Migrate Alfred Settings [Searching for testers]

[jdfwarrior]

Edited 3/1/2013:

 

The idea behind this workflow is to migrate settings from Alfred 1 to Alfred 2. I volunteered to do this as a workflow so that Andrew could finish other things and so we wouldn't have a button in the Alfred prefs that was used once and then just a waste of space. This way it can be used to migrate settings then just delete the workflow. Backups of the original settings are made so you don't have to worry about losing anything. 

 

Includes:

Migrate Alfred 1 Custom Searches to Alfred 2

Migrate Alfred 1 Snippets to Alfred 2

 

If you try this workflow and have success or failure either way, please post so that I know and can attempt to make this as resilient as possible.

 

Thanks

 

Download

[adamhorner]

Worked perfectly for my two simple intranet searches David, I think this will be useful for a number of users.

 

(Really looking forward to migrated workflows, but I’m having fun migrating most of mine by hand myself

[jdfwarrior]

Worked perfectly for my two simple intranet searches David, I think this will be useful for a number of users.

 

(Really looking forward to migrated workflows, but I’m having fun migrating most of mine by hand myself

 

Awesome, thanks for helping

[tvacula]

My 14 custom searches came across fine, but none of my 6 snippets completed the journey.

 

Thanks for all your efforts moving us toward V2.

[Kennon]

I had 19 custom searches and they all came across perfectly. Wonderful idea!

[jdfwarrior]

My 14 custom searches came across fine, but none of my 6 snippets completed the journey.

 

Thanks for all your efforts moving us toward V2.

 

Yeah I haven't done the snippets migration yet. I hope to get it done tonight and then start working on extension migration

[JMoVS]

mine says "error: Unable to locate v2 preferences"

[tvacula]

Yeah I haven't done the snippets migration yet. I hope to get it done tonight and then start working on extension migration

Sorry, David. After I posted my results, I reread your original post and realized folks had asked for all those things to migrate, but your work to this point migrated custom searches. Didn't mean to rush you! :-)

[ChrisB]

I have my v2 set up with Syncing pointed to ~/Dropbox/Apps/AlfredApp

 

When I run migrate, I get "Error: Unable to locate v2 preferences"

[Andrew]

I have my v2 set up with Syncing pointed to ~/Dropbox/Apps/AlfredApp

 

When I run migrate, I get "Error: Unable to locate v2 preferences"

 

You should really move your prefs out of this folder - Dropbox does funny things with permissions in this folder for API based iOS app. The latest builds of Alfred 2 don't allow you to use this folder.

 

This could be the issue.

[ChrisB]

Okay, I've moved it, but still get the same error.

 

Steps I took:

- clicked Set Sync Folder

- created a new folder called "Backups" (because I don't really want "Alfred" at the top of my dropbox, since dropbox is already cluttered enough by other apps that want the top level)

- created my AlfredApp folder in there

So this shows in Alfred now as: ~/Dropbox/Backups/AlfredApp

 

It asked me to restart Alfred, which I did.  I verified that Alfred had indeed copied the prefs file over to the new folder. Dropbox sync was very fast. 

 

Running "migrate" still gives me "Error: Unable to locate v2 preferences".

 

Would moving the Sync folder back to someplace outside of Dropbox make any difference? Isn't Dropbox just like any other local folder as far as the OS goes?   Is there an option in Alfred 2 to turn off sync and go back to the default Library location?

[Tyler Eich]

It worked for me (I only had 1 custom search); thanks for doing this, David! 

[ChrisB]

Okay, I've moved it, but still get the same error.

 

Steps I took:

- clicked Set Sync Folder

- created a new folder called "Backups" (because I don't really want "Alfred" at the top of my dropbox, since dropbox is already cluttered enough by other apps that want the top level)

- created my AlfredApp folder in there

So this shows in Alfred now as: ~/Dropbox/Backups/AlfredApp

 

It asked me to restart Alfred, which I did.  I verified that Alfred had indeed copied the prefs file over to the new folder. Dropbox sync was very fast. 

 

Running "migrate" still gives me "Error: Unable to locate v2 preferences".

 

Would moving the Sync folder back to someplace outside of Dropbox make any difference? Isn't Dropbox just like any other local folder as far as the OS goes?   Is there an option in Alfred 2 to turn off sync and go back to the default Library location?

I figured it out.

 

My Alfred 2 folder didn't have a "websearch" preferences plist file. In fact it didn't even have the /preferences/features/websearch folder at all. That's what was causing the migration script to fail.

 

 

To "fix" it, I simply created a dummy custom search, which then created the /preferences/features/websearch/prefs.plist file, and then the migrate script worked perfectly.

 

Hopefully that helps you refine the script, or refine Alfred itself.

[jdfwarrior]

Ok I didn't realize the websearch folder wasn't created by default. I don't think it gets created until you start tweaking the custom searches. That being said, I've made changes for the next iteration of the workflow that will check the existence of the web search folder, if it doesn't exist, it creates it and generates a prefs.plist with the default config so items can be added to it

[jdfwarrior]

In case you missed it, I updated the original post with a new download link. Includes snippet migrate and fixes a few issues with the custom search migrate (where the websearch folder didn't already exist)

[Tyler Eich]

Snippet import worked for me. I had 1 preexisting item and 4 items from Alfred 1; all of them are now in Alfred 2.

 

Thanks ×2 

[vinyldust]

I too, had to do what ChrisB did - even with the latest build from 6:47 pm yesterday.

 

As soon as I setup my first custom search - then ran the migrate function - it worked perfect.

 

Thanks!

[Jono]

Worked perfectly here, thanks.

[morphorod]

Just tried it, worked perfectly. Great job David! 

[tvanyo]

Super! Wasn't looking forward to retyping 16 snippets. Thanks for the workflow.

[gingerbeardman]

I'm getting: "Error: Unable to locate v2 preferences" when migrating custom searches.

 

Snippets migration seems to run fine, but I don't use snippets.

 

I've checked and the prefs file is there.

[jdfwarrior]

I'm getting: "Error: Unable to locate v2 preferences" when migrating custom searches.

Snippets migration seems to run fine, but I don't use snippets.

I've checked and the prefs file is there.

There are MANY prefs files inside of Alfred now. Check my blog, dferg.us. I have the workflow available there as well as a suggested fix for that error that has worked for most users

[gingerbeardman]

It worked eventually, not sure what had changed. Thanks for the reply.