recent documents not functioning properly

[talkRAYdio]

THIS ISSUE IS HAPPENING ON TWO DIFFERENT MACS:

mac pro 2009 - yosemite 10.10.5, alfred 2.8.4

macbook pro mid 2015 - el capitan 10.11.5, alfred 2.8.4

 

Hello,

 

I recently switched over to Alfred from launchbar, and also purchased the powerpack

 

the issue i'm having has to do with opening recent documents as I've set up alfred to allow for this by hitting the right arrow twice once I've found the app i'm looking for.

 

At first it worked beautifully. But out of nowhere the recent items are disappearing from the submenu. 

 

so for instance, I have a document in numbers called "budget". It used to be that if i hit "command-space" to bring up alfred, then type "num" it would show me "numbers". then I'd hit the right arrow twice and i would see the document there in the sub menu and hit "enter" to launch it.

 

but some time ago the sub menu that has the recent items started showing up either completely empty or missing items that i launch all the time. to be clear: the main apps always come up just fine when I hit “command-space”, it’s only the recent items in the sub menu that are an issue.

 

Once launched, I checked to see if the recent items were available in the app itself. The two computers have a slightly different result.

 

And the issue is not consistent across apps. Some apps (like text edit) have all of my recent docs available in both alfred and the app itself. but others, most specifically numbers, do not (but it’s not just numbers).

 

on the older mac pro, the issue is much more prevalent , where the most recent items are not available in either alfred or the app itself

 

on the newer macbook pro i find that while alfred consistently does not offer the most recent apps (similar to the mac pro), many of the apps themselves do in fact have the most recent items listed there

 

this started only after installing alfred - it was completely fine prior to install

 

any help would be greatly appreciated.

[talkRAYdio]

OH - one other thing

 

sometimes the issue is consistent and I'll go days where the issue will persist, then all the sudden it will work and i'll see my recent docs in alfred.

 

right now  all my recent docs are available in alfred - but i expect in a few hours that will change.

 

the only thing that i can think of that's differnet is that i recently rebooted (and i normally leave this mac running 24/7)

 

maybe there's something to that?

 

point is: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. very odd...

[Andrew]

point is: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. very odd...

 

Hi there,

 

Alfred shows recent documents from two difference sources:

 

The first source is documents opened through Alfred with the "Open With" file action. These are stored internally for immediate display in the recent documents file action.

 

Secondly is from OS X's shared file lists. Alfred takes a read only view of these (never edits or changes them), and displays them to you in the recent document file action. With these, Alfred can only show the documents listed within the shared file lists for a particular app, so if these aren't being correctly updated, or are out of sync, then Alfred can't show you the recent documents.

 

By the sounds of things, if recent documents aren't being updated to the shared file lists, or even showing in your apps or in OS X, then there is an issue outside of Alfred's control which is preventing Alfred from showing you your recent documents. This could be a permissions issue (i.e. those apps can't maintain their recent documents list), some corruption within OS X, or even another app which is meddling with these files.

 

The first place I would start is perhaps repairing permissions on your Mac. This is different in Yosemite (Disk Utility.app) to El Capitan (Command Line), and we can't warrant OS X actions like this.

 

As this isn't a bug with Alfred, I am going to move this to the Discussion and Help section where other technical Mac users may be able to help you!

 

Just to let you know, I've archived the email you've sent as I've replied here. Good luck!

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[talkRAYdio]

thanks so much for your reply andrew! super appreciated!

 

i've rebooted both macs in single user mode and performed fsck -fy

 

then launched into recovery mode and repaired all permissions

 

then , while still in recovery mode, i've launched the terminal and performed "changepassword" for the purpose of repairing user folder permissions - yet the issue persists.

 

which means, unfortunately, it still leaves me in the dark with unusable software. 

 

so i'm not sure what to do.

 

 

What i'm going to do is de-install alfred and completely re-install it.

 

could you please alert me as to every place there is a file associated with alfred on the drive? or is it as simple as deleting the app and the associated preference file in ~/library ?

 

thanks!

[Andrew]

 

What i'm going to do is de-install alfred and completely re-install it.

 

could you please alert me as to every place there is a file associated with alfred on the drive? or is it as simple as deleting the app and the associated preference file in ~/library ?

 

thanks!

 

 

Uninstalling and reinstalling Alfred is unlikely to make any difference for this situation. As I said, the shared files used for recent documents are managed by OS X and are completely independent of Alfred. Alfred just reads these files when you ask him to.

 

Having said that, if you'd like to reset Alfred completely, here are all the associated files:

 

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/reset-alfred/

 

Thanks,

Andrew