Automatic Tagging

sp4m
I've read a number of existing conversations on this, but haven't gotten a clear answer. Surely, there MUST be a way to disable Zotero from importing tags from a citation file, right? I download citations from my university website, and each time I import one it adds up to ten useless tags to my Zotero, making tags completely useless as a system. I've turned off "Automatically tag items with keywords and subject headings" under the General tab in preferences, with no success. Similarly, showing / hiding "Automatic Tags" in the tags menu makes no difference. the show Please tell me I'm missing something here...
  • johnkingeu
    I think you are referring to the desktop version of Zotero. However, the new iOS version also automatically adds tags when adding items via the share sheet in Safari, even if ‘Save automatic tags’ is switched off in the preferences.
  • sp4m
    Hi John:

    Yeah, I'm on desktop. Unfortunate to hear that about iOS too, though. Hopefully there's some way to fix it!
  • adamsmith
    Disabling automated tags disables tags on web import. If you're importing metadata files, Zotero keeps tags. This wouldn't be something we'd expect you to do on a regular basis, though?
  • sp4m
    Thanks for the response Adam. I do import metadata files regularly as I just download .ris files from my university website to import to Zotero pretty much any time I find an academic text I need to cite and / or I want to read. It saves quite a bit of time from entering them manually myself.
  • adamsmith
    Of course you shouldn't enter things manually, but why not use the Save to Zotero button in your browser? That's generally assumed to be the default import method:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/adding_items_to_zotero#via_your_web_browser
  • sp4m
    Well, it would seem the reason is that I am dumb, lol. Thanks so much this solves my problem! For whatever reason I always thought that the save to zotero button was used primarily for importing websites / pages and thought I needed to actually download the citation for an academic text for a database. Many thanks!
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