OneDrive is a cloud storage platform that comes installed out of the box on newer versions of Windows. However, many users only use OneDrive for storage because they're unaware it has various features to make life easy.

The photo tagging feature on OneDrive is a versatile photo management feature that lets you tag photos with keywords, making them easily searchable. While you can add tags manually, you don't necessarily need to add tags yourself.

OneDrive automatically detects objects in an image and adds relevant tags. While there's room for error with automatic tagging, you can always edit the tags to make sure you can find them easily later.

How to Add or Edit Tags on Photos in OneDrive

Whenever you store a photo, Microsoft OneDrive scans the image looking for objects. It adds tags for those images, and also allows you to add or edit tags.

To see this in action, launch the OneDrive website and search for a name, place, or date. You can either search for tags or go to the Tags tab to see all the tags used for your photos:

tags tab in onedrive

Sometimes, you'll notice incorrect tagging. You may want to edit those tags or add new tags to your photos. For adding or editing tags, open any photo in OneDrive. Select the ellipsis at the top and click on Edit tags.

selecting edit tags in onedrive

Type a new tag for the photo and press Enter, or select from one of the existing tags from the list below. If you want to remove a tag, just click on the x next to a tag.

list of tags

How to Enable or Disable Tags on Photos in OneDrive

Tagging is enabled by default on OneDrive. If you've never disabled tagging yourself, you can directly start using tags. However, if you want to turn off the tagging feature, you can do it from OneDrive settings.

Start by clicking on the cog wheel at the top-right of the home screen when using OneDrive (web). Then, select Options. Click on Photos from the left sidebar. Then, toggle off the button next to Use tags to find and organize photos.

disable photo tagging in onedrive

Note that when you disable tagging, the existing tags will remain as they are and won't be removed. You'll need to remove those tags manually.

Using Photo Tagging on OneDrive

OneDrive's tags allow you to easily search and organize your photos by keywords. Even if you don't want to use the feature, you can easily disable it.

You might also consider disabling OneDrive altogether if you don't find its photo management capabilities adequate, and switch to a different service like Google Photos.