Very Slow Application, Folder, or File search in newest version

[waltercr]

I just upgraded to the latest version of Alfred. However, i see a very large slow down in the search for applications, folders, or files over the previous version. Now, if I type in lets say a folder name "Engineering Metrics", it first comes up with the search google links. After somewhere between 5-10 seconds, my folder will pop up. It is the same for files and applications as well. This problem does not exist if I just got to spotlight and do the search. What can I do to help fix this problem or give you data to reproduce? I am on a 2012 Mac Pro with 16 gb of ram and Mountain Lion.

 

Thanks

[Andrew]

I just upgraded to the latest version of Alfred. However, i see a very large slow down in the search for applications, folders, or files over the previous version. Now, if I type in lets say a folder name "Engineering Metrics", it first comes up with the search google links. After somewhere between 5-10 seconds, my folder will pop up. It is the same for files and applications as well. This problem does not exist if I just got to spotlight and do the search. What can I do to help fix this problem or give you data to reproduce? I am on a 2012 Mac Pro with 16 gb of ram and Mountain Lion.

 

Thanks

 

Hi there,

 

Alfred shows files the instant OS X returns them to him, so whenever you see slow downs such as this, it's almost certainly down to the metadata.

 

First thing is to restart your Mac, then do a full reindex of your OS X metadata (Alfred has a shortcut for this action in his Advanced prefs). This can take over an hour depending on how many files you have etc, so please be patient. After this, things should soon be back to super fast

 

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[moving to the help forum]

[waltercr]

Yup. Exactly the fix. Thank you!

[AlexK]

I have the same problem. I already rebuilt the Spotlight cache and did a reload and all the other fairy dust things that get recommended. However, they are only temporary fixes or don't work at all, depending on today's weather or some other unknown variable.

 

Spotlight finds my items immediately, Launchbar finds my items immediately, Alfred 2 worked perfect until maybe two weeks ago (I don't have a good event log, but I'd wager that problems started with the newest version). Now, while I can resort to rebuilding my Spotlight cache, it may or may not help and if I have to do that every day then Alfred starts to look not as attractive anymore. Also, restarting is often not possible as this machine is running complex multi-day calculations frequently.

Edited July 1, 2013 by AlexK

[Andrew]

I have the same problem. I already rebuilt the Spotlight cache and did a reload and all the other fairy dust things that get recommended. However, they are only temporary fixes or don't work at all, depending on today's weather or some other unknown variable.

 

Spotlight finds my items immediately, Launchbar finds my items immediately, Alfred 2 worked perfect until maybe two weeks ago (I don't have a good event log, but I'd wager that problems started with the newest version). Now, while I can resort to rebuilding my Spotlight cache, it may or may not help and if I have to do that every day then Alfred starts to look not as attractive anymore. Also, restarting is often not possible as this machine is running complex multi-day calculations frequently.

 

As before, Alfred displays results the instant OS X returns them to him... so if OS X isn't returning results quickly, Alfred naturally can't display them. This also explains why indexing OS X outside of Alfred fixes your issue. If you are finding that this issue is returning, you may have some corruption in your spotlight metadata which is manifesting differently with Alfred due to the different search query context he may be using to Spotlight or others.

 

You would likely benefit (and see a permanent fix) if you completely delete your Spotlight cache, which would clear through any permissions issues or corruption:

 

http://skillzdesign.com/blog/clarifies/forcing-spotlight-reindexing-using-terminal/

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[AlexK]

I did that already as well. As I said, all those are temporary solutions at best and sometimes even those don't work for long and it worked before.

[AlexK]

Btw. I am sorry, I just reread my posts and I came across as a bit grumpy. Lack of sleep.

 

The issue is a bit annoying though. It was working before. In fact, it was working so well that I decided to switch from Launchbar and invest into a Mega Supporter license a day after I tried out Alfred a few weeks back. It would be a pity if that nice piece of software now becomes useless due to slowness to me.

[Andrew]

Btw. I am sorry, I just reread my posts and I came across as a bit grumpy. Lack of sleep.

 

The issue is a bit annoying though. It was working before. In fact, it was working so well that I decided to switch from Launchbar and invest into a Mega Supporter license a day after I tried out Alfred a few weeks back. It would be a pity if that nice piece of software now becomes useless due to slowness to me.

 

I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this... pop an email to info@alfredapp com and I can have a bit of a deeper look into it

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[Colper]

I'm also having this issue. I have done what the aforementioned suggestions recommended of (restarting and clearing cache and re-indexing), but my apps are still taking like 15+ seconds to load. When I use Spotlight they show up instantly. I didn't see the solution to AlexK's issue (sounds like it is the same problem). I also have had the past two version of Powerpack. 

 

regards,

 

-Colper

[Colper]

Hey @alexk did you ever find a solution to this problem? I think I'm having the same issues after upgrading to Catalina. Your help is greatly appreciated!

[AlexK]

Hi Colper. I am sorry, I cannot recall what the fix was or if it simply started working again one day. Sorry.

[raguay.customct]

Do any of you on this list have Finder extensions loaded? I've noticed a similar slowdown to the point of lockup. But, when I deleted the FiScript Finder extension, everything is running faster now. Somehow, Finder extensions are being called when you request files from the OS (or, it looks like that to me).

 

Therefore, look to see what Finder extensions you might have (Dropbox, FiScript, Default Folder X, etc) and disable them. Then see if it helped your response time. It helped for me.

[ncarnold]

I am having this issue as well (slow 10+ seconds to display results) but only when searching for files, i.e. prefacing the search with "open." Searching for apps is instant. This has only occurred since upgrading to Catalina. I have run the "Rebuild macOS Metadata" option.

[Colper]

For What It's Worth: An Alfred update fixed the issue for me. Reinstalling the app and reindexing etc did nothing. I think it was a bug with Alfred.