Tags disappearing from files

[HUEY123]

Hi all,

I have spent a bunch of time today adding tags to my photos and moving them out of specially named folders into generic folders e.g. In Dropbox Files > 2011 Photos > 2011 Snow I have added the tag #snow to all the files in the 2011 Snow folder, then moved them all to 2011 Photos (then deleted "2011 Snow").

While when I search for #snow the photos come up (and I can see it when I open the file and click to view info), the tags aren't displaying in the photo preview info like they were before I moved them.

i.e I used to be able to click down the photos in "2011 Snow" and see the different tags in the RHS info pane, listed under the "Add a Tag" box. Now for all the moved files there is nothing showing there and I have to go into the photo itself.

Is this a bug? Is there something you or I can do to resolve this? Thanks in advance for any help, I'm panicking that I've wasted a whole lot of time doing this 😞

I also can't see the tag added to the metadata of the file at all, which I assumed would be the case, and made me more comfortable that if I moved to a different photo storage solution that the tagging would still be useful. Is this not the case?

[Walter]

Hey @HUEY123 - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

When it comes to the first issue, could you clear your browser's cache and/or try another browser and let us know if it persists?

If it does, please send us a screenshot as well. 

As for seeing the Dropbox tags in the metadata of the file, I'm afraid that's expected as these won't show there, but only on the website. 

In any case, let us know more and we'll take it from there.

[HUEY123]

Thanks for your reply Walter. I'm guessing the fact that adding a tag doesn't modify the metadata is to make it more difficult to move away from Dropbox with tags intact. It's a shame that this is the approach if so.

Re the issue with tags disappearing - I tried clearing my browser cache and then re-attempted to add tags, and then move the file to another folder. The tag is still not appearing in the new folder.

Unfortunately I'm limited to only this browser on my laptop. I've checked both the ios app and the web browser version on my phone and can't seem to find tags at all via these methods - are they not shown?

Thanks!

[Walter]

Does the tag appear if you add it after you've moved the file @HUEY123?

If you're using a web browser on a mobile device to add tags to your files, you might need to request the desktop version of the page through your browser.

Let me know of any updates, Danae. 

[HUEY123]

Thanks for your quick reply! Yes, I can add a tag once a file has been moved. I also tried adding a tag to a moved file that had already had a tag added (pre-move), and it let me add it as if it had never been tagged in the first place. 

I'm doing this on Chrome on my laptop, but was hoping to check if the tags were still there on either my phone web browser or the iOS app. However I can't see where tags are listed on either of those? Is that functionality not on the phone browser or app?

Another question if you don't mind - is there any central way to manage tags? For example, to change the name of a tag? Or once I have searched for a tag and all the relevant files have appeared, can I add / amend tags in bulk from that search? It seems to be that you have to go into every file individually to do that.

Thanks again.

[Walter]

The Dropbox tags are only available through the web browser at this time and not via the desktop app or the mobile app @HUEY123 

As for a central way to manage your tags or edit them in bulk, I'm afraid it's not possible at this time. 

That said, note that you can post your thoughts or suggestions in the Share an Idea area following these tips, if you like. 

[HUEY123]

Okay, that's definitely not ideal! I would have thought that that type of tagging functionality would be a given in a cloud storage platform, and also that there would be more AI tagging / recognition options as well. 

Hopefully that's something that gets added in the future.

Appreciate your responses thanks Walter.