Queries Have Gotten Unreliable

[reneruiz]

I mentioned this to the Alfred twitter account several weeks ago. When I query something in Alfred, it's gotten to be very unreliable.

 

 

What I'd rather see:

 

 

The queries return different results, usually it's wrong on the first shot and it'll sort itself out after that.

 

Through the advice from the Twitter account, I reindexed the Metadata under Alfred Preferences > Advanced but it hasn't solved the problem at all.

 

What else can I try?

[Andrew]

I mentioned this to the Alfred twitter account several weeks ago. When I query something in Alfred, it's gotten to be very unreliable.

 

 

What I'd rather see:

 

 

The queries return different results, usually it's wrong on the first shot and it'll sort itself out after that.

 

Through the advice from the Twitter account, I reindexed the Metadata under Alfred Preferences > Advanced but it hasn't solved the problem at all.

 

What else can I try?

 

Alfred relies on OS X's metadata server for returning these items to him, so if OS X isn't returning them, he won't show them.

 

You may have some corruption in your metadata, so it may be worth doing a lower level reindex using this method:

 

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

 

[moving to the help sub-forum]

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[reneruiz]

Isn't this what the reindexing utility under Alfred Preferences > Advanced, I mentioned, already did?

[Tyler Eich]

No, the method Andrew recommended is more thorough and intensive. It will nearly always fix anything Alfred's reindexing button won't.

 

Also, I made a workflow that runs the commands Andrew recommended. Enjoy

Edited February 14, 2014 by Tyler Eich

[reneruiz]

Still not working.

 

[Andrew]

Still not working.

 

Could you open Finder to /System/Library/PreferencePanes/ and drag Displays.prefPane into this metadata tool:

 

http://cachefly.alfredapp.com/tools/AlfredMetadataTool_v1.0.zip

 

This will hopefully show us what could be wrong with this pref pane on your Mac.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[reneruiz]

Sure, FYI it's not just displays that has this problem.

 

 

Here's the output.

/System/Library/PreferencePanes/Displays.prefPane

Internal File Metadata
======================

 Display Name: Displays
    Alt Names: Displays.prefPane
    File Type: com.apple.systempreference.prefpane
     Comments: 
     Keywords: 
    Last Used: 

Raw mdls File Metadata
======================

com_apple_system_prefs_keywords = "screens monitors mirror mirrored mirroring arranging arrangement Arrange multiple displays menubar Relocate menu bar calibrate adjust lighten brighten dim darken white point gamma ambient light profiles calibrating adjusting adjustments dimming Display colors and calibration position height width pincushion rotate keystone parallelogram bow corner curve skewed geometry dimensions Screen image rgb align adjustment aligning alignment Image convergence static reset flicker interference flickering Degauss depth millions thousands 256 ColorSync Colors brightness resolution refresh rate Detect Show in rotation AirPlay options"
kMDItemAlternateNames           = (
    "Displays.prefPane"
)
kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier       = "com.apple.preference.displays"
kMDItemContentCreationDate      = 2012-06-20 22:04:11 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate  = 2012-06-20 22:04:11 +0000
kMDItemContentType              = "com.apple.systempreference.prefpane"
kMDItemContentTypeTree          = (
    "com.apple.systempreference.prefpane",
    "com.apple.package",
    "public.directory",
    "public.item",
    "com.apple.bundle"
)
kMDItemDateAdded                = 2013-03-07 21:08:12 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName              = "Displays"
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate      = 2012-06-20 22:04:11 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate           = 2012-06-20 22:04:11 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode            = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags            = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon          = 0
kMDItemFSInvisible              = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden      = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery           = 0
kMDItemFSLabel                  = 0
kMDItemFSName                   = "Displays.prefPane"
kMDItemFSNodeCount              = 1
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID           = 0
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID            = 0
kMDItemFSSize                   = 909475
kMDItemFSTypeCode               = ""
kMDItemKind                     = "Mac OS X Preference Pane"
kMDItemLogicalSize              = 909475
kMDItemPhysicalSize             = 1339392

I checked to make sure Preference Panes was within scope of Alfred and it looks right to me:

 

Edited February 14, 2014 by reneruiz

[reneruiz]

It seems to work better if I type slower. 

 

[Andrew]

It seems to work better if I type slower. 

 

 

That's very odd indeed and indicative of a lower level issue as Alfred issues each phrase typed as a brand new query.

 

If you open Alfred and just paste 'Displays' into him, do you see the correct results?

 

Could you temporarily create a new user account on your Mac, switch to that user and try from there?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[reneruiz]

If I copy/paste, I see the incorrect results.

 

I fast user-switched to another account on my Mac, and the problem wasn't there—it worked properly. Should I still specifically create a new user account and not use fast user-switching?

 

EDIT: Nevermind. I created a temporary user account and did a full log out/log in, and Alfred works correctly for the test account. No problems.

 

So it's some problem isolated to my home directory?

Edited February 19, 2014 by reneruiz

[Andrew]

If I copy/paste, I see the incorrect results.

 

I fast user-switched to another account on my Mac, and the problem wasn't there—it worked properly. Should I still specifically create a new user account and not use fast user-switching?

 

EDIT: Nevermind. I created a temporary user account and did a full log out/log in, and Alfred works correctly for the test account. No problems.

 

So it's some problem isolated to my home directory?

 

It appears so, yes. Could you try turning off bookmarks in your default results to see if that makes any difference to your results? As this may provide a different cache route in OS X's metadata server.

[reneruiz]

Seems like it may have made it worse actually. Even when I type slower, displays is nowhere to be found. 

[Andrew]

Seems like it may have made it worse actually. Even when I type slower, displays is nowhere to be found. 

 

There is definitely something wrong with either the OS X metadata server / cache on your profile, or possibly corruption in Alfred's settings. Could you try resetting Alfred 2 back to scratch (back up these settings before deleting) using this guide:

 

http://support.alfredapp.com/kb:reset-alfred

 

and see if running from fresh, with no settings or powerpack helps.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[reneruiz]

Yes it's better, but now it doesn't show every PrefPane. Do I have to rebuild the Metadata again?

[Andrew]

Yes it's better, but now it doesn't show every PrefPane. Do I have to rebuild the Metadata again?

 

I'm not sure how much that will help - this feels like a metadata server caching problem on your user account outside of Alfred's control. Did you do a fresh install up to Mavericks, or upgrade? As the issue may have been introduced at this point.

[reneruiz]

I'm not sure how much that will help - this feels like a metadata server caching problem on your user account outside of Alfred's control. Did you do a fresh install up to Mavericks, or upgrade? As the issue may have been introduced at this point.

I am still on Mountain Lion actually. I think that was an upgrade, rather than a fresh reinstall.