new tags disappear in Mavericks

I have seen this problem too. I have a couple PDF files on my desktop that exhibit the same behavior. I add a custom and a color tag to the file, it shows for a second or so, then they disappear.

My install was an upgrade in place and I was an Open Meta tags user too.

I have the same issue. I have a lot of pdfs and when click the document name in Preview I can change the file name and tags. Changing the file name seems to work as it should, I've not noticed any problems. The first tag (or sometimes part of a tag) I enter frequently disappears, as if the field were reset. Entering the tag again works, the "reset" only seems to happen once. I have wondered, but have not made the time to prove, that this happens usually after I've just changed the file name.

I have since tracked down the source of my problem. It's the current release of Path Finder. There are some bugs in how it handles the tags. I upgraded to the beta version of Path Finder and the problem has gone away. For a short term fix, quit Path Finder while you do your tag manipulations.

Thanks for the follow up. I used to have PathFinder installed but removed it a longish while ago. I wonder whether it has left any detritus behind? But as you say quitting PF solves the problem, that's not likely I think?

I doubt there's any cruft left from Path Finder but it's possible there are other apps that interact with tags causing an issue. Quitting PF was enough to keep it from happening.

I have found the tags command to be quite handy for poking around in the Mavericks tags: https://github.com/jdberry/tag

Was there ever a resolution to this problem? I am having this same issue since upgrading to Mavericks. I'm a professional academic whose work depends heavily on tags and while I'm still able to use tags and apply them, this repeating malfunction is causing a lot of headaches and adding unnecessary time to my simple renaming/retagging workflow.

Any new insight, several months later?

I never ever have had PathFinder installed.

Thanks!

In my case, the problem was Path Finder. I got a early release version and then a legit update and the problem with tags sticking has mostly gone away. Path Finder's implementation of the color tags is kind of quirky. It felt like Hazel might have been a part of the problem too.

Has this been resolved? Doing my head in! Makes my organisation of files and use of alias folders very frustrating!

I don't know what Path Finder is, but I'm sure it has nothing to do with it. I have a brand new Mac mini with factory installed Mavericks 10.9.2 and I see this issue happening. The tags do not disappear after a few seconds. The tags are correctly showing even after a day or two. But then suddenly they just disappear.

For example, I just woke up my mini from sleep and I noticed that my tag I added to a specific folder a day ago is gone. I'm not saying ithas anything to do with the Mac going to sleep because I've seen tags being gone even when the Mac wasn't sleeping.

For two years, now, Apple has paid no attention to the multitude of users' complaints on the replacement of Labels with tiny little dots in Finder. Now, with the integration of System Integrity Protection (SIP) in El Capitan, two neat little apps that restored Labels (XtraFinder and Total Finder) have been rendered probably forever incompatible. It's time to bombard Apple with requests for the reinstatement of Labels. Remember when Apple thought eliminating "Save As..." was a good idea? Give Apple a piece of your mind here http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

For me what was causing it was my synch software. I have a large number of files that are synched over several machines including some pc's. This happens almost real time. So for now I took the files I have tagged out of the synch and it seems to be no longer doing it.