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Removing many tags quickly

Being a consultant I move from job to job. Cleaning up TAGs after each gig is too time consuming.

Is there a way to remove multiple tags from Big Sur quickly? A 3rd party product is fine if such thing exists anywhere.


thank you!


~Peter

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Jan 9, 2021 10:18 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 9, 2021 11:11 AM

Do a finder search for Spotlight keyword tag:red (for example), and select all of the found files and right-click to reveal Tags… menu entry. Click behind the tag name(s), backspace to remove it, and press return. Those tags are now removed from the selected files.


You can search for multiple tags on files using a capitalized OR, AND conjunction:


(tag:red AND tag:"special tag name")


Any other approach will require programming with Objective-C, and a list of tags to remove in a specific directory hierarchy. I am not aware of any third-party product other than the Finder/Spotlight combination that can remove custom tags.


3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 9, 2021 11:11 AM in response to Peter Ryan

Do a finder search for Spotlight keyword tag:red (for example), and select all of the found files and right-click to reveal Tags… menu entry. Click behind the tag name(s), backspace to remove it, and press return. Those tags are now removed from the selected files.


You can search for multiple tags on files using a capitalized OR, AND conjunction:


(tag:red AND tag:"special tag name")


Any other approach will require programming with Objective-C, and a list of tags to remove in a specific directory hierarchy. I am not aware of any third-party product other than the Finder/Spotlight combination that can remove custom tags.


Jan 9, 2021 11:58 AM in response to Peter Ryan

You are welcome. I also might add that you probably should set a Finder Preferences : Advanced to


When performing a search: [ Search the Current Folder ]


because Spotlight may find all files with a tag on them and you may want to better focus your untagging effort to the directory you are in, rather than a larger scope with potential surprise.

Removing many tags quickly

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