---
title: "Finder tags"
url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-finder-tags
category: "Glossary"
tags: ["glossary", "finder", "metadata"]
summary: "Finder tags are the coloured labels and named tags you give files and folders in Finder. A folder move between your Mac and your external drive keeps them."
updated: 2026-10-01T05:35:54.000Z
---

# Finder tags

Finder tags are the coloured labels and named tags you give files and folders in Finder. A folder move between your Mac and your external drive keeps them.

**Finder tags** are the coloured labels — Red, Orange, Blue and so on — and named tags you give files and folders in Finder, so you can find related things together from the sidebar or a search.

A tag is stored as one of the file's [extended attributes](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-extended-attributes), not in its name or contents. So a copy that keeps extended attributes keeps tags; a copy that doesn't, loses them.

When Storage Studio moves a folder between your Mac and your external drive, each file's Finder tags go with it — including through a **Relocate**, where the tags travel with the file on the drive. Copies to a cloud account depend on what that provider can store, so don't rely on tags surviving there.

See also: [What a move keeps](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/what-a-move-keeps) · [Extended attributes](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-extended-attributes)

## What links here

- [Extended attributes](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-extended-attributes)
- [What a move keeps](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/what-a-move-keeps)