The Colorful Clutter
Apple heavily promotes the use of “Tags” in macOS. Tags allow you to assign colored dots (Red, Orange, Yellow, etc.) to files and folders, providing an alternative way to organize data across your entire hard drive, regardless of which folder the files actually reside in. By default, Finder emphasizes this feature by displaying a prominent “Tags” section in the left-hand sidebar, and by including a dedicated Tags column in the List and Column views.
However, many traditional computer users rely strictly on hierarchical folder structures for organization and find the colored dot system completely useless. If you never use Tags, the persistent Tags section in the sidebar is just wasted space, and the colored dots cluttering your file views are simply visual noise. If you want a cleaner, more traditional file management experience, you should hide the Tags feature.
How to Hide Tags in Finder
You can remove Tags from your sidebar and file views via Finder’s preferences.
- Open a Finder window.
- Look at the very top of your screen to the macOS menu bar and click on Finder > Settings… (or Preferences).
- In the Preferences window, click on the Sidebar tab at the top.
- Scroll down to the “Tags” section at the bottom of the list.
- Uncheck the box next to “Recent Tags” to completely remove the section from your Finder sidebar.
- Next, to remove Tags from your file views, close the Preferences window and open a folder in List View (the icon with four horizontal lines).
- Right-click (or Control-click) on the column headers at the top of the list (where it says Name, Date Modified, etc.).
- In the dropdown menu, uncheck “Tags”.
Your Finder sidebar will instantly shrink, removing the colorful list, and your file views will no longer reserve an empty column for a feature you don’t use.