# Tags and finder

**URL:** <https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/tags-and-finder/45986>\
**Category:** DEVONthink\
**Created:** [March 28, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/tags-and-finder/45986 "2019-03-28T14:49:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![josieduffy](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@josieduffy](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/josieduffy)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/tags-and-finder/45986/1 "2019-03-28T14:49:01Z")

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question about tags in DT - are they totally integrated with finder? i.e. if i removed a tag from a devonthink doc in finder, rather than DT, is that change reflected in DT? Or is it a different internal tagging system? i think its changed over the years (read some old threads) but looking for clarity, because i have a ton of tags that slow down my finder enormously, and if i could delete them without consequence i would do so in a heartbreat!

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**Author:** ![cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/cgrunenberg/32/7172_2.png) [@cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/cgrunenberg)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 2:58pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/tags-and-finder/45986/2 "2019-03-28T14:58:01Z")

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DEVONthink uses its own system but in case of indexed items updates are reflected in both directions, therefore after removing Finder tags and updating indexed items the tags will be gone in DEVONthink too. But there’s a hidden preference (DisableFinderTags), see appendix, to disable setting of Finder tags.

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**Author:** ![josieduffy](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@josieduffy](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/josieduffy)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/tags-and-finder/45986/3 "2019-03-28T15:05:41Z")

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wow! so i can delete in finder for imported stuff? great to know. thanks!

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**Author:** ![BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/bluefrog/32/135_2.png) [@BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/BLUEFROG)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/tags-and-finder/45986/4 "2019-03-28T17:42:00Z")

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> [@josieduffy](#):
>
> so i can delete in finder for imported stuff? great to know. thanks!

Please clarify what you’re referring to here. It sounds potentially dangerous, if you’re misunderstanding something.

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**Author:** ![scottlougheed](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/scottlougheed/32/5383_2.png) [@scottlougheed](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/scottlougheed)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/tags-and-finder/45986/5 "2019-03-29T16:10:51Z")

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Here’s a lengthy explanation about how tags work between DEVONthink and Finder under a few different circumstances:

> [@Syncing tags across DTP mailboxes and Mac OS X's Finder](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/syncing-tags-across-dtp-mailboxes-and-mac-os-xs-finder/23263/2):
>
> The short answer is: kinda, and it won’t be perfect. Here’s the deal. DEVONthink and Finder understand each others’ tags, and tags are a property of a given file. What exactly this means depends a bit on some aspects of your workflow. Finder-\>DEVONthink If DocumentX is in Finder and you apply a Finder tag TagA, then TagA is a property of DocumentX. In Finder, if you click to see all the files with TagA, you’ll see DocumentX. Now, if you IMPORT that file into DEVONthink, that file and its ta…

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**Author:** ![josieduffy](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@josieduffy](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/josieduffy)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 2:37am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/tags-and-finder/45986/6 "2019-03-30T02:37:25Z")

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Thanks, this is helpful! My question is related but not exactly answered by this link.

I use Hazel to add a tag for the date of my documents and then copy those documents to the DevonThink Inbox. So I’ll have finder document A with finder tag A. Then I import that document into DTPO, giving me DT document B with DT tag B. The two docs and the two tags are the same. But B Is housed within DTPO and A is housed in regular old finder.

The problem is that finder seemingly can’t handle the number of tags in the system. And for what it’s worth, neither can Hazel. It’s slow, and the solution to that slowness is to delete some of the tags in finder only by going to file —\> preferences—\> sidebar.

I have a main question, I guess. In finder, if I click “All tags” in the sidebar, and then click a tag to see what docs are tagged with that tag, it will show the DTPO documents with that tag in finder. If I delete a tag entirely via preferences-sidebar, it warns me it will delete that tag from all files included under the tag. So I recognize that Doc A will no longer have Tag A in finder. But if I delete Tag A in finder, and it removes it from the DTPO document but in finder, will Doc B in DTPO no longer have Tag B in DTPO? Or is deleting the TAG from finder irrelevant to what happens in DT.

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**Author:** ![BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/bluefrog/32/135_2.png) [@BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/BLUEFROG)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 1:31pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/tags-and-finder/45986/7 "2019-03-30T13:31:40Z")

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Operations on Finder items have no bearing on **imported** items in DEVONthink.  
**Indexed**? Yes.  
**Imported**? No.