SUMMARY Currently it is incredibly easy to accidentally delete or lose tags. As I understand it (I am not a developer) they are stored in extended attributes, meaning any time a file is copied, moved or written over without maintaining extended attributes, tags and ratings are lost. • Using the cp command without “-a” will lose tags and ratings • Using certain backup software like Timeshift will not backup tags and ratings (use BorgBackup or a GUI for that like Vorta to make sure tags and ratings are backed up) • Saving over a file in an application that is not aware of tags will delete the tags. • Tags and ratings may not be copied from some mounted filesystems even when using the same copy or move tools in Dolphin that would usually keep them Some of the above may have proper solutions, and when they don’t they should be clearly signposted for new users. Popups at specific times like when tagging MIME types linked to apps that are not known to keep extended attributes when saving would advise users to tag/rate the containing folder instead of the file itself, or be aware the tag or rating may be saved over. There could be a first time popup when adding tags or ratings to advise the user that the extended attributes must me maintained to not lose the tag, and give examples of when that may be. I also wonder if it is possible for baloo to catch certain instances of tags/ratings being accidentally removed and to have a popup that allows the user to easily re-add them, with an explanation of how they got removed. OBSERVED RESULT Tags are unreliable and are erased unexpectedly. EXPECTED RESULT Have reliable tags that can be trusted enough to be used. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS NixOS 24.11 (unstable channel) KDE Plasma Version: 6.0.5 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.2.0 Qt Version: 6.7.1
(In reply to m1vri31c from comment #0) > • Saving over a file in an application that is not aware of tags will delete the tags. This bit has to be addressed application by application. Cf: Bug 431146 for Gwenview Maybe a heads up within Dolphin to warn if you try to copy xattr data to a filesystem that does not support it would be kind, gentle and friendly. Whatever, something like: today=`date +%Y-%m-%d" getfattr --absolute-names -dR ~ > ~/Tags/$today.fattr is going to be your friend at some point :-/