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User profile for user: David Das
David Das Author
User level: Level 1
83 points

Tags in Finder not working reliably

I'm in Monterey 12.2 (latest). Finder Tags, which had worked perfectly for me for a long time, have begun behaving unreliably.


I have a set of files that I have assigned a tag to ("K-Misc Faves"). Hundreds of them.


I have a previously-created smart folder which is set to the search criteria "tags match K-Misc Faves" and this had, up until last week, always displayed my hundreds of files tagged this way.


Now, the smart folder only shows about 15 of them.


I can go and find the hundreds of files tagged with that tag; they are still tagged accordingly.


I tried to go and create a new smart folder with the same (or similar) criteria. This new smart folder only shows the same 15.


If I go and find a handful of my hundreds of tagged files, remove their tags, re-add their tags, then check my smart folder, YES they now show up.


In other words, some of the tagging might have gotten corrupted somehow, but I have no idea how. And there are too many files (and too many tags) to have to redo everything.


How did this get broken and how might I reset it?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Jan 30, 2022 12:20 PM

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User profile for user: BlueberryLover
BlueberryLover
User level: Level 4
1,117 points

Posted on Jan 31, 2022 12:54 PM

How's this...


    1. Use finder to bring up a window with all of files with the label that you want
    2. Select all, use Edit Tags to add another label (or colour them) then delete the original label
    3. Use finder to bring up a window with the second label (or colour)
    4. Select all, use Edit Tags to add the original label then use Edit Tags to delete other label (or colour)
    5. Create a SmartFolder using the original criteria


- Pie Lover

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User profile for user: BlueberryLover
BlueberryLover
User level: Level 4
1,117 points

Jan 31, 2022 12:54 PM in response to David Das

How's this...


    1. Use finder to bring up a window with all of files with the label that you want
    2. Select all, use Edit Tags to add another label (or colour them) then delete the original label
    3. Use finder to bring up a window with the second label (or colour)
    4. Select all, use Edit Tags to add the original label then use Edit Tags to delete other label (or colour)
    5. Create a SmartFolder using the original criteria


- Pie Lover

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User profile for user: David Das
David Das Author
User level: Level 1
83 points

Jan 31, 2022 3:27 PM in response to BlueberryLover

@BlueberryLover - thanks - I did this and it works, however, my hundreds of files are not in one place -- they're all over the place. Hence me using tags to organize them!


So re-tagging them would be a TON of manual work and it would be hard to find every last file. I have dozens of tags, and some of my other tags are similarly half-broken. What if I go and re-tag everything and then find it breaks again?


Getting to the source of what happened to cause this tag to stop working would be a lot better.

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Tags in Finder not working reliably

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