solved Alfred not showing system apps

[slmjkdbtl]

Not showing built-in system apps like Calendar.app etc, only showing custom installed apps.

Tried:

• Re-indexing & deleting .spotlight-1000 and restarting

• Reinstalling Alfred

• Adding /System/Applications to default search results

macOS Sonoma 14.0, MacbookAir M2, Alfred 5.1.4 installed via Homebrew

[Stephen_C]

Welcome to the forum.

 

Open Alfred Preferences and click on Help at the bottom of the left column. Then click on Troubleshooting followed by File Search troubleshooting. Drop in the Calendar.app file and post the results here.

 

15 minutes ago, slmjkdbtl said:

Alfred 5.1.4 installed via Homebrew

Why? Sorry, I don't understand that. Is there any reason you didn't download and install direct from the Alfred website?

 

Stephen

[vitor]

1 hour ago, Stephen_C said:

Why? (…) Is there any reason you didn't download and install direct from the Alfred website?

There’s a second part to Homebrew, Homebrew Cask, which deals with the installation of GUI apps and much more. It’s officially part of Homebrew now but started as a separate project and it still has separate rules for some things. There are a few reasons to install that way, such as being fast to set up a new machine because it only takes one command to install multiple apps at once, or being able to uninstall apps and remove known associated files. It also allows you sidestep what some big apps do where from the website you download an app of a few MBs whose only purpose is to then download hundreds more once you open it.

It’s unlikely it would make a difference here. Homebrew Cask downloads directly from the source and strives to make the resulting installation be as close as possible to a manual install.

[slmjkdbtl]

Quote

Starting Diagnostics...

File: 'Calendar.app'
Path: '/System/Applications'

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

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: (
)

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

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

✅ Indexing is enabled on this drive

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

Check direct file metadata...

✅ Direct metadata available

Display Name: Calendar.app
 Other Names: 
Content Type: com.apple.application-bundle
   Last Used: 2023-09-16 13:28:30 +0000

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

Check mdls file metadata...

❌ macOS metadata missing essential items

kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2023-09-16 13:28:30 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate      = 2023-09-16 13:28:30 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode       = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags       = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon     = 0
kMDItemFSInvisible         = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery      = 0
kMDItemFSLabel             = 0
kMDItemFSName              = "Calendar.app"
kMDItemFSNodeCount         = 1
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID      = 0
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID       = 0
kMDItemFSSize              = 1
kMDItemFSTypeCode          = ""

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

❌ Troubleshooting failed
 

 

Looks like all system apps have this error when diagnosing.

 

Yes homebrew is just a package manager that has script to grab the installer from alfred's official download source.

[Stephen_C]

Does Spotlight find the Calendar.app?

 

Stephen

[slmjkdbtl]

It doesn't show in Spotlight.

 

I poked around a bit and found `/System` was added to the list in System Preference -> Siri & Spotlight -> Spotlight Privacy, removing it solved this issue.

 

Thank you!