How to use tags in Finder on a Mac

In short

Control-click a file in Finder and click one of the coloured dots above Tags, or click Tags to type a name of your own. To see everything with a tag, click the tag in the Finder sidebar. Tags work across all folders.

4 of 4 steps show a real screenshot from our MacBook Neo.

Steps

1. 1

   Tag a file in Finder

   Select the file, then Control-click it (or click with two fingers). Click a colour above Tags. For a tag with your own name, click Tags, type the name and press Return. On our MacBook Neo the menu showed seven colour dots above Tags….

   Done
   
2. 2

   Use the toolbar or the keyboard

   With a file selected, click the Tag button in the Finder toolbar. On our Mac it sits between the Share button and the More button. Or press Control and a number from 1 to 7 to add or remove one of your favourite tags. Control + 0 removes all tags from the file.

   Done
   
3. 3

   Find tagged files

   Open a Finder window and click a tag in the sidebar. All files with that tag are listed, wherever they are stored. On our MacBook Neo the Tags section at the bottom of the sidebar listed Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple and Gray. Clicking Red showed our file Red tag sample.txt with its red dot. You can also type the tag name or colour into the search field and choose the tag from the suggestions.

   Done
   
4. 4

   Remove a tag from a file

   Control-click the file, click Tags…, select the tag and press Delete. Control + 0 removes all its tags at once.

   Done
   

If you do not see this option

• No tag in the Finder sidebar Apple's macOS 27 guide says to choose Finder, Settings, click Tags and select the tags you want in the sidebar. On our MacBook Neo the sidebar showed Red under Tags. Source: Use tags to organize files on Mac
• The tag you want is not among the dots On our MacBook Neo the right-click menu showed seven colour dots. Apple's macOS 27 guide says up to seven Favorite Tags appear there; drag another tag into Favorite Tags in Finder Settings, Tags, or click Tags… and type its name. Source: Use tags to organize files on Mac

If this does not work

• Control and a number does nothing Apple's macOS 27 guide says Control-1 to Control-7 work on a selected file and add or remove your favourite tags. Click the file once first.
• Tagged files do not show up Apple's macOS 27 guide says to type the tag colour or name in the Finder search field and select the tag from the suggestions, or to click the tag in the sidebar.

Good to know

Apple's macOS 27 guide also lets you tag a file when you save it (click the Tags field in the Save dialog) or while it is open (hold the pointer to the right of the document title, click the button that appears, then click in the Tags field).

To rename, recolour or delete tags, choose Finder, Settings and click Tags. Deleting a tag there removes it from your Mac. The files themselves are not deleted.

To group a folder's items by tag, click the Group button in the toolbar and choose Tags.

Tags pair well with renaming files in bulk: how to rename several files at once on a Mac.

macOS 27 compared with macOS 26: We rewrote this guide on macOS 27.0.1 (MacBook Neo): it now has 4 steps instead of 7. The macOS 26 page keeps the steps and screenshots as they were.

Version history: the macOS 26 version of this guide, with its own screenshots.

About this guide

Device

Mac

Shown on

macOS 27.0.1 (MacBook Neo)

App

Finder

Real screenshots

4 of 4 steps

Checked

October 2026

Sources

1 official, linked below

Sources

• Apple Support: Use tags to organize files on Mac

Links checked October 2026. Menus and features can change with updates.

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