Status icons save location

where do "Status" / "Label" actually save to? [checked, Flagged, Important]
have a bunch of videos and 3 people that watch them, which makes the status icons great because we can label what we have seen so we know what others and our self have seen.

the problem is I'm about to move where i have the videos saved and discovered that when moving the files and even folders that have tagged files in them the tag doesn't stay with the file when it changes to a different physical drive.

how do i make it easy on my self when i go and move those files over?
how are these icons saved to each file?
can i even have it move the icon with the file?

Labels in general can be stored in two places:

  1. Under Preferences / Favorites / Label Assignments, where the label points to a particular path and is not tied to the actual file/folder at that path. If the file/folder is renamed, the label won't move with it, and if another file/folder is created in the old place, it will take on the label.

    If that method is being used, you can edit the paths in Preferences to make the labels point to the new place.

  2. In the filesystem itself, as an Alternate Data Stream (NTFS ADS) attached to the file. In this case, moving or renaming the file will keep the label with the file, provided it is either moved on the same partition (drive letter) or that the thing which moves it preserves the Alternate Data Stream (when moving via copy-then-delete across partitions/devices).

    In Opus, make sure Preferences / File Operations / Copy Attributes / Copy metadata (comments, keywords, etc) is turned on to do that. Note that it is not turned on by default, and there is a slight per-file performance hit to turning it on. (You're unlikely to notice except when copying a huge number of tiny files.)

Both methods have pros & cons, depending on how you're using the labels.

Which method is used to store the label is normally decided by Preferences / Favorites / Labels / Automatically store labels in the file system if possible being on or off, at the time the label is added to the file.

It can also be overridden by specifying extra arguments to the button/command that creates the label, so you could create some labels one way and others the other, if desired.

(Above is for Opus Light. In Opus Pro, the Preferences branch is Favorites and Recent rather than Favorites, with the other details the same.)

thank you this saved my a while of how to figure out a work around to this

it was option 2.

i was using the Right Click Context Menu > Status > [Checked, Flagged, Important]