Indexing Problems in macOS Sierra [Fixed 3.1 b708 pre-release]

[zhiayang]

Hello.
 
I'm using Sierra DP3, and Alfred 3.0.3. I have no idea why this started, because for the past few weeks on sierra everything was fine. It started yesterday, when my usual search terms I use to launch apps (tl for Textual, sb for Sublime Text) weren't returning anything. So, I reloaded the cache --- nothing. Reindexed spotlight --- nothing.
 
I've run 

sudo mdfind -E -i on /

I've deleted

/Spotlight-V100/*

I've painstakingly let spotlight reindex over and over.

Here's the thing: if I let spotlight finish reindexing --- all queries don't show the little indexing progress bar when searching with spotlight, I can find things just fine through spotlight.

However, the moment I try to search something through Alfred, anything at all, spotlight goes back to indexing on all queries. If I let it finish, the cycle repeats. So it seems as if Alfred is doing something funky to the spotlight index? I have no clue. Productivity is at an all-time-low without Alfred, so some help would be nice (:

 

EDIT: I'll maybe make a gif once spotlight finishes indexing. Also, if I use Alfred to search for anything while spotlight is in the middle of indexing, then it looks like I get thrown back to square 1, and have to start reindexing all over again. It's agonising, really.

 

EDIT 2: I just created a new user account to try this (seems to be a suggested debugging step around here), and the same problem happens --- didn't even transfer any alfred settings over.

 

EDIT 3: GIF: (http://i.imgur.com/BQAEhUk.gifv)

 

Thanks.

Edited July 31, 2016 by zhiayang

[Andrew]

I did a clean / fresh install of macOS and updated it to the latest version earlier this morning and have managed to reproduce this issue. It only occurs with the default search results and not if you use the [spacebar] prefix search for file search mode (this was the first clue that it was an Apple bug).

 

It's a bit of a frustrating one as it's clearly a bug in Apple's metadata server, and each time I modify Alfred's query to the server, I have to wait 15 minutes for the reindex to complete. Having said that, I have stumbled across a workaround by reorganising some of the parameters in Alfred's query to different positions.

 

I'll be reporting this as a bug to Apple as I suspect that certain file filter workflows may also trigger a reindex.

 

Stay tuned, I'm currently working on a fix.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[zhiayang]

Oh yes, thanks!

 

I'll have to live with spotlight's less-than-ideal search for now.

 

Best of luck in your debugging/fixing endeavours.

[Andrew]

I've just put an early 3.1 in pre-release - if you set your updates to pre-releases in Alfred's update preferences and update to this release, this issue should now be fixed.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[HRD]

Hi Andrew, 

 

There is still an issue with 3.1 pre-release running 10.12 beta 4 - Safari bookmarks are still not being picked up.

 

However, as you say, the bug could be with Apple.

 

Regards

Howard

[HRD]

Hi Andrew,

 

Correction - a further restart fixed this issue with the Safari bookmarks.

 

Thanks,

 

Regards

Howard

[homever]

..Just what I submitted days ago. (topic deleted...)

 

I had to downgrade to 10.11...

[zhiayang]

Interesting --- In an attempt to be scientific, I updated to the Beta 4 (released today) before updating Alfred. It looks like Apple fixed whatever spotlight bug was present on their end!

[Andrew]

Interesting --- In an attempt to be scientific, I updated to the Beta 4 (released today) before updating Alfred. It looks like Apple fixed whatever spotlight bug was present on their end!

 

 

I've just updated to beta 4 and can confirm this, looks like Apple have fixed the indexing issue. I'll be fettling with Alfred's metadata queries again before 3.1 is released to reflect this.

 

Cheers,

Andrew