File Filter Comes Back Empty If Typing To Quickly

[Olaf]

Hi,

 

I have an issue with a simple File Filter workflow:

 

The workflow in question is just a File Filter attached to an Open File action.

 

I trigger the File Filter search by a keyword "bo", then I type in two search terms ("x", "y"):

 

 bo x y

 

If I do this at an even moderate speed, the search result is often empty. However, if I backspace up to right after the "x", then again type "<space>y", the result comes up just fine. The faster I type, the more likely the result is empty. The shorter the search terms (= the more matches), the more likely the result is empty.

 

The File Filter uses the following options:

 

Basic Setup:

 - with space: off

 - file types: 5 types, com.adobe.pdf, com.lizardtech.djvu, dyn.ah...cre,

    dyn.ah...dr (Amazon files), org.idpf.epub-container

Search Scope:

 - 4 folders in my home dir

Advanced:

 - date range: any date

 - fields:

   kMDitemDisplayName [ ] {query} [x] [x]

   kMDitemFinderComment  [ ] {query} [x] [x]

- accuracy [x] Anchor searches which are not word based

 

I am running OSX 10.8.5 with Alfred 2.1.1

 

Thanks for looking into this!

 

Olaf

 

[Andrew]

Hi,

 

I have an issue with a simple File Filter workflow:

 

The workflow in question is just a File Filter attached to an Open File action.

 

I trigger the File Filter search by a keyword "bo", then I type in two search terms ("x", "y"):

 

 bo x y

 

If I do this at an even moderate speed, the search result is often empty. However, if I backspace up to right after the "x", then again type "<space>y", the result comes up just fine. The faster I type, the more likely the result is empty. The shorter the search terms (= the more matches), the more likely the result is empty.

 

The File Filter uses the following options:

 

Basic Setup:

 - with space: off

 - file types: 5 types, com.adobe.pdf, com.lizardtech.djvu, dyn.ah...cre,

    dyn.ah...dr (Amazon files), org.idpf.epub-container

Search Scope:

 - 4 folders in my home dir

Advanced:

 - date range: any date

 - fields:

   kMDitemDisplayName [ ] {query} [x] [x]

   kMDitemFinderComment  [ ] {query} [x] [x]

- accuracy [x] Anchor searches which are not word based

 

I am running OSX 10.8.5 with Alfred 2.1.1

 

Thanks for looking into this!

 

Olaf

 

Whenever you get any issues like this, it's almost always an OS X metadata issue. The first thing to try is to reindex your OS X metadata. I've actually improved this in Alfred 2.2, so if you grab the pre-release from Alfred's Update prefs, then in the Advanced prefs, select "Rebuild OS X Metadata". Tick the option to delete the Spotlight-V100 folder for a deep reindex.

 

Let me know how you get on

 

[moving to workflow help]

[Olaf]

Thanks Andrew, I deleted and rebuild the OS X metadata but it did not help.

 

However, I found a much simpler demonstration of what appears to be the problem:

 

As stated above, I have a workflow with a File FIlter that I can trigger by the keyword "bo".

 

Now, if I search for something like this:

 

 "bo e e e e e e e"

 

it should be the same as searching for

 

 "bo e"

 

BUT: If I type

 

 "bo e e e " (please note the final space at the end)

 

then the result depends on my typing speed: if I pause a bit after the last "e" before typing the final space, the result always looks good, but if the last "e" is quickly followed by the space, the result is empty.

 

I can easily reproduce this, but I suspect that you may need a few of files in the search scope to trigger this.