Command Bar Locked and Default Appearance upon computer Reboot

[AOnly]

Hello,

 

Issue:

I have noticed an issue with Alfred when I reboot my Macbook Pro and what Alfred does upon auto-startup immediately after reboot. There are three potential outcomes & approx % of occurrences:

1. Alfred auto-opens upon reboot in it's normal state and normal appearance - 25% of reboots

2. Alfred auto-opens upon reboot with "Alfred Classic" appearance, which is not the setting I have selected (Alfred Dark Modern) - 45% of reboots

3. Alfred auto-opens upon reboot with "Alfred Classic" appearance AND the command bar opens and will not close - 30% of reboots

 

Variables to recreate issue:

I have yet to figured out which variables lead to which outcomes as this happens automatically upon login after reboot. 1 is clearly a normal state. 2 & 3 are abnormal.

 

How I resolve when issues occur:

When 2 or 3 occurs, the appearance setting is actually shown inside Preferences as Alfred Dark Modern (the one I selected). Simply clicking on Alfred Dark Modern again does not resolve the issue. I must select a different theme before selecting Alfred Dark Modern again to resolve. After that, 2 will be resolved but 3 will remain in the state below.

 

When 3 occurs, using the Alfred Hotkey, Esc, or "Toggle Alfred" from the top bar menu will not cause the Alfred command bar to disappear. It will remain floating on top of other applications. Using the command bar will do Alfred actions, but the bar will remain open and floating after Enter. The only way to close the command bar is to quit Alfred and re-open it. Upon re-open, the appearance will be correct, and Alfred functions properly.

 

Computer Specs:

2019 Macbook Pro 16 Inch - Intel i9

MacOS Monterey 12.5.1

 

Alfred Specs:

Alfred 4: The issue first presented itself in Alfred 4 (I can't remember which version it started in, but started about 4 months ago). I always installed every new update hoping it would correct.

Alfred 5: The same issues were happening in Alfred 5 as well, which I downloaded 2 weeks ago and currently run 5.0.2. 

 

Thanks!

[Stephen_C]

Just a wild guess, but is this post any help? Sorry if it's not!

 

Stephen

[Vero]

@AOnly Welcome to the forum

 

Could you please let me know what sync service you're using and the exact location of your preferences? It seems likely that, as @Stephen_C suggested, the behaviour you're seeing is caused by your preferences being unavailable at startup.

 

This is why you'd see Alfred starting with default settings, as he's unable to find your preferences on launch, resulting in using default settings. Sometimes, if your sync location becomes available quickly enough, Alfred will start with your custom preferences.

 

As for Alfred showing and not disappearing, this is likely because there's a clash in your hotkey, e.g. the default hotkey is being shared with Spotlight, perhaps?

 

Cheers,
Vero

 

[bucweat]

Hi,

 

Was a solution found for this issue? I have a 2018 MBP and see outcome 3 100% of the time. Quitting and restarting Alfred does set things right as mentioned above. Syncing: shows "Not Synced" which is as expected. Running 5.1.4. 

 

VR, Charlie

Edited January 22 by bucweat

[Vero]

@bucweat Could you please provide your Diagnostics file, which you can get by typing "?diagnostics" into Alfred? You can then email it to our info@ email address.

 

If I recall correctly, the above was resolved by reinstalling, as a Time Machine / Migration Assistant transfer had muddled up permissions more generally on the Mac. 

 

Could you let us know

• which version of macOS you're using?
• when the issue started? (as I can see you've been using Alfred for nearly a decade  )
• whether you transferred your Mac data from a previous install either via Time Machine or Migration Assistant?
• whether only your theme is affected or all Alfred preferences reset to defaults on restart?

This will help us point you in the right direction.

[bucweat]

Sorry for the delayed response...I was distracted by other things here (Você fala Português?)

 

Surprisingly I just rebooted and did not see the issue...so maybe not 100%. I don't reboot that often...these days I have a VM running that needs to be shutdown/restarted whenever I need to reboot MacOS and that takes a while...

 

Responses at the end...

• which version of macOS you're using? Sonoma 14.3
• when the issue started? (as I can see you've been using Alfred for nearly a decade  ) It has been going on for a while...across multiple OS versions (at least since early 13.x)
• whether you transferred your Mac data from a previous install either via Time Machine or Migration Assistant? I have Time Machine running, but have never transferred any Alfred files from a backup or TM. In fact at one point recently I deleted the Alfred prefs file and let it regenerate...I mostly use defaults...mostly...but still saw the same issue on reboot.
• whether only your theme is affected or all Alfred preferences reset to defaults on restart? The theme in the search bar is wrong (default) but when I open prefs it shows the dark theme selected. I need to cycle the theme in the prefs and then cycle the search bar to get it to switch to correct theme. So I don't think the Alfred preferences are getting reset....maybe ignored?

The other issue I see when outcome 3 (see first post) happens is that the incorrectly themed search bar will not go away...I guess this could also be related to settings reverting to defaults...but I don't know what the default hotkey is to test that. Anyway I end up quitting and restarting Alfred and then all is good. 

 

Thanks again for your help 🙂

 

[Vero]

@bucweat Could you please launch Activity Monitor and check that you don't have two versions of Alfred running concurrently? This shouldn't be possible but there are corner cases where it can happen.

 

4 hours ago, bucweat said:

I have Time Machine running, but have never transferred any Alfred files from a backup or TM

 

My question related to your Mac more broadly, not to Alfred specifically. When using Migration Assistant to transfer data from a previous Mac or Time Machine, it's possible for permission issues to result from the transfer which can be exhibited by certain apps but are caused by macOS itself. Could that have happened when setting up your current Mac?

 

Finally, if neither of the options above lead to an answer, resetting Alfred fully may be helpful. Open your Application Support folder and take a backup of your Alfred preferences. You'll find them in ~/Library/Application Support/Alfred/ and can put them somewhere safe for later.

 

Once you've done this, use these reset instructions:

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

 

With this fresh set of preferences, see if you can replicate the issue you're seeing or whether it no longer happens. Once that's been worked out, we can look at bringing your original preferences in

 

Cheers,
Vero

[bucweat]

1 minute ago, Vero said:

@bucweat Could you please launch Activity Monitor and check that you don't have two versions of Alfred running concurrently? This shouldn't be possible but there are corner cases where it can happen.

Nope...only one instance of "Alfred" is running.

1 minute ago, Vero said:

My question related to your Mac more broadly, not to Alfred specifically. When using Migration Assistant to transfer data from a previous Mac or Time Machine, it's possible for permission issues to result from the transfer which can be exhibited by certain apps but are caused by macOS itself. Could that have happened when setting up your current Mac?

I've never used Migration Assistant before...I prefer either updating or, if I'm going through the pain of a fresh install, setting up from scratch.

1 minute ago, Vero said:

Finally, if neither of the options above lead to an answer, resetting Alfred fully may be helpful. Open your Application Support folder and take a backup of your Alfred preferences. You'll find them in ~/Library/Application Support/Alfred/ and can put them somewhere safe for later.

 

Once you've done this, use these reset instructions:

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

OK I've done the delete preferences thing before but pretty sure I only deleted "Alfred.alfredpreferences" (I run mostly defaults anyway). I will try this but probably not right away as it will require some time and multiple reboots  (hopefully it won't take three weeks this time).

1 minute ago, Vero said:

With this fresh set of preferences, see if you can replicate the issue you're seeing or whether it no longer happens. Once that's been worked out, we can look at bringing your original preferences in

Thanks...will get back to you soon...

 

[bucweat]

@VeroDid the full reset of Alfred, and have rebooted multiple times over the past few days and so far I've not seen any issues. I deleted the original prefs as I mentioned previously so nothing to bring back. 

 

Did you get the diagnostics file I sent on 7 Feb? Did it show anything weird?

[Vero]

14 hours ago, bucweat said:

Did you get the diagnostics file I sent on 7 Feb? Did it show anything weird?

 

@bucweat My previous reply was made after seeing your diagnostics, which looked normal. Sounds like you're all sorted now and everything is working normally?

[bucweat]

46 minutes ago, Vero said:

 

@bucweat My previous reply was made after seeing your diagnostics, which looked normal. Sounds like you're all sorted now and everything is working normally?

So far so good 🙂 If I see the issue again I’ll generate diagnostics file and find you here again.

[bucweat]

Hi Vero,

 

@Vero Having issue again. Sent email to info@ with diagnostics and screenshot. Notice that Alfred Modern Dark is set, yet Alfred is in the default. Also Alfred stopped responding to the keyboard sequence CMD+Space and I had to quit and restart. Once that is done everything is back to normal.

 

VR, Charlie

[Vero]

@bucweat I've had a look at your Diagnostics and everything looks in order. What has changed on your Mac since February that could be causing this to resurface?

 

You could try resetting your preferences, as instructed back in February, but it'd be worth identifying if something specific is happening on your Mac periodically. Do you use third-party software to "clean up" that may be fettling with Alfred's preferences?

 

If you set a specific theme, restart your Mac and reopen the preferences, is the theme correctly saved in the preferences?

[bucweat]

4 hours ago, Vero said:

@bucweat I've had a look at your Diagnostics and everything looks in order. What has changed on your Mac since February that could be causing this to resurface?

Nothing has really changed. Maybe an OS update or two...

 

4 hours ago, Vero said:

You could try resetting your preferences, as instructed back in February, but it'd be worth identifying if something specific is happening on your Mac periodically. Do you use third-party software to "clean up" that may be fettling with Alfred's preferences?

I do have SetApp installed and use CleanMyMacX. I usually try to run that once a week and then reboot after, but that doesn't always happen. 

 

4 hours ago, Vero said:

If you set a specific theme, restart your Mac and reopen the preferences, is the theme correctly saved in the preferences?

If you look in the image I sent along with the diagnostics you'll notice that the theme is set to dark...i used Alfred to bring up its preferences, then used it to open the screeenshot app. One additional thing to note is that when Alfred is in this "startup mode", the search does not clear (e.g. it holds onto the text) after starting an app from Alfred search bar. When I restart Alfred, dark mode is set and everything acts normally. It is only when Alfred is launched on startup that it has these issues (stuck search bar, not clearing after starting app, ignoring theme). 

 

I've followed the reset directions, sending this now and then rebooting to see what happens. Will report back here when thats done.

 

Back after a reboot...Alfred when through the "fresh install" process verifying things like full disk access etc. That all looked good. Alfred after that is working normally. Will reboot again to see if normal launch of Alfred on startup works correctly.  

 

One "big" change I forgot about between Feb and now is Alfred upgrade to Build 2257, Monday 18th March 2024. So whatever is going on happens in both 5.1.X and 5.5. 

Edited April 24 by bucweat

[Stephen_C]

1 hour ago, bucweat said:

and use CleanMyMacX

You really need to be extremely careful when using apps like that: they are well capable of removing things that you really need to keep. It may be worth checking ruthlessly your settings in that app. (I've never used it—and would never do so—so I'm not sure whether or not the settings are helpful but it's certainly where I'd start looking for clues.)

 

Stephen