Organising files

Searching by tag colour

Updated 2026-07-31 · 3 min read

Colour tags are the fastest visual filing macOS offers, and almost nobody searches them.

Applying colours fast

Select files → ⌃1 through ⌃7 for the seven default colours. Or right-click → pick a colour. A file can carry several tags at once — the entire point over folders.

Rename the colours to meanings: Finder → Settings → Tags. "Red" is noise; "Urgent", "Client", "Archive" are a system.

Searching them

• Sidebar — every tag is listed; click for all files carrying it, instantly, across the

whole Mac

• Finder search — ⌘F → + → Tags → the tag name, combinable with other criteria
• Terminal:

mdfind "kMDItemUserTags == 'Urgent'"
mdfind "kMDItemUserTags == 'Client' && kMDItemUserTags == 'Urgent'"

The second finds files with both tags — cross-cutting queries folders cannot express.

A small, sustainable system

Three or four tags with real names, applied at the moment a file arrives, beat an elaborate scheme applied never. The habit is the whole game:

• Action tags — Urgent, Waiting, Done
• Project or client tags — a colour each for the two or three that matter
• Lifecycle — Archive, for things kept but finished

The portability caveat

Tags live in an extended attribute on the file. They travel across APFS and HFS+ volumes, and they are lost on exFAT and through most cloud uploads. A tagging system built for files that leave the Mac will lose its tags at the border — keep tags for local organisation, not as metadata expected to survive everywhere.

Combining with saved searches

A Smart Folder for "Urgent tag, modified this week" is a live worklist. Tag as you go, and the saved search assembles itself — the closest macOS comes to a task system built from files.

Common questions

How do I search files by colour tag on a Mac?

Click the tag in Finder's sidebar for everything carrying it, or ⌘F → Tags. mdfind queries kMDItemUserTags, including files with multiple tags at once.

Do colour tags survive copying to another drive?

On APFS and HFS+ yes; they are lost on exFAT and through most cloud services.