Can't nest tags

[TashR 0]

I organize my notes by tags and have always nested sub-tags under other tags without a problem. However, I now can't move my tags around. When I try to drag a subtag and drop it into the main tag, the main tag won't select and I can't move anything into it. The only place I seem to be able to move my notes is into notebooks which is not what I want to do. Even if I decided to organize by notebooks instead, I can't seem to make sub-notebooks. Am I doing something wrong by trying to move my notes around by dragging them? Is there some other way to move notes to nest what you want to be a sub-tag under a main tag? 

[gazumped 11,845]

Hi. Operating system? Evernote version?

[cosmoprl 1]

I am having the same problem with tags in V.10 newest. The legacy version still handles tags correctly. This is a huge problem for me if I am to continue using Evernote long-term.

[Tiggerlou 26]

TashR, I'm discovering exactly the same problem. It looks like we can pick them up to drag and drop them under other tags. The icon for that tag appears to move up and down. But for some reason when we drop, the tags stay in exactly the same place as before.
Is there something I'm missing on how to do this now?

FYI, gazumped, I'm on Windows 7.

[DTLow 5,739]

On 11/17/2020 at 9:13 AM, TashR said:

However, I now can't move my tags around. When I try to drag a subtag and drop it into the main tag, the main tag won't select and I can't move anything into it.

 

9 minutes ago, Tiggerlou said:

But for some reason when we drop, the tags stay in exactly the same place as before.
Is there something I'm missing on how to do this now?

Make sure you're working in the Tag Panel, not in the sidebar

[Tiggerlou 26]

The tag panel is, IMHO, a total mess. When I tried clicking the top header of all my food tag, the result includes tags that have nothing to do with food.
All the tags are dumped into one big bucket, completely out of alphabetical order. When I click the sort button, that has no effect at all in the order they are displayed. Click by name going up? Nothing happens. Click by name going down? Nothing happens. Why give us a sort button if it does nothing at all?
These tags are not organized by subtags in that panel.
The filters are absolutely useless for my purposes. I don't care about when the tags were created or whether they include audio files.  I want to sort them by NAME, like A. B. C. Why should that be so hard?
We can only see a half dozen tags at a time in that panel, and there's no way to drag and drop in that list at all.
The left panel is at least easier to read than that, although the drag and drop apparently doesn't work any more. So it appears we can only create new tags in one huuuuuuuuuge unsorted list now.

Yet one more very useful feature, lost in this version of Evernote.

[Tiggerlou 26]

The left panel at least does display the hierarchy of tags that got nested under other tags in the previous version of Evernote. In the tag panel, none of that hierarchy is visible, so moving things around in that hierarchy isn't possible.

So... am I missing something useful in the tag panel? Why did you suggest I look at it that way?

[Tiggerlou 26]

From what I can see, the only thing we can actually do in the tag panel is delete tags. We can't add any new ones, we can't rename the ones that are in there. We can't change their order, or nest them under other tags.

[DTLow 5,739]

33 minutes ago, Tiggerlou said:

In the tag panel, none of that hierarchy is visible, so moving things around in that hierarchy isn't possible.

Screenshot is from my Mac
I opened the Tag panel by clicking the tag icon
I click the ... of a tag to get the sub menu

[Tiggerlou 26]

That's not what I've got. This is what I'm looking at. These are all the tags I've got for cooking vinegars.They're not organized into sub tags.

[Tiggerlou 26]

Here's all my tags in the "pantry" tag list, which has some sub-tags, for example 'extracts', which includes almond extract, anise extract, etc. But those are all in one big bucket, out of order.

[DTLow 5,739]

4 minutes ago, Tiggerlou said:

That's not what I've got. This is what I'm looking at. These are all the tags I've got for cooking vinegars.They're not organized into sub tags.

You're showing the tag filter panel   
To open the tag panel, click on  

[Tiggerlou 26]

Okay, when I do that, I don't get every one of the sub-layers of nested tags, as listed in the left panel. I see food, then recipe notebook, then pantry. Just three layers. The sub-tags that I've already nested underneath that level are not listed.
It just tells me that I have 44 tags inside of the pantry tag list.

If I click pantry, I get that big bucket of tags, not sorted into their previously organized sub tags.

In either case, I can no longer add new tags using that panel, so they will be grouped with those tags. I can't edit their names, or rearrange them into sub lists. If I click pantry, I do see the complete list of tags but they're all out of order (sorting by date is COMPLETELY useless to me). In that big bucket, all I can do is delete them. It appears there's no way to rename or move tags at all.

[DTLow 5,739]

24 minutes ago, Tiggerlou said:

It just tells me that I have 44 tags inside of the pantry tag list.

It's showing you have 44 notes with tag:pantry

>>I see food, then recipe notebook, then pantry
I think that's caused by searching on pantry
Scrolling gets access to sub tags

>>If I click pantry...
Don't click pantry - that just moves you to the note filter panel

>>In either case, I can no longer add new tags using that panel
Click   at the top
Click the ... at the side of a tag (hover over the tag)
then click "create sub-tag in ......"

[Tiggerlou 26]

Got it, thanks SO much!!

[deutschtaurus 3]

On 11/17/2020 at 11:13 PM, TashR said:

I organize my notes by tags and have always nested sub-tags under other tags without a problem. However, I now can't move my tags around. When I try to drag a subtag and drop it into the main tag, the main tag won't select and I can't move anything into it. The only place I seem to be able to move my notes is into notebooks which is not what I want to do. Even if I decided to organize by notebooks instead, I can't seem to make sub-notebooks. Am I doing something wrong by trying to move my notes around by dragging them? Is there some other way to move notes to nest what you want to be a sub-tag under a main tag? 

Same problem. I organize my notes also by tags but in new version is missing all functions with tag adding and editing. 

[dklebes 0]

Same issue here!  I organize by tags because notebooks won't cut it.  I most importantly have the need to create new tags on a regular basis to handle notes that need to be sorted by upcoming meetings and events, many of which share the same note.  What a pain it is to have to go out to the web version, create and organize my new tag, then come back to the desktop version and wait for it to sync - all just to process one email I need to save for later reference in a meeting.  My other option seems to be to wait until I'm at home to do it on my desktop there which I refuse to update yet until this issue gets handled.  Makes it difficult to achieve inbox zero each day and REALLY disrupts my processes and work flow.  Evernote, please fix asap!  The versatility of the tag menu is important to many users.

[Mike P 2,824]

13 hours ago, dklebes said:

Same issue here!  I organize by tags because notebooks won't cut it.  I most importantly have the need to create new tags on a regular basis to handle notes that need to be sorted by upcoming meetings and events, many of which share the same note.  What a pain it is to have to go out to the web version, create and organize my new tag, then come back to the desktop version and wait for it to sync - all just to process one email I need to save for later reference in a meeting.  My other option seems to be to wait until I'm at home to do it on my desktop there which I refuse to update yet until this issue gets handled.  Makes it difficult to achieve inbox zero each day and REALLY disrupts my processes and work flow.  Evernote, please fix asap!  The versatility of the tag menu is important to many users.

Are you using the full tag menu which you get to by clicking Tags in the sidebar or pressing alt-ctrl-5? All tag management is now done i this window rather than the sidebar. Yo can drag and drop tags within the hierarchy or use the menu as shown

[pjkiger2010 3]

What I found frustrating was that when I upgraded one of my accounts to Version 10, it dismantled the tag and sub-tag hierarchy that I had built in previous versions. Instead, all of the tags are just in alphabetical and numerical order. I would have to go back and rebuild the hierarchy.  I've never had this happen with a previous version upgrade. Is there a workaround to avoid this?

 

[Mike P 2,824]

7 hours ago, pjkiger2010 said:

What I found frustrating was that when I upgraded one of my accounts to Version 10, it dismantled the tag and sub-tag hierarchy that I had built in previous versions. Instead, all of the tags are just in alphabetical and numerical order. I would have to go back and rebuild the hierarchy.  I've never had this happen with a previous version upgrade. Is there a workaround to avoid this?

 

Very strange. I haven't heard of this happening before. Just to double check I would have a look on the web version as well. As you are a premium member I would raise a support ticket although don't expect a quick response.

[pjkiger2010 3]

Well, it did happen, unfortunately. I tried uninstalling, reinstalling and then downloading the database again from the server, and it was still disorganized.  It looks like the only alternative is go rebuild the tag/subtag structure from scratch. Unfortunately, I didn't save a copy of my Exb file.

 

[DTLow 5,739]

On 2/8/2021 at 3:21 PM, pjkiger2010 said:

What I found frustrating was that when I upgraded one of my accounts to Version 10,

To be clear - you have not updated your "account"
You have updated the software on your device
The master copy of our data is stored on the servers, and not affected by the software on our devices (in theory)

[Mike P 2,824]

1 hour ago, pjkiger2010 said:

Well, it did happen, unfortunately. I tried uninstalling, reinstalling and then downloading the database again from the server, and it was still disorganized.  It looks like the only alternative is go rebuild the tag/subtag structure from scratch. Unfortunately, I didn't save a copy of my Exb file.

 

Can I repeat my question from before. Have you looked on the web version? This is the master copy and will indicate whether the data base is really mangled up or whether it is a software issue. If it is still correct on the web it should be possible to get it right on your device by doing a complete uninstall and deleting all possible left over files.

[pjkiger2010 3]

On 2/16/2021 at 2:46 AM, Mike P said:

Can I repeat my question from before. Have you looked on the web version? This is the master copy and will indicate whether the data base is really mangled up or whether it is a software issue. If it is still correct on the web it should be possible to get it right on your device by doing a complete uninstall and deleting all possible left over files.

Yes, I did log into the web version and look at that. The tag and subtag structure has disappeared there as well.  

[pjkiger2010 3]

On 2/16/2021 at 1:12 AM, DTLow said:

To be clear - you have not updated your "account"
You have updated the software on your device
The master copy of our data is stored on the servers, and not affected by the software on our devices (in theory)

I've used Evernote for 11 years on a variety of devices, so I do understand that there's a difference between an account and the software client. In this instance, I'm not sure account vs. device is a meaningful distinction. The desktop software  seems to have uploaded those changes in the local database to the cloud, so that the web version doesn't have the old tag hierarchy anymore either. 

It is possible to create nested tags in version 10, as I have discovered. If I had known that it would wipe out the existing hierarchy, what I would have done to mitigate tehe problem was 1)make a screenshot of the tag hierarchy and 2) Rewrite the tag names so that all of subtags had the name of the main tag in them as the prefix.  That way, after the new client put the tags in alphabetical order, it would have been easier to re-nest the subtags. Of course, if you have multiple layers of nesting, those names could get pretty long.

I probably also would have made a backup copy of the EXB file on my PC and put that in my documents folder. I frequently do this on the computer where I use my main account with a legacy version of the software.  

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike P 2,824]

9 hours ago, pjkiger2010 said:

If I had known that it would wipe out the existing hierarchy

You have been unlucky. This is not the intended behaviour and I don't think your experience is common. If you are prepared for a long wait you could raise a support ticket and see if EN can do anything. Otherwise, as you say,  you will need to rebuild the tag structure.

If you actually need to add lots of new tags there is quick tip that might help. If you create a dummy note you can paste in a list of tags separated by commas. You would still need to organise them into a hierarchy. Sadly I've not been able to find a way of including the hierarchy in the list - every character, except comma, seems to be acceptable in a tag name.

[pjkiger2010 3]

9 hours ago, Mike P said:

You have been unlucky. This is not the intended behaviour and I don't think your experience is common.

 Sorry, I'm not clear what you mean here. Are you saying that the Version 10 installation malfunctioned, and that it doesn't normally destroy the tag/subtag hierarchy?   Has anyone else with a large number of tags been successful at switching to Version 10 while keeping the tag/subtag hierarchy intact? 

Like many other users, I've been using a tree hierarchy of nested tags for many years. It enables me to organize and view all of my work assignments for a particular client and their components, such as lists of interview contacts, notes and research that I've downloaded from online databases or scanned from books.  I've never found notebooks particularly useful, because you can only nest one level. That's not a sufficient level of complexity for my work, which involves 6 or 7 clients and literally hundreds of different assignments large and small. The bigger projects may generate as many as 100 notes. 

I appreciate the tip on hot to create batches of tags in a notepad.  However, I don't really need to add lots of new tags. 

[pjkiger2010 3]

One thing I want to make clear, so no one gets the wrong impression. I'm a longtime, devoted Evernote user, and Evernote is a vital part of my working style.  I typically use Evernote continually throughout my workdays. 

Even though I don't like Version 10 much so far, it's still by far the best information-management tool that I've seen out there. I've looked at many of the others, and they just don't have functionality and flexibility/adaptability that Evernote has. That last part is particularly crucial. I'm sure that like many users, I'm utilizing Evernote for things that the designers may not have envisioned. 

Aside from the tags/subtags problem, my big discontent with Version 10 is that they've ditched numerous features that were really useful. However, I'm hopeful that some of those features will be restored or improved, especially if there are more frequent releases going forward.

 

 

[DTLow 5,739]

3 hours ago, pjkiger2010 said:

Has anyone else with a large number of tags been successful at switching to Version 10 while keeping the tag/subtag hierarchy intact? 

I have Version 10 installed on a Mac and iPad - no impact to the tag hierarchy   
Also running Legacy on my Mac; and Legacy on Web

>>I've never found notebooks particularly useful, becauseyou can only nest one level.

My concern is the restriction to one notebook per note,

Evernote uses notebooks to identify notes as private/shared, online/local, offline

[pjkiger2010 3]

2 hours ago, DTLow said:

I have Version 10 installed on a Mac and iPad - no impact to the tag hierarchy   
Also running Legacy on my Mac; and Legacy on Web

>>I've never found notebooks particularly useful, becauseyou can only nest one level.

My concern is the restriction to one notebook per note,

Evernote uses notebooks to identify notes as private/shared, online/local, offline

I'm running the Windows version of the desktop software. Maybe it works better on on the Mac OS.

[Mike P 2,824]

13 hours ago, pjkiger2010 said:

Are you saying that the Version 10 installation malfunctioned, and that it doesn't normally destroy the tag/subtag hierarchy?   Has anyone else with a large number of tags been successful at switching to Version 10 while keeping the tag/subtag hierarchy intact? 

That's exactly what I am saying. I have hundreds of tags in a deeply nested hierarchy and have had no problems at all with that hierarchy being changed or destroyed. I use EN V10 on Windows.

[pjkiger2010 3]

9 hours ago, Mike P said:

That's exactly what I am saying. I have hundreds of tags in a deeply nested hierarchy and have had no problems at all with that hierarchy being changed or destroyed. I use EN V10 on Windows.

Thanks Mike,  that's intriguing. Which release of V10 are you using? The wrecking of my tag hierarchy happened with 10.7 I think--could this have been some sort of random installation malfunction?  

It sounds as if your information-organizing scheme is very similar to what I do. Before I started using Evernote in 2010, I relied upon a non-cloud program called Info Select, which allowed the nesting of folders, as I recall. 

[Mike P 2,824]

15 minutes ago, pjkiger2010 said:

Which release of V10 are you using?

I've used all the versions that have been released when they have been released and the preview/beta versions before that. I'm currently on 10.8.5. I would be very distressed if I lost my hierarchy so I understand your frustration. I'm pretty involved in the forums and I'm therefore pretty sure your experience is not common which I reailse is not much confort for you. Support ticket is really the only thing I can suggest.

[RKoreto 8]

I have exactly the same problem (I'm posting this in Nov. 2022). So they still haven't fixed it. I opened a support ticket, but they're not optimistic about fixing it. When I create NEW tags I can nest them, but the more than 100 old tags refuse to nest. Not in the new version, the legacy version, or online. Some coding error was made--the old tags are not designed to merge with a new version. It's a nightmare sort through all my tags with no structure. If they can't fix this--and it doesn't look good--I'll see about exporting to another program. I've always loved Evernote, but this feature is essential and I can't do without it.

[PinkElephant 8,431]

Can‘t reproduce any problem with nesting (OK, on the Mac 10.48 client, but there should be no difference):

Go to the Tags tab in the left panel. A tags panel will open. Select a tag, click on the 3 dots behind it. Choose „Move tag“ (the last option in the little menu). Select the new parent tag, can be deep in a nested structure. Confirm by clicking „Move“.

The tag is moved under the selected tag, nesting it.

New with v10 is that this even works on the mobile clients - it is the most complete tag nesting experience ever. And yes, I tried with tags that were created under legacy, not with newer ones. I do not see any difference in behavior. The only tags that behave differently are those that come from a share from another person. But this is logical, these tags don‘t belong to your account.

[RKoreto 8]

I appreciate your help. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

However, this does not work. When I click on the three dots the only option I get is "add to shortcuts." I do not get a "move" option and I cannot even drag one tag under another. See screenshot below.

However, I did find when I create a NEW tag I can do this. It's just the old ones that don't work. After going back and forth with Evernote tech support, we came to the reluctant conclusion that in some cases--such as mine--older tags are not compatible with newer Evernote code. Even legacy systems don't work. They are trying to see if there is a way to bring old notes in synch with the new code, but are no optimistic. I'll be spending the rest of the day exploring how to move to Microsoft Notes. I really liked Evernote and am very sorry to leave it. However, without the nesting options, using my tags (I have hundreds of them) is just not possible. 

Thanks again!

 

[PinkElephant 8,431]

If you get as only option the "Add to shortcuts", it is a tag from a note or notebook that was shared with you by another person (account). As already described in my posting right above yours, you do not "own" these tags, and the options are very limited then.

If you use a tag that is owned by your own account, the options as described pop up, among them nesting.

Own tag:                                                                                         Tag shared from another account:

                    

 

So you now need to find out why obviously your tags are treated as belonging to another account.

That is something specific, if all of your tags are treated as belonging to another account. It has nothing to do with a generally missing function, because it correctly behaves that way for tags that do not belong to your account.

[RKoreto 8]

That did it!! Thank you, thank you! 

I had only used my personal account for this. But a few years back I shared it with my work email in case something happened. It never occurred to me that that would have this effect. I could still edit my notes and they were always updated in either place. Only that one feature had disappeared. I would've thought it was an identity issue if I couldn't access anything, but just that?

Anyway, once more, thanks. Everything is working as it should now.