Creating new tags gets very slow! Where is the tag info stored?

I have the exact same problem. I have about the same number of tags, and each time I create a new one, I get mentally prepared for a minute with the beach ball. Seems like this system is not architected very efficiently. Have you found any alternative solutions? It's just so perfect for tagging photos.

Tags are stored in the MetaData of the file itself. If you create a new Tag, it is also stored somewhere to reference. However, there isn't a database of files with their associated Tags. Spotlight uses the metadata of each file to generate the lists of files that meet the Tagging you have searched for (or selected in the Finder).

Thanks Barney,

So does that explain why it would get so slow to create new tags when you already have many tags? I'm confused!

I don't know that. I was mostly responding to the original question.

It may be slow because your Spotlight index is corrupt and every time you make a modification that needs to update the index, it slows down as it cannot maintain the index correctly.

You can try one of two things (both of which should not cause any problems):

Follow Apple's instructions to Re-Index Spotlight: Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support

Or, completely erase the index (which will force it to re-index automatically). Copy and paste this command into Terminal and hit return:

sudo mdutil -E /

sudo temporarily elevates your privileges and runs the next command with that power. mdutil is the metadata utilities program. -E tells it to erase the index of the folder/volume listed next. / means your startup drive.

that command returns:

/:

Indexing enabled.

I reformatted my hard drive yesterday, which I would have assumed would clean everything up, but oddly enough my tags were still there when I reinstalled mac os, so I guess it didn't help anything.

Well I just followed the steps to reindex, and wow, that helps! It only takes about 2 seconds as opposed to the literally 60 seconds that I took before. Thanks so much for your help!

Scratch that, it was a fluke. The next tag I created took the same long period of time.

Then I'm not sure what is causing the slowdown. I don't have that many Tags, so I'm not sure if it is related.

So weird. How many tags do you have? Is there any way to get attention from somebody from Apple on this thread?

How many tags do you have?

About 30

Is there any way to get attention from somebody from Apple on this thread?

Not really. They don't work here. Just us users and the moderators who just mange the terms of use issues. There are additional troubleshooters now that try to resurrect questions that have not had a response in like 24 or 48 hours (or something like that).

You can send feedback to Apple, or apply for a free developer account and file a bug report.

Feedback is just a black hole as far as getting a response is concerned. With the bug reporter, you'll at least get a reference number to track.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Thank you. So is the link that you posted what you recommend I do? I just filed a bug through that link, but it sounds like you're saying that I should file a bug report as a developer (I already have a developer account, so np). Is there another place I can go to file that report?

Thanks!

The link I posted was the Feedback link. I think it says right on it that they don't normally respond at all.

I have never used the Bug Reporter tool, so I'm not sure how to go about submitting one. I just know it is the only way you'll get any feedback, which may not be much more than the assigned number.

I would consider it a bug in the Finder, if that is what you are asking.