Hi Gary. Is there a way to search for all broken aliases? And if there isn’t, can I somehow search for ALL aliases, broken or not? Thank you.
Since I upgraded my MacBook (and thus my OS) I have found quite a lot of broken aliases. I would prefer to fix them by working through a list in front of me, rather than come across them randomly and have to fix them in that moment.
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Jane
In the Finder you can search for all aliases using a Raw Query search term. So start a search in the Finder with Command+F. Then change "Kind" to "Other..." and activate Raw Query in the list. Then go back and set Kind to Raw Query. Then use the raw query: kMDItemKind = "Alias"
See https://macmost.com/powerful-searches-with-raw-query.html if you need a step-by-step on that.
As for finding only aliases that are broken, there may be a way in Terminal to do that. However, after trying unsuccessfully for a bit I gave up on that. So I don't know if it is possible.
Thanks Gary - that is genius! I did what you suggested and brought up a list of all the aliases. The broken ones are very easy to identify, so am able to work my way through them :)
Further to my question above, it turns out I have dozens of broken aliases, and to select ‘Fix Alias’ or ‘Select New Original’ then click though layers of folders each time to get to a new original is very time-consuming.
I was wondering if there is a way to select a new original for the broken alias by copying the new original’s path and pasting it somewhere? Thanks.
Jane: I can't think of a way to do that. But you can always just delete the broken alias and recreate it by dragging with Command+Option if you think that would be faster.
Thanks Gary. Yes, that would definitely be a faster way.
Just tried your suggestion to Jane - works fine. Thanks.