Upgrading or Installing a New OS

With macOS Sierra's release just around the corner, we wanted to share a few tips to get you up and running with Alfred as quickly as possible on a new version of Apple's operating system.

Alfred is Sierra-ready and will work smoothly right away once you've upgraded to macOS. We recommend ensuring you're on the latest update (3.1.1) which is available from the Update tab in Alfred's preferences or from alfredapp.com.

If you're installing your Mac from scratch, the tips below will help you activate your Powerpack license, re-set your preferences and find results when you need them.

Activate your Powerpack

If you've reinstalled your Mac, you'll need to activate your license to take advantage of the Powerpack features.

We sent licenses by email automatically when you made your purchase, so look for emails from @alfredapp.com or for the "Your Alfred License" subject line for the original license email we sent you.

Set up preferences syncing

A great way to keep your Alfred preferences handy is to use Dropbox cloud-based syncing. If you've just re-installed Dropbox on your Mac, give Dropbox sufficient time to download all of your cloud-based files before selecting your Alfred preferences folder in Dropbox.

Why? If you set syncing up before your preferences have been downloaded, a new set of preferences will be created. Waiting until Dropbox completes its download ensures you'll be able to use your existing settings.

Find out more about syncing your Alfred preferences, which is also a convenient way to keep a backup!

Let your Mac reindex

Alfred uses refined queries over macOS's metadata index, the same index that Spotlight uses.

As such, if you're re-installed from scratch, your Mac will need a bit of time to build up its metadata index. During this indexing time, search results may be incomplete but this takes under an hour. Once it's done, you'll be sorted.

We've been using Sierra since the early betas and Alfred performs beautifully, so happy upgrading!