Old tags show up in Finder after SSD reformat and Yosemite fresh install

[iamthefixer]

Hello guys, this is my first post on MacRumors, so bear with me. Thank you.

This is my story so far
Got a new MBA early 2014 (13'', 128GB 4GB RAM, SSD) in October 2014.
Got out of the box, went through installation of Maverick via WiFi: selected country, etc, etc, no FileVault activation, etc, etc, created user "mycomputer". I was up and running in no time. Happy days...until Yosemite came out and installed it.

Anyway, I have been using the laptop before and after updating to Yosemite: creating files, deleting files, adding apps, deleting apps, adding file tags, etc

Have been having problems since Yosemite so I took it to the Apple Store guys who reformat the SSD and fresh installed Yosemite via USB.
When I was returned the laptop I had to go through the configuration stages as if the laptop was new: choose country, create username, etc, etc, etc

I typed the same username (my computer) that I had before I took it to the Apple Store. After completing set up, to my surprise, I noticed that Finder showed the old tags created before I took the laptop to the Apple Store guys.

Why do you think this is the case?

I can assure you that I had to go throught the set up process as described here

http://www.macworld.com/article/2010716/mac-101-getting-set-up.html

Thank you for your advice, thoughts, observations and support.

Cheers.

 

[TitsLegendary]

Did you move your old photos/documents back onto the computer?

If not, did you sign in to iCloud and sync? My best guess would be that those tags are included as part of your iCloud sync.
I actually had a very similar situation. Just yesterday I did a clean install of Yosemite and all signed in to iCloud and all of my tags showed up as well even before I moved any of my old photos/docs back onto the computer.
That's my best guess.

 

[iamthefixer]

@TitsLegendary - love your username

I had no data stored before the job was done by the Apple Store guys. After the job was done, I sync iCloud. Your guess is very realistic.

However, this is what an Apple Store guy told me yesterday: I rang them up to find out more about the details of the repair and they said that they removed whatever data was on the machine including preferences, etc, etc (remember there was no data), reformatted the SSD, put the data back and fresh installed Yosemite.

When I was returned the machine, I had to go throught the process of choosing regions, username, etc, etc as if the machine had been just taken out of the box.

What data/preferences have they taken out of the machien and then put back into it??? But most importantly, was that necessary if they were to format the SSD??

we'll never know...

Thank you for your comments.

 

[robgendreau]

@TitsLegendary - love your username

I had no data stored before the job was done by the Apple Store guys. After the job was done, I sync iCloud. Your guess is very realistic.

However, this is what an Apple Store guy told me yesterday: I rang them up to find out more about the details of the repair and they said that they removed whatever data was on the machine including preferences, etc, etc (remember there was no data), reformatted the SSD, put the data back and fresh installed Yosemite.

When I was returned the machine, I had to go throught the process of choosing regions, username, etc, etc as if the machine had been just taken out of the box.

What data/preferences have they taken out of the machien and then put back into it??? But most importantly, was that necessary if they were to format the SSD??

we'll never know...

Thank you for your comments.

What exactly do you mean when you say the machine had "no data"? No user data? did you reformat to erase it, or just chuck it in the trash?

Tags are rather more than just entries in a database or a file on your Mac. They are extended file attributes, and are written into the filesystem at a deeper level. If you search around on "xattr" you may find more info that would lead to why they seemingly reappeared. Maybe it was simply they were indexed in a system level file.