As you can see in this screenshot, ~Library/CloudStorage is included in my sarch scope results. I get results back from iCloud without an issue.
Is there something I’m missing here? Does this work for Alfred 5 users? I haven’t updated yet because of a couple of my critical workflows aren’t available in v5.
It doesn’t work in Alfred 5, either. Luckily, I don’t need to search DropBox as I only use it for shared files (which I keep originals for elsewhere), but I would still like a solution if there is one out there! I’ve also added CloudStorage and have had no luck.
Vero is claiming you need to rebuild the local index so macOS resumes providing metadata about the Dropbox files. She had a couple other potential troubleshooting steps.
Assuming it works, it’s still not good if a lot of users have to do this after Dropbox updates, and macOS doesn’t give Alfred the info to detect and trigger it.
Using Alfred 5, I had the same search problem with the Dropbox update and move to ~Library/CloudStorage. No Dropbox files showed up in search, despite having ~Library/CloudStorage in my search scope. OneDrive files, also in the new CloudStorage location were reported by search. I tried other troubleshooting suggestions, but what fixed it for me (and I’m not sure why) was adding my home directory to the search scope as was suggested in an Alfred forum post. In other words, a simple naked ~ in the search scope.
Indeed, this has been brutal for me. Didn’t realize how often I just hit Command Space and wrote find filename to get it in Finder quick.
I tried this, and it didn’t do the trick. But it was my first thought, so great minds think alike.
Magic! This is the solution. I’m a little worried that adding the entire home directory is a bit of a crazy hack and a mess, but I’ll take it if it means I can use my computer the way I want to.
I wonder if it’s because Dropbox left a symlink in the home directory that points to its new folder? Odd that this works, but OK. Thanks so much for your help! I hereby bless you with all the edible internet cookies.
Maybe “~Library/CloudStorage” wasn’t enough but “~” (your entire home directory) did include what was needed? That suggests if someone can pin down exactly what is needed, you won’t have to put your entire home directory on this search path.
According to Alfred, it should be enough to have ~Library/CloudStorage. I also tried a variant with ~Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox and that didn’t work either.
The other thing that’s interesting, if anybody is interested in tracking this down, is that everything in Dropbox is prepended with a cloud in the file path (see the image below). That’s not true of the files located in iCloud Drive.
The only explanation I can come up with is that I have “Folders in Home (excluding ~Library)” checked off in the search scope in Alfred. I’ve manually added in the Library path I want below (as you could see in my previous screenshot), but I wonder if Alfred is tripping over itself here.
Now use Maestral to manage Dropbox, which allows you to keep your DB folder wherever you like. I simply set up Maestral, deleted the DB folder then renamed the new Maestral folder to “Dropbox” all my links and automations still work as expected and DB syncs fine without the constant massive memory hit.
This would be a great solution if I didn’t extensively use Dropbox’s sharing features, but that’s (unfortunately) a huge reason why I use Dropbox over other solutions. IIRC, Maestral doesn’t support those features.
I can totally see why that would work for some, but for me I am not worried about the CPU usage or the RAM usage (have plenty to spare), and I prefer the convenience of the built-in Finder tools. They totally work fine.
I’d also imagine the app consumes less resources now that it’s been updated to the latest guidelines and rules.
