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Installing TagSpaces

Here you will learn how to install TagSpaces on different operating systems.

Getting the application

The free versions of TagSpaces are available for download from the Downloads Section or the TagSpaces web site. Here you can quickly find the appropriate installer for your operating system (Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, Firefox and Chrome).

tip

Download the newest PRO release: PRO customers have to use the downloads links provided in purchase confirmation email. Those links will lead always to the latest available PRO version.

New Version Notification

Once a new version of the application is available, you will see the following notification in the lower left corner of the app. Clicking on the "GET NOW" button will lead you to the download page of the TagSpaces' website, where the latest community version can be downloaded. Pro users should use the links in the order confirmation email in order to get the latest version.

New version notification

tip

If you do not want TagSpaces to check automatically for the new versions, disable this functionality in the settings.

Installation on Windows

The Windows version of TagSpaces is distributed as a exe-installer, which can be directly executed to start the installation and a zip-archive file. The last have be to unzipped in a folder somewhere on your system. In the unpacked folder you will find a file called tagspaces.exe, which can be executed with double click.

The installer program for Windows is signed with modern software certificates. The following screenshot shows the certificate in action during the installation under Windows.

Screenshot showing signed installer under Windows

Updating the Windows version: Just exchange the content of your current installation, with the content from the zip-file of a newer release. You don't have to worry about your tag library and locations since they are persisted in the users home folder.

Just in case you need this, the profile folder under Windows is located here: C:\Users\Your_User_Name\AppData\Roaming\TagSpaces

Installation on macOS

For macOS you have to download 64bit versions of the application for Intel or Apple Silicon(arm) based processor. Then you have to double click the downloaded zip file in Finder to unpack it properly. Some users are reporting issues with unpacking the app with some 3th-party zip utils.

In case you need this, the profile folder under macOS is located here: ~/Library/Application Support/TagSpaces

tip

Sometimes macOS does not allow TagSpaces to be executed with a simple double click. To work around this, right-click the TagSpaces.app folder and choose Open, then click Open on the dialog that appears. You need to do this just once.

Install confirmation macOS

tip

Alternative: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/TagSpaces.app

Updating the macOS version: Just exchange the content of your current installation, with the content from the zip-file of a newer release. You don't have to worry about your tag library and locations since they are persisted in the users home folder.

Installation on Linux

The Linux version of TagSpaces is distributed as an tar.gz-archive file, appimage-file and deb-file for Debian based Linux distributions such as Ubuntu. All versions can be downloaded here.

After downloading the tar.gz file, you have to unpack it in a folder on your system. In the unpacked folder you will find a file called tagspaces, which can be executed with double click or in a terminal.

The deb-package have to be double clicked in otder to be installed. You can use also this command for the installation:

sudo dpkg -i tagspaces-linux-amd64-x.x.x.deb

The appimage-file have to be made executable first with this command:

chmod +x tagspaces-linux-x86_64-x.x.x.AppImage

And then it can be just started with a double click.

Updating the Linux version: For the tar.gz-package, just exchange the content of your current installation, with the content from the tar.gz-file of a newer release. You don't have to worry about your tag library and locations since they are persisted in the users home folder. The distribution variant can be simply re-installed over the last available version.

Installation on Android

From Google Play

You can install the Android app from the Google Play Store.

Updating the Android app: Once we publish a newer version of the Android app, it will be automatically installed on your mobile device within the following days.

From our web site

A version of the Android app is available as an APK file in download section of our web site.

In order to install the APK file you have to perform the following steps on your Android phone.

  • Go to Settings.
  • Open the Security & privacy option.
  • Scroll down and find 'install from unknown apps'. If it's not there, try under 'more'.
  • You should be presented with a list of apps. Find your browser for example Firefox or Chrome.
  • Tap on it and then choose 'Allow from this source'.

If the above steps doesn't work for you, try the following:

  • Go to Settings.
  • Open Apps & Notifications and then select configure apps.
  • Scroll down. Find and tap advanced options or special app access.
  • Scroll to the bottom of the special app access menu, where you can find the "Install unknown apps" option
  • Find your browser, tap on it and select 'Allow from this source'.

Once these steps are done you can download and install with the previously configured browser the app from our download section

caution

Risks of installing apps outside the Play Store - Installing an app outside of Google Play store is risky as you may be subjecting your phone to viruses that come along with these apps, so please be very careful and check your download sources.

Installing the Firefox Browser Extension

Download the Add-on for Firefox. Open the Add-on tab in Firefox from the main menu and then click on the Add-on puzzle icon, or simply type ctrl+shift+a or command+shift+a. In the opened new tab, go to the settings dropdown on the left of the search field and select Install Add-on From File.... Then choose the downloaded file and follow the instructions.

You can also find TagSpaces in the Mozilla's addon store, but consider that the version there could be some months old due to their slow approval process.

Once installed the add-on can be started from the TagSpaces icon in the right upped corner of the browser or from the browser's main menu Tools > TagSpaces.

Updating the Firefox addon: Once a newer version of the Firefox addon is approved for the Mozilla store, it will be automatically installed on your Firefox browser within the following days.

Installing the Chrome Browser Extension

You can install the Chrome extension directly from the Google Chrome Store.

Updating the Chrome extension: Once we publish a newer version of the Chrome extensions on the Chrome store, it will be automatically installed on your Chrome browser within the following days.

Running in portable mode

The Windows and Linux versions of TagSpaces can be started in the so called portable mode, allowing the use of the application from an USB-stick or other portable devices. In this mode all the configuration information such as tags, tag groups and connection to locations is stored in a folder called tsprofile. This folder is located where the application is started and not in the home user folder on current operating systems. The portable mode can be started with the tagspacesp.cmd script under Windows or the tagspacesp under Linux. These scripts are usually located in the unzipped application folder. Under Linux you have eventually to make this script executable with this command chmod +x tagspacesp. if the files are not in the distributed packages they can be downloaded from the following places: tagspacesp and tagspacesp.cmd. The downloaded file should be placed in the same directory where the tagspaces executable is located.

Updating the portable version

In order to update a version of TagSpaces used in portable mode for example on USB stick you have just to exchange the files and directories with the new ones, coming from the installation package of the new application version. As mentioned before in the portable mode, the tag library and locations are stored in the tsprofile folder. So to upgrade to a newer version of tagspaces, we have to take special care for this folder, please follow these steps for the upgrade:

  • Rename your existing tagspaces folder to e.g. tagspaces_old
  • Extract the downloaded tagspaces zip-file, this will create a new tagspaces folder.
  • Copy/move the tsprofile folder from the tagspaces_old folder to the newly created tagspaces folder.
tip

Important: Be careful not to delete the tsprofile sub folder, it contains valuable information for your portable TagSpaces instance.

Portable mode with the AppImage package (Linux only)

With the AppImage package, there is another way to have the application run in portable mode. AppImages is an application distribution format allowing to run apps on various Linux distribution. This package format supports its own portable mode, which can be activated by creating an empty folder with the same name as your AppImage file but having .config at the end. This folder should be placed in the same folder as the AppImage files like this:

tagspaces-linux-x86_64-4.1.3.AppImage tagspaces-linux-x86_64-4.1.3.AppImage.config

Starting now the AppImage will places the whole config information in the .config folder and will not use the default config folder in the user's home folder. This allows to place the app for example on a USB-stick and run it on another PC with the same configuration.

TagSpaces command line tool

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