19
votes
Accepted
Tags - best practice for using tags to replace hierarchical folder structure
Experts recommend that you should set up the minimal hierarchical folder structure that is logical for you, and use tags for all other categories.
For example, Kerry Gleeson's classic book The ...
- 440
16
votes
Accepted
What is the gray circle Finder shows next to a file, that is not a tag?
Thanks for clarifying the question about the location and your OS.
In your case, the grey dot is a progress indicator for a downloaded file. It used to be a horizontal bar, filling up as the ...
- 2,171
15
votes
Smart folder using "or" search?
Yes there is.
If you press the OPTION button while composing the query in the finder window, the "+" button changes into a "..." button, that exposes the interface that allows for testing "All | Any |...
- 871
14
votes
Accepted
Remove 'Tags' section from macOS Finder right-click context menu
Finder > Preferences > Tags
you'll see the text:
Drag your favorite tags to the area below to make them available for quick use in Finder menus.
Drag the tag dots out of the bottom "...
- 9,390
6
votes
How tag emails in Apple Mail?
This is work around, but it works for me, and it travels through all MacOS versions from I guess Mountain Lion (not sure when, made it long time ago). Not sure if it is still relevant, but since I ...
- 61
5
votes
Accepted
How do I sync tags between two Macs using Google Drive?
The tags you see in the Finder that are associated with a file/folder are stored as extended attributes of that file/folder.
There is an excellent article which goes into some details about the ...
- 9,234
5
votes
Accepted
How to find tagged files/folders using the command line in Terminal?
The correct command to perform Spotlight searches on the macOS Terminal command line is mdfind.
mdfind "kMDItemUserTags == '<your_tags_here>'"
The list all the kMD codes:
mdimport -A
- 2,269
4
votes
How to edit or add tag colors
The tags shown when saving or modifying a file are Finder tags, not specific to Preview, etc. Therefore you are limited to the colours available for Finder tags.
Go to Finder → Preferences, then ...
grg♦
- 206k
4
votes
Accepted
Finder tag search exclusive
Open a Finder window at the folder in which you wish to search. Press ⌘F to open a Spotlight search window, which will target that folder. There is a drop-down list that will have "Kind" selected:
...
- 5,582
4
votes
Accepted
Automatically tagging files that were last opened more than x days ago
When a file is tagged in Finder it has an extended attribute set on it:
com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags
General Information
The easiest way I've found to ...
- 59.8k
4
votes
How to find tagged files/folders using the command line in Terminal?
Turns out you can do something as simple as:
mdfind 'tag:Blue'
Although this will only work in English locales
See this excellent answer that happens to discuss tags: https://stackoverflow.com/a/...
- 175
3
votes
Accepted
Remove unused Finder tags
To view all the available tags in Finder, follow these steps:
Enable display of tags by going to Finder → Preferences → Sidebar → Tags → Recent Tags.
In the Finder menu, enable show Sidebar and ...
- 10.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Tag all files required by OS
macOS Sierra comes with SIP (System Integrity Protection) which protects all important files from getting removed. So an additional tagging is not really necessary.
In finding disk space hogs some ...
- 104k
3
votes
Set tag color of image in Preview with hotkey/keyboard shortcut
If you're using Quick Look from the Finder (highlight file and press the Space), you can use Ctrl+1 - 7 to tag the selected files a specific color.
With Quick Look, you can still use the up and down ...
- 91
3
votes
Prevent Finder from truncating tag names
If I understood your question correctly, you need to increase the width of the column. You can increase the width of the column by dragging the on the right border of the column:
- 14.4k
3
votes
What is the gray circle Finder shows next to a file, that is not a tag?
I've had the same issue. The dot appeared when I edited the original download (eps) file in Illustrator, I've deleted the background. I guess it was somehow linked with the browser and had noticed a ...
- 31
3
votes
Accepted
Looking for an App to manage Finder Tags
Ironic Software has several Apps which can do that, f.e. 'Yep' and 'Leap'. Take a look at their descriptions, both are Sierra-compatible.
- 2,171
3
votes
Accepted
Auto-tag folders/files dropped into a folder
Option 1: Using Hazel
You can auto-tag folders/files dropped into a folder using the commercial software Hazel, which according to its developer Noodlesoft, "watches whatever folders you tell it to, ...
- 440
3
votes
Accepted
How can I back-up an external drive while preserving attributes, folder creation date and showing progress?
Just after I posted this question I found a solution.
I noticed that the rsync: get_xattr_names errors all had one thing in common: the files that raised the error where always ._ files.
I read ...
- 5,909
3
votes
Accepted
Automatically Delete Files From Downloads Folder Daily Unless Tagged With "Keep"?
Automatically Delete Files From Downloads Folder Daily Unless Tagged With “Keep”?
The following example AppleScript code can be used in a shell script with an /usr/bin/osascript shebang, or an ...
- 59.8k
3
votes
Accepted
Can't tag local Documents folder : Error -8058
Without getting into the details of why in macOS Big Sur you cannot apply a Tag to the Documents folder, and until there is a more direct solution, here is a workaround that worked for me.
Note that ...
- 59.8k
2
votes
How do I sync Finder Tags across Macs
Here is a manually solution: open Finder -> preferences -> Tags. Look at the 'Favorite Tags' part, then you can drag/delete/add tags to your current right click menu (in your current mac)
- 121
2
votes
Accepted
Boolean logic to query tags?
Start a new find (command-f).
Under the main "Search" heading select the first pop-up and select "Other..." From the list of search terms, select "Tags".
In the second pop-up select "contains", and in ...
- 1,057
2
votes
Remove unused Finder tags
Using Terminal
Given to a shell, this returns the count of files tagged with the tag named Yellow:
mdfind -count 'kMDItemUserTags = Yellow'
- 53
2
votes
Accepted
Searching by Finder Tags not working in Spotlight on macOS High Sierra
After searching the internet a little bit, I found a recent post in Apple Discussions explaining the reason for bug. In non-english versions of macOS (at least German and Slovak), searching by
tag:&...
- 491
2
votes
Programatically modify tag visibility, order
Here's a partial solution that might serve until I can see something more effective. Instead of trying to track down the correct place to modify the Finder settings under the hood — which is ...
- 965
2
votes
Accepted
How do I search by multiple tags?
As I finished writing my own question, I tried another combination, tag:<tag0> tag:<tag1>, and it worked! Seems like it's an implicit "AND" when you use it like this.
You can ...
- 181
2
votes
Automatically apply tag to folder based on content
The proper tool for this job is Hazel.
It can apply tags based on file names, file extensions, even file contents and a lot more. It can also do that on sub-folders as well.
The app has been around ...
- 20.9k
2
votes
Finder Tags just show list of tags, not tagged files?
You need to have the tags in the sidebar match the tags on your files.
If you only use files you tagged yourself, on that Mac, then this is rarely an issue. If you have tags from other users, or share ...
- 118k
2
votes
Accepted
Is there a way to remove a custom tag and replace it with a default one?
Delete the custom tag last…
First, open a new finder window & from the sidebar set it to show the files with the tag you wish to replace.
Select all files in there - Cmd ⌘ A - then right click ...
- 118k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible