Synchronize tags as well

[xXSTrikeXx]

Hello!

Could it be possible to Tag files in Windows explorer, like it is implemented with the shared option?
It will be a better workflow, because visiting all time the WebUI is annoying when you sometimes just want to flag/tag a file.

My first issue about that is in the wrong repo :D nextcloud/client_theming#235
Cheers ;)

[camilasan]

Yes, this would be a nice feature.

[Nevarro]

Any news on this feature? I would like to use Leap on my Mac which tags files using OpenMetaTags. When I add tags the files aren't synced though.

[vbspam]

I would also love to use it. At this moment I do not let Nextcloud Desktop client touch my tagged files and have to synchronize them through rsync.

[jcrXO]

I would love that feature too!

[elevatingcreativity]

I would like this as well, primarily for syncing with MacOS. Right now there is data loss, we use tags extensively in the native OS, but Nextcloud loses them all upon sync.

[mylos]

Just moved everything from dropbox to nextcloud as I realised the tags doesn't work and had to move everything back :(. Looking forward to see tags working to start using nextcloud! Thank you!

[meyerjom]

This would also be an absolutely important feature for me. It would be best, if you could maintain the tags, which are assigned on MacOS, directly in Nextcloud and the feature would be operating system independent.

[livier]

I want that feature too ...

[skarados]

Please add this feature

[JayBrown]

Yeah, extended attributes are super-important nowadays. Lots of information is in there. For example, the FOSS PDF reader Skim saves PDF notes in XAs, now also with the #S suffix for "syncable" metadata. Clouds need to to support metadata & XAs, at the very least those with the #S suffix (on macOS). Modern cloud services need that feature… simple as that.

Best approach would be a metadata config the user can populate with the names of the XAs he wants synchronized. So shite like com.apple.quarantine can be ignored, but Finder tags, 3rd-party XAs etc. can be synched.

[nivoc]

Would love this too! Sync between MacOS Tags and nextcloud Tags would be very nice!

[kkandert]

Yes please add sync support for metadata. 👍
Something like intelligent folders like on the mac would also be useful.

[tim-rohrer]

I had started exploring how to do with initially in PHP using occ command line, but then realized that in order to do this right, extended attributes like tags must be synchronized through the client apps. Unfortunately, C++/ObjC are not in my skill sets.

I can +1 this enhancement request to death and ready & willing to test someone's work.

[livier]

It should work on W$, Mac and Linux,
on clients, and web interface for the three
I don't even know if the 3 Os system are compatible for tags admin.
So, it is just a question :
Is there really any hope to get that ?

[fknittel]

I've posted a bounty on this feature. Maybe others would like to contribute too?

[Boki4d]

I've posted a bounty on this feature. Maybe others would like to contribute too?

I'm in! This would be a really useful feature, but it has to be cross-plattform (win, linux and macos).

[GlassedSilver]

Chipped in 15 bucks as well :)

[jampy]

Added to the bounty as well.

Could someone from the team like @DominiqueFuchs or @misch7 please give some feedback?

[GlassedSilver]

Any update on this?

[NeutroGe]

I have developped a small osx app that reads file tags and put them in the file name of the folder where it's ran on. This acts as a workaround for nextcloud not dealing (and probably never will) with osx tags.

If someone is interested i'll share it here later.

[fool15982]

I have developped a small osx app that reads file tags and put them in the file name of the folder where it's ran on. This acts as a workaround for nextcloud not dealing (and probably never will) with osx tags.

If someone is interested i'll share it here later.

Is there a chance to get a copy?

[soerpoers]

add a bounty too – would be great if this feature comes around…

[NeutroGe]

I have developped a small osx app that reads file tags and put them in the file name of the folder where it's ran on. This acts as a workaround for nextcloud not dealing (and probably never will) with osx tags.
If someone is interested i'll share it here later.

Is there a chance to get a copy?

https://nextcloud.ah1z.com/s/L4yXjTEFs8wAiog

For it to work you need to install brew on osx, then from brew install the apps "tag" and "rename".

Then put a file with tags in a folder, put the app in it and run it, it will put the tags at the end of the filename.

The app is just this command line running when you launch it:

find . -not -path "/./" -not -path "." -not -path "/." -exec sh -c 'result=$(/usr/local/bin/tag -N "{}") ; if [ ! -z "$result" ]; then /usr/local/bin/rename -X -a" #$result" "{}"; fi' ; > /dev/null 2>&1

[trvrcr]

Is this in the pipeline?

[FlexW]

As far as I'm aware no one is working on it and it's not scheduled by now? @camilasan @er-vin @allexzander

[er-vin]

Indeed, it is not scheduled. Also it's a whole can of worms regarding integrating this into platforms... there would be at least four different system APIs to talk to IIRC.

[PechenTreski]

@er-vin maybe at least the webdav could be extended? I would like to download tags (that I can set in the web UI) via API. The background is: I have many scanned PDF documents in different languages and I need to OCR'ecognise them for a faster search via macos spotlight. For that I need to set tags with language codes like "eng", "deu", "rus". So my idea is to get that tags somehow and process the files according to tag values.
Right now I don't see tag props in the webdav https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/developer_manual/client_apis/WebDAV/search.html#supported-dav-properties

[BJKle]

Is there an update on this issue? I use Nextcloud as my backup. After a hardware change all my Tags are gone!!!

[NeutroGe]

Is there an update on this issue? I use Nextcloud as my backup. After a hardware change all my Tags are gone!!!

This will never get fixed because it's too complicated to implement. You can use the workaround i posted earlier to put tags into filenames. As far as i know even onedrive or gsync dont have this feature. The only one that does is dropbox. But using it kinda defeats the whole purpose of using nextcloud so there are no perfect solution right now.

[GlassedSilver]

Is there an update on this issue? I use Nextcloud as my backup. After a hardware change all my Tags are gone!!!

This will never get fixed because it's too complicated to implement. You can use the workaround i posted earlier to put tags into filenames. As far as i know even onedrive or gsync dont have this feature. The only one that does is dropbox. But using it kinda defeats the whole purpose of using nextcloud so there are no perfect solution right now.

How can we be so sure it's too difficult to implement? The comparison with Google and Microsoft is a bit weak if you ask me.
The reason why a feature isn't present in some high-tier software often isn't a question of complexity or at least just that.

[NeutroGe]

Is there an update on this issue? I use Nextcloud as my backup. After a hardware change all my Tags are gone!!!

This will never get fixed because it's too complicated to implement. You can use the workaround i posted earlier to put tags into filenames. As far as i know even onedrive or gsync dont have this feature. The only one that does is dropbox. But using it kinda defeats the whole purpose of using nextcloud so there are no perfect solution right now.

How can we be so sure it's too difficult to implement? The comparison with Google and Microsoft is a bit weak if you ask me. The reason why a feature isn't present in some high-tier software often isn't a question of complexity or at least just that.

Look at the previous answer by @er-vin in this thread: he says "it's a can of worm" because it is very complex, and he's a nextcloud dev. Also people who use tags are probably 0.5% of everyone using nextcloud so investing this much time into something a few people use is probably not worth it for them. Seeing for how long this thread has been opened and no fix has come we can assume it will never be fixed. Hey, i wish it would too but i'm just beeing realistic. Even when people offer money to fix it no one did, which means probably a few people already looked into it but gave up because too complicated.

[itsthejb]

I'd somewhat like this feature, took a very quick look into it, seemed like too big an investment. Seems unlikely this will happen, sadly

[GlassedSilver]

I'd somewhat like this feature, took a very quick look into it, seemed like too big an investment. Seems unlikely this will happen, sadly

With all due respect, if your look into it was very quick by your own admission, given the importance of metadata around files these days, I doubt you can really make a valid judgement on whether this is too big an investment. No hard feelings.

I've invested SO MUCH TIME in my macOS years in tags, coloring the tags, structuring smart folders (saved searches) around tags, etc…, all of that went down the drain when I went to Windows. The data is simply lost and my capabilities to sort files beyond the folder hierarchy is somewhat limited cross-platforms it's ridiculous.

There is a GREAT deal of UX improvement in this if implemented.

[S0ulf3re]

I'd somewhat like this feature, took a very quick look into it, seemed like too big an investment. Seems unlikely this will happen, sadly

With all due respect, if your look into it was very quick by your own admission, given the importance of metadata around files these days, I doubt you can really make a valid judgement on whether this is too big an investment. No hard feelings.

I've invested SO MUCH TIME in my macOS years in tags, coloring the tags, structuring smart folders (saved searches) around tags, etc…, all of that went down the drain when I went to Windows. The data is simply lost and my capabilities to sort files beyond the folder hierarchy is somewhat limited cross-platforms it's ridiculous.

There is a GREAT deal of UX improvement in this if implemented.

Same here, I love the preservation that metadata brings. And as someone who is switching from iCloud to Nextcloud, I would love to have a seamless transition.

[kaystrobach]

End user perspective:

• Windows: https://www.lifewire.com/tag-files-in-windows-4587240
• Mac: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-use-tags-in-macos-finder/

Sadly I don't know how to have a good solution for linux yet.

[tim-rohrer]

@kaystrobach, I don't understand what these links have to do with NetCloud? Or are you just trying to show how simple it can be?

Some Linux filesystems (if I recall correctly, but it was too long ago that I researched so I don't remember details) will support tags. But yeah, it was less than ideal as I recall.

@NeutroGe, when you say, "people who use tags are probably 0.5% of everyone using nextcloud" you're missing the likely much larger percentage (like me) who evaluated NextCloud and wouldn't shift because of the lack of tag support. It is why I tried DropBox for a while, but when Apple released shared group folders for iCloud, I went there. I'd like to use NetCloud for various reasons, but without improved tag support, it isn't going to happen.

I appreciate the sentiment that this support would be difficult, but I don't see it as impossible. Frankly, I see two high-level options:

1. Create and implement a fully supported tagging construct in NextCloud that works with Desktop and mobile, and can be managed for groups, and then provide a converter from macOS's tagging system.
2. Seek cross platform consensus about how to handle meta data between platforms' files systems.

Tbh, it has been a couple of years since I looked at this stuff. I had considered taking a stab at number 1 above, but since I had no real skills in mobile development or the languages being used, I didn't think it was worth my time.

[kaystrobach]

@tim-rohrer yes it was only for informational purpose of the client view.

[NeutroGe]

@kaystrobach, I don't understand what these links have to do with NetCloud? Or are you just trying to show how simple it can be?

Some Linux filesystems (if I recall correctly, but it was too long ago that I researched so I don't remember details) will support tags. But yeah, it was less than ideal as I recall.

@NeutroGe, when you say, "people who use tags are probably 0.5% of everyone using nextcloud" you're missing the likely much larger percentage (like me) who evaluated NetCloud and wouldn't shift because of the lack of tag support. It is why I tried DropBox for a while, but when Apple released shared group folders for iCloud, I went there. I'd like to use NetCloud for various reasons, but without improved tag support, it isn't going to happen.

I appreciate the sentiment that this support would be difficult, but I don't see it as impossible. Frankly, I see two high-level options:

1. Create and implement a fully supported tagging construct in NetCloud that works with Desktop and mobile, and can be managed for groups, and then provide a converter from macOS's tagging system.
2. Seek cross platform consensus about how to handle meta data between platforms' files systems.

Tbh, it has been a couple of years since I looked at this stuff. I had considered taking a stab at number 1 above, but since I had no real skills in mobile development or the languages being used, I didn't think it was worth my time.

It's Nextcloud, not Netcloud

[BJKle]

Can we expect an implementation? I’d like to move my files away from iCloud, but without this feature ☹️

[kaystrobach]

interesting for @schullogin an Enterprise customer as well.

[Tekl]

I'm also looking for this feature (for macOS/iOS). Does the Bounty have to reach $250.000 to get the function implemented?

[JuliaKirschenheuter]

@kaystrobach please do not post a private support tickets in open GitHub issue. Thank you!

[GlassedSilver]

I'm also looking for this feature (for macOS/iOS). Does the Bounty have to reach $250.000 to get the function implemented?

The bounty is SITTING at $250 and has been for a good while now.

Since this feature is likely to require at least two devs working on this who each specialize in (a) given platform(s) the value is probably too low, so if you feel like your contribution could propel this further go ahead, it's probably well invested.

I'm considering upping my stake as well, however since I've already been invested for a while I'd probably like to see some dev confirm they are even considering taking this on first, because I can't justify endlessly locking up capital without some idea of possible dev interest.

[kaystrobach]

Submitted an enterprise support request regarding the feature right now.

[GlassedSilver]

Something came to my mind... It's probably a good idea to have a system in place that takes care of systems (not yet) compatible - either because of the client or the OS or the way the OS deals with tags not being compatible - yeeting tags when syncing back a changed file suddenly sans any tags.

Clients known to not be compatible should have zero changing power on tags, meaning if a previously tagged file suddenly comes back without tags from a Mac that IS supported, that's okay, if your flavor of Linux is (not yet) (fully or partially) compatible and sends back foo.bar without tags which had some before - hold the horses and accept any changes in the file itself whilst applying any previously known tags.

Just a thought to prevent metadata loss and also to prevent loss between systems supporting differing scopes of tags and other meta data.

e.g. in macOS tags can be colored (which is a MIGHTY useful feature), Windows doesn't know about this.

[Runtemund]

I added a pull request to solve this. Comments welcome

[BJKle]

Hi @Runtemund,
do you know the status of your pull request? It's been 3 months already.
Thank you for all your effort.

[Runtemund]

Hi @BJKle,
yes, I got a reply some weeks ago, but unfortunately I am heady loaded on work currently, so I need a little time to work on the requestet unit test for that.