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Alfred with Multiple Screens


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Is there a way for Alfred to open in the screen where you are currently working.

 

What I mean is that I am using multipe screen but Alfred always open (Hotkey) in my MBA main screen even if I am working in an other screen.

 

It is actually quite frustrating when using the clipboard function of Alfred. I would love to have Alfred bar (hotkey) open in the screen with the active application.

 

Any idea?

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Is there a way for Alfred to open in the screen where you are currently working.

 

Hi Laurent, launch Alfred's preferences to Appearance > Options and you'll be able to set Alfred to appear on default screen, mouse screen or, if you're using OS X 10.9 Mavericks, on the active screen (where your current active app is). It's all in there :)

 

Cheers,

Vero

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  • 1 year later...

This, unfortunately, does not seem to resolve the problem I'm having. I use Alfred's clipboard history feature extensively, but I find I'm unable to make use of it on my 2nd screen. I tried both the "show Alfred on" mouse and active screen options. When I try to do a CMD+Opt+C on the 2nd display, despite the fact that Alfred appears on the correct screen, the filling from the clipboard history *always* happens on the primary screen.

 

Is there a setting I'm missing, or is this a bug?

 

Alfred v2.5.1 on OS X 10.10.1 on a 2012 rMBP with dual displays (one connected via Thunderbolt the other by mini-DisplayPort).

 

Edit: I stand corrected. It is not *always*. It only happens with Chrome, when I have a window on both the main display and the 2nd display.

Edited by bwoodruff
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This, unfortunately, does not seem to resolve the problem I'm having. I use Alfred's clipboard history feature extensively, but I find I'm unable to make use of it on my 2nd screen. I tried both the "show Alfred on" mouse and active screen options. When I try to do a CMD+Opt+C on the 2nd display, despite the fact that Alfred appears on the correct screen, the filling from the clipboard history *always* happens on the primary screen.

 

Is there a setting I'm missing, or is this a bug?

 

Alfred v2.5.1 on OS X 10.10.1 on a 2012 rMBP with dual displays (one connected via Thunderbolt the other by mini-DisplayPort).

 

Edit: I stand corrected. It is not *always*. It only happens with Chrome, when I have a window on both the main display and the 2nd display.

 

You may find that it's just Chrome being naughty with it's focusing. If you just show then hide Alfred on a multi screen setup with Chrome active, Chrome will always switch its focus back to the primary window... unfortunately, there isn't much Alfred can do about this as he relies on the previously focused app refocusing correctly.

 

A workaround to this behaviour is to select the item you want in Alfred's clipboard history and use cmd+c to copy the history item to the clipboard again without auto pasting, then you can paste it manually to the correct Chrome window.

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You may find that it's just Chrome being naughty with it's focusing. If you just show then hide Alfred on a multi screen setup with Chrome active, Chrome will always switch its focus back to the primary window... unfortunately, there isn't much Alfred can do about this as he relies on the previously focused app refocusing correctly.

 

A workaround to this behaviour is to select the item you want in Alfred's clipboard history and use cmd+c to copy the history item to the clipboard again without auto pasting, then you can paste it manually to the correct Chrome window.

 

 

Ah fair enough. Thanks!

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  • 2 years later...

Actually I am facing the same issue, but *not* chrome only.

 

Suppose I am on the second screen (the active one), invoking Alfred will open it correctly on the second screen.  However, if I further launch some app from alfred, then those apps will *always* open on the first display.

 

So how to solve this?

 

TIA.

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@introom If you pop by Appearances > Options (bottom left) and take a look at "where he shows" - what did you set your display preference to? If I set mine to "Active screen" and use the secondary screen, I can launch any number of apps on the active (secondary) screen.

 

However, macOS seems to make some exceptions, e.g. when I launch Preview on the second screen, the file selection appears on the expected screen but once you choose a file to open, macOS opens it on the default screen (by which point the action is no longer under Alfred's control). This is the same behaviour you'll see if you try it using Spotlight.

 

If you can give some more precise examples of the behaviour you see, and the apps you see this with, I'm happy to take a look, but it's likely to be a scenario like the one above. :)

 

Cheers,
Vero

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@Vero  Hi.  Thanks for taking a look into it.

 

My configure is here: 

 

 

I tried several times and come to this conclusion:

 

After a reboot of the system, when you first launch a 3rd party application, e.g., wireshark, it will open on the acive (macbook display) even if the active display is the external display.  However, if you drag the wireshark window to the external display, close it, and then open it again while keeping the active display still the external display, then wireshark will open on the external display.

 

On the other hand, for apple software, particularly "preview.app", it will always open on the macbook display.

 

 

 

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