Can you completely delete items from within the Tags sidebar?

DEVONthink Tips
1

I am a bit baffled because I deleted some items from within the Tags sidebar. I saw them moved to Trash, and I emptied trash. But then I found those same items again under another Tag…

Here is the full story of how it happened:

I noticed 4 items were flagged as duplicates. (They were not duplicates. ) I applied two tags to the items, call them Tag1 and Tag2.

Later, I navigated to Tag1 where I saw the four items of course. I thought I would merge the 4 items so I don’t accidentally delete them thinking they’re duplicates. I merged the 4 items into a new Item 5. I applied Tag2 to the new Item 5, and I deleted the 4 items from the Tag1 hierarchy, and then I emptied the trash.

I navigated to Tag2, and lo and behold not only was Item 5 there, but the original 4 items were also still within Tag2.

I would have thought that deleting an item deletes it everywhere. Can you please help me understand this?

2

Why are you deleting items from inside the individual tags groups?

Yes, this correct. When you add a tag, a special replicant is made in the tag group. Each tag has its own replicant of the file.

3

I would have a hard time finding it in the groups. I navigate to it in tags, read it and decided it needs to be deleted. How do I delete it at that point?

4

Try using the Tools > Filter > Tags pane instead.

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I have filtered on any files in this database with this tag and easily could delete this file from the item list.

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5

Not sure I understood what you’re trying to do.

If you want to delete a record and all its replicants from within a tag:

  • Press ⌥ and use menu Data > Move All Instances to Trash

or

  • Press ⌥ and use the contextual menu Move All Instances to Trash
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6

That is helpful, thank you.

1 Like