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Opening folders within the "Documents" folder return an empty window of my user folder


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Hi all,

 

A bug which drives me crazy and to be honest I think it is not related directly to Alfred (maybe spotlight)

 

Environment

I am running Alfred 5.5 on 2 different Macs let's call them Mac A & Mac B (both running Sonoma 14.4.1) and with the settings synced via Dropbox.

The issue started this week, not especially after any update (nor macOS, nor Alfred).

I don't have the issue on Mac B.

The Documents folder is not excluded from the Search Scope (either Spotlight or Alfred) and has never been. Results of files and folders stored in Documents appear in Alfred.

 

The bug

When searching a folder using Alfred using the default results I usually tap "Enter" and it opens the folder in the Finder. Or sometimes I tap CMD + Enter on a file or folder and it opens the enclosing folder in the Finder. When trying to do that on Mac A with a file or folder stored within my standard/system "Documents" folder in my user folder it opens my user folder displaying an empty content (see the screenshot attached). 

If I search a file or folder stored on the desktop folder or Pictures folder it works as expected.

 

What did I try

  • In Alfred preferences I tried "Clear Applications Cache" & Rebuild macOS metadata but also 'Delete Spotlight. V100 folder'. Still no luck.
  • Therefore I used Onyx to do some maintenance tasks. I check the file system (which was Ok), I did a reset of _DS files and Spotlight again. Still no luck.

 

What would you advise. Do you have any idea?

 

Thanks in advance. Having this bug shows me how many times a day I use this Alfred capability!

 

Martin

 

Capture d’écran 2024-04-27 à 19.00.36.png

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@ineedsomebodyhelp If you manually navigate to this folder on both of your Macs, is one "myuserfolder" empty and the other has contents? This folder should contain your Downloads, Pictures, Movies, Public, etc default macOS folders on both Macs.

 

If none of these folders are showing up on Mac A, there's a much bigger issue on that Mac that will need a chat with the Apple Support.

 

Out of curiosity, could you please:

- open Alfred's preferences to Help > Troubleshooting > File Troubleshooting

- search in Alfred for a file that results in opening your home folder

- drag the file from Alfred's results to the File Troubleshooter "drop file..." box in the top right

 

Paste the results of the troubleshooter in your reply so that we can see what metadata is available for it.

 

Cheers,
Vero

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Hi Vero,

 

Thank you so much for your help. 13 years later you're still here to help! I started with version 0.8.2!

 

Actually, my user folder appears empty only when using spotlight or Alfred. If I open the Finder and go to my user folder I can see all the native subfolders and all my data inside them!

 

I did the test with a file within a new folder. And when searching for it end hitting CMD + enter. It opens my user folder and displays the native macOS folders but it doesn't go to the enclosing folder "Alfred debug test" as it should.

 

See below the troubleshooting output:

 

Starting Diagnostics...

File: 'screenshot alfred debug.png'
Path: '/Users/myuserfolder/Documents/alfred debug test'

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check file cache database...

 File cache integrity is ok

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check if file is readable...

 Alfred has permissions to read this file.

Unix Permissions: 420
Underlying Type: NSFileTypeRegular
Extended Attributes: (
    "com.apple.lastuseddate#PS",
    "com.apple.macl",
    "com.apple.metadata:kMDItemIsScreenCapture",
    "com.apple.metadata:kMDItemScreenCaptureGlobalRect",
    "com.apple.metadata:kMDItemScreenCaptureType"
)

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check if volume '/' is indexed by macOS...

 Indexing is enabled on this drive

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check direct file metadata...

 Direct metadata available

Display Name: screenshot alfred debug.png
 Other Names: 
Content Type: public.png
   Last Used: 2024-04-28 15:31:58 +0000

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check mdls file metadata...

 Metadata contains required items

_kMDItemDisplayNameWithExtensions  = "screenshot alfred debug.png"
kMDItemBitsPerSample               = 32
kMDItemColorSpace                  = "RGB"
kMDItemComment                     = "Screenshot"
kMDItemContentCreationDate         = 2024-04-28 15:31:58 +0000
kMDItemContentCreationDate_Ranking = 2024-04-28 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate     = 2024-04-28 15:31:58 +0000
kMDItemContentType                 = "public.png"
kMDItemContentTypeTree             = (
    "public.png",
    "public.image",
    "public.data",
    "public.item",
    "public.content"
)
kMDItemDateAdded                   = 2024-04-28 15:32:15 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName                 = "screenshot alfred debug.png"
kMDItemDocumentIdentifier          = 0
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate         = 2024-04-28 15:31:58 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate              = 2024-04-28 15:31:58 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode               = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags               = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon             = 0
kMDItemFSInvisible                 = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden         = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery              = 0
kMDItemFSLabel                     = 0
kMDItemFSName                      = "screenshot alfred debug.png"
kMDItemFSNodeCount                 = 275733
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID              = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID               = 501
kMDItemFSSize                      = 275733
kMDItemFSTypeCode                  = ""
kMDItemHasAlphaChannel             = 1
kMDItemImageIsScreenshot           = 1
kMDItemInterestingDate_Ranking     = 2024-04-28 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemIsScreenCapture             = 1
kMDItemKind                        = "Image PNG"
kMDItemLastUsedDate                = 2024-04-28 15:31:58 +0000
kMDItemLastUsedDate_Ranking        = 2024-04-28 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemLogicalSize                 = 275733
kMDItemOrientation                 = 0
kMDItemPhysicalSize                = 278528
kMDItemPixelCount                  = 174096
kMDItemPixelHeight                 = 372
kMDItemPixelWidth                  = 468
kMDItemProfileName                 = "LG ULTRAWIDE"
kMDItemResolutionHeightDPI         = 144
kMDItemResolutionWidthDPI          = 144
kMDItemScreenCaptureGlobalRect     = (
    2951,
    635,
    234,
    186
)
kMDItemScreenCaptureType           = "selection"
kMDItemUseCount                    = 5
kMDItemUsedDates                   = (
    "2024-04-27 22:00:00 +0000"
)

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check file is in search scope...

 File exists within Alfred's default search scope

-----------------------------------------------------------

Check MDQuery file search...

 macOS returned a match for this file in your search scope.

File Search Results for search scope (
    "[0] /System/Volumes/Data/Users/myuserfolder/Documents/alfred debug test/screenshot alfred debug.png"
)

File Search Results for ~/ (
    "[0] /System/Volumes/Data/Users/myuserfolder/Documents/alfred debug test/screenshot alfred debug.png"
)

File Search Results for / (
    "[0] /System/Volumes/Data/Users/myuserfolder/Documents/alfred debug test/screenshot alfred debug.png"
)

-----------------------------------------------------------

 Troubleshooting passed

 

Link to comment
17 hours ago, ineedsomebodyhelp said:

Actually, my user folder appears empty only when using spotlight or Alfred. If I open the Finder and go to my user folder I can see all the native subfolders and all my data inside them!

 

@ineedsomebodyhelp I'm baffled as to why this would be, but it feels like a question for the Apple folks as the issue happens with Spotlight, so will be an OS issue.

 

17 hours ago, ineedsomebodyhelp said:

hank you so much for your help. 13 years later you're still here to help! I started with version 0.8.2!

 

Yes indeed - Always here to help! Things have changed just a bit since 0.8.2 ;) 

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