Tag folder - not seeing files in encrypted disk image

[Javier Penino Vinas]

Hi there. Great program, thank you.. can get most of it to work fine
but I've got a problem:
-I keep some documents in an encrypted disk image (sparsebundle file
created with Disk Image)
-Whilst I can tag files on the disk image, the smart folder does not
'see' them when I try to open the Tag Folder
-However, my set-up allows spotlight to see these files (as long as
the disk image is mounted)

I would have thought that upon opening the Tag Folder I should be able
to see it as well?

By the way, this only happens on the encrypted disk image, if I save
the same file on the desktop or unencrypted drive your program can see
it.

The 'watching' tagging routine works correctly on a folder in the disk
image.. (in terms of tagging)

Appreciate it if you could let me know if I'm missing something.

[Jon Stovell]

Hi Javier,

You should be able to see them. When you open a Tag Folder, what is really happening is that the Tag Folder applet simply tells Finder to open a Smart Folder. So if the files are not showing up in that Smart Folder, then there are really only two possibilities: (1) the tags are not being applied to the files on the encrypted disk image for some reason, or (2) there is something weird going on with Spotlight itself in how it deals with files on encrypted disk images. The second possibility is less likely than the first, and would be something only Apple could fix anyway, so we will focus on the first.

First, what happens if you simply run a search from the Spotlight menu for "tag:foo" (without the quotes), replacing "foo" with a tag applied by one of the Tag Folders that is not working? Do any files from the encrypted disk image show up?

Second, please open Terminal and run the following command, and then tell me the result:

~/Library/Application\ Support/Tag\ Folders/openmeta -p /path/to/file

Of course, replace /path/to/file with the path to one of the files on the encrypted disk image that you have tried to tag with one of your Tag Folders. What we are looking for here is a list of the tags that the file has. If the list of tags is not what you expected, run this command, and tell me the result:

~/Library/Application\ Support/Tag\ Folders/openmeta -p /path/to/file -a foo

Jon

[Javier Penino Vinas]

Thanks for the quick response, in answer to your questions
1) Searching by tag:* while the tagged file is in the disk image does
not return anything, whilst if I move the same file to the desktop it
immediately shows up. This would seem to indicate that the folder is
applying the tags correctly. However, i'm not sure it's a Spotlight
issue, since it can see the file if I search by its name (regardless
of whether it's in the disk image or desktop)
2)The correct tags seem to show up when I run the first command

What else could we try, are you aware of any issues where Spotlight is
working correctly for file names but 'blind' to other metadata in disk
images?

As an aside I've installed your beta 2.6v and I'm still getting 'you
need to install OpenMeta' messages sometimes just after re-starting..
not always though, it's happened twice but right now it seems fine.

Many thanks
Javier

[Jon Stovell]

Hmm, sounds like it actually is a Spotlight issue. Specifically, Spotlight is indexing only some, but not all, of the metadata about the files that it is supposed to.

Please tell me the results of the following command:

mdls -name kMDItemOMUserTags /path/to/file

Depending on what we see there, I may or may not be able to figure out a workaround.

Jon

[Javier Penino Vinas]

While the tagged document is in the disk image, it returns
"kMDItemOMUserTags = (null)"

[Jon Stovell]

Hmm. It is starting to look like this is a bug in Spotlight. Do me one more favour, and simply run

mdls /path/to/file

once while the file is on the disk image, then move/copy it to your hard drive, and run it again on the file in the new location. I would like to compare the output of the two to see the differences.

Jon

[Jon Stovell]

Also, are you on Leopard or Snow Leopard?

Jon

[Javier Penino Vinas]

I'm running Snow Leopard 10.6.4

This is what I get while in the disk image:

kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2010-07-18 17:57:05 +0100
kMDItemFSCreationDate = 2010-07-18 17:57:05 +0100
kMDItemFSCreatorCode = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags = 16
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon = 0
kMDItemFSInvisible = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = 1
kMDItemFSIsStationery = 0
kMDItemFSLabel = 0
kMDItemFSName = "test3.pdf"
kMDItemFSNodeCount = 0
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID = 501
kMDItemFSSize = 537939
kMDItemFSTypeCode = ""

and a whole lot more while on the desktop:

kMDItemAlternateNames = (
"test3.pdf"
)
kMDItemAuthors = (
Jon
)
kMDItemContentCreationDate = 2010-07-18 17:57:05 +0100
kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2010-07-18 17:57:05 +0100
kMDItemContentType = "com.adobe.pdf"
kMDItemContentTypeTree = (
"com.adobe.pdf",
"public.data",
"public.item",
"public.composite-content",
"public.content"
)
kMDItemCreator = "Pages"
kMDItemDisplayName = "test3"
kMDItemEncodingApplications = (
"Mac OS X 10.6.4 Quartz PDFContext"
)
kMDItemFinderComment = "work expenses"
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2010-07-18 17:57:05 +0100
kMDItemFSCreationDate = 2010-07-18 17:57:05 +0100
kMDItemFSCreatorCode = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags = 16
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon = 0
kMDItemFSInvisible = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = 1
kMDItemFSIsStationery = 0
kMDItemFSLabel = 0
kMDItemFSName = "test3.pdf"
kMDItemFSNodeCount = 0
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID = 501
kMDItemFSSize = 537939
kMDItemFSTypeCode = ""
kMDItemKeywords = (
tag,
"Tag Folders",
tags,
OpenMeta,
guide,
keywords,
folders,
spotlight,
comment,
comments,
keyword
)
kMDItemKind = "Portable Document Format (PDF)"
kMDItemLastUsedDate = 2010-07-18 17:57:05 +0100
kMDItemNumberOfPages = 21
kMDItemOMUserTags = (
work,
expenses
)
kMDItemOMUserTagTime = 2010-07-18 18:42:13 +0100
kMDItemPageHeight = 792
kMDItemPageWidth = 612
kMDItemSecurityMethod = "None"
kMDItemTitle = "Tag Folders User Guide"
kMDItemUsedDates = (
"2010-07-18 00:00:00 +0100"
)
kMDItemVersion = "1.4"
kOMUserTags = (
work,
expenses
)

[Jon Stovell]

Yup, Spotlight itself is the problem here. It is only indexing basic file information for file on your encrypted disk image. Mount the disk image and then try running this command to see if causes Spotlight to start indexing the image's contents fully.

sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/name_of_mounted_disk_image

You'll probably need to give Spotlight some time to build the index before it starts working.

Jon

[Olivia Wood]

Hi, I am having the EXACT same problem as Javier. I tried this
Terminal command, but I kept getting an error message saying that I
entered an invalid path. Should I enter the entire name including the
file extension, or just the name itself? And do I have to capitalize
it? I'm sorry if this is a dumb question...

BTW, Tag Folders is such an amazing app I don't know why Apple hasn't
included it in the OS already.

-Olivia

[Javier Penino Vinas]

Cool, that works (even after restarting)... thanks very much!!

[Jon Stovell]

Hi Olivia,

I mean the name of the volume that appears when you open the disk
image, not the name of the disk image file itself.

Jon

[Jon Stovell]

No problem, Javier.

On Jul 19, 7:43 pm, Javier Penino Vinas <javier.peninovi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Javier Penino Vinas]

Hi Olivia, I found it's sometimes easier to just drag the file into
Terminal after typing the command, that way you don't need to worry
about typing out what could be a long path... (however if you're
running the mdutil command, you'd then delete the file name, as you
want it to run on the whole disk image).. other problem can come from
not leaving the correct spacing after the "mdutil -i on " command.
Hope this helps.