Zombie tags... bug or feature?

aszszelp
Whenever a tag is removed from ALL library items, it still shows up (greyed out, showing no document has it in the current selection — which is in this case all items) in the tags list.
Are these zombie tags a feature or a bug?
I consider them a bug, especially, as several scrapers populte the tags quite wildly and wrongly. It's enough work manually removing those tags from the items, but then, my tags list still stays absolutely cluttered! Removing those tags additionally, regularly is more than tedious.

Tags which are associated with not even one item in the whole library should be removed/should be not desplayed in the tag cloud.
  • Bionatsci
    Whenever a tag is removed from ALL library items, it still shows up (greyed out, showing no document has it in the current selection — which is in this case all items) in the tags list.
    Have you emptied your trash? (bottom of the collection list - right click to empty) It is possible that the deleted tag would continue to show up if it still exists on an item in the trash. You could also try restarting Firefox if emptying the trash doesn't work.
    Removing those tags additionally, regularly is more than tedious.
    If you don't want any of these auto-generated tags you can stop Zotero adding them by unchecking "automatically tag items with keywords and subject headings" in the general pane of the Zotero preferences. You can also hide existing automatic tags by clicking the button to the right of the tag filter bar in the tag selector and unchecking "show automatic".
    Tags which are associated with not even one item in the whole library should be removed/should be not desplayed in the tag cloud.
    Agreed, and if they continue to show up after emptying the trash I would say it is almost certainly a bug.
  • aszszelp
    Hm, the trash folder was not the issue. (It was empty).

    I explicitly checked now.
    I add a new tag to a single item, it shows up in the tags list on the left. Then I remove the tag from the item, it's still there (naturally greyed out) in the tags list.
    However, restarting Firefox removes it... — it's somewhat un-intuitive behaviour, but not as grave as if these zombies would persist even between sessions...
    You might consider this as a feature request /or rather: recommendation/ (to update the list in such a case); or as a minor non-obstrusive bug — as you wish.
  • Bionatsci
    You might consider this as a feature request /or rather: recommendation/ (to update the list in such a case); or as a minor non-obstrusive bug — as you wish.
    Just to be clear, I'm not a developer, nor am I affiliated with Zotero - so I'll leave that decision to the developers.
  • aszszelp
    I was using "you" in an impersonal sense.

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