The macOS Finder window features a sidebar on the left that provides quick access to your favorite folders, hard drives, and network locations. By default, the bottom section of this sidebar is entirely dedicated to “Tags” (color-coded dots like Red, Orange, Yellow, etc.). Apple intends for you to drag files onto these colors to categorize them.
However, if you rely on traditional folder structures to organize your files and never use the color-coded Tagging system, this section is nothing but visual clutter. It consumes valuable vertical space in the sidebar, forcing you to scroll down just to see your external hard drives or network shares. You can easily remove the Tags section from the Finder sidebar entirely to streamline your file manager.
How to Remove Tags from the Mac Finder Sidebar
You can customize the sidebar contents directly from the Finder preferences menu.
- Open a new Finder window (click the smiling face icon in your Dock).
- In the menu bar at the very top of your screen, click on the word Finder.
- Select Settings (or Preferences on older versions of macOS) from the drop-down menu.
- In the small window that appears, click on the Tags tab at the top.
- At the bottom of this window, uncheck the box labelled Show these tags in the sidebar.
- Alternatively, you can uncheck the individual colored boxes (Red, Orange, Yellow) in the list above one by one.
The changes apply instantly. Look at your open Finder window; the entire Tags section at the bottom of the left-hand sidebar will have completely vanished. Your sidebar is now significantly cleaner, allowing more room for the folders and drives you actually use on a daily basis.