humbleice

Q: Why can't I tag Apple applications in Mavericks?

I'm trying to tag my software to make it easier to find, but tags for Apple applications are greyed out.  For example, I can tag Picasa with "Photo Editing", but I can't tag Aperture.  I can tag Chrome with "Browser", but I can't tag Safari.  Why restrict this?

MacBook Pro (15-inch 2.4/2.2 GHz), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 28, 2013 10:04 PM

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Q: Why can't I tag Apple applications in Mavericks?

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  • by gary_s,Solvedanswer

    gary_s gary_s Nov 4, 2013 9:29 AM in response to humbleice
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 4, 2013 9:29 AM in response to humbleice

    You can, but you'll have to change the permissions on the application. You apparently need write permission to the application to add a tag. For applications installed by the system only the "system" user has write permissions to the application.

     

    You can grant write permissions by right clicking and selecting "Get Info" then left clicking the lock at the bottom and entering your administrative password. You can then add write permissions to the desired user in the Sharing & Permissons block.  Once you've added the tag, to be safe, you can remove the write permissions.

     

    Note: Personally I add administrators with read-write permissions.

  • by Steven Hopstaken,

    Steven Hopstaken Steven Hopstaken Jul 7, 2016 11:04 AM in response to gary_s
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 7, 2016 11:04 AM in response to gary_s

    This doesn't work for me. I have read/write access and even signed on as Root user which has read/write access to the file, but can not add tags, despite there being a "Add tags" box in the get info window. I'm on El Capitan, so maybe they disabled it?

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jul 8, 2016 8:44 AM in response to Steven Hopstaken
    Level 9 (69,813 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 8, 2016 8:44 AM in response to Steven Hopstaken

    You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is a couple of years old and marked solved, less people are likely to look at it. You can link to this one. Post in the El Capitan community.