I removed that folder so that there are no folders in my search scope (the text below the scope table says if it the search scope table is empty it will use Alfred's default search scope). The search feature began working again. Not sure if that is related to the same issue that you are experiencing. You mentioned above: Quote "I then changed the scope to / and that worked! I set it back to ~/Sites and it was once again broken. Wondering if the "~" is creating issues? Just a thought... Link to comment
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