Bulk Untag not working : "Error Updating Tag"

[EddyBess]

Bug description

Error when removing all tagged objects from a tag and saving

Setup: Clean installation (only example data loaded)

Tagging System: Enabled

Steps to reproduce

Ensure Tagging System is enabled.

Create a new tag.

Tag multiple objects of the same type (e.g., multiple saved queries).

Go to the created tag → Edit.

Remove all tagged objects from this tag.

Click Save.

Expected behavior

The tag should update successfully, saving the removal of all associated objects without errors.

Actual behavior

An error occurs upon saving, and the tag update fails.
The UI shows:

Error Updating Tag

However, removing one item, and clicking save works

Screenshots/recordings

No response

Superset version

5.0.0

Python version

3.9

Node version

16

Browser

Chrome

Additional context

The backend logs include the following traceback:

superset_app | 2025-11-11 12:23:52,866:ERROR:flask_appbuilder.api:()
superset_app | Traceback (most recent call last):
superset_app | File "/app/superset/utils/decorators.py", line 259, in wrapped
superset_app | result = func(*args, **kwargs)
superset_app | File "/app/superset/commands/tag/update.py", line 49, in run
superset_app | db.session.add(self._model)
superset_app | File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/sqlalchemy/orm/session.py", line 2648, in add
superset_app | self._save_or_update_state(state)
superset_app | File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/sqlalchemy/orm/session.py", line 2678, in _save_or_update_state
superset_app | self.save_or_update_impl(st)
superset_app | File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/sqlalchemy/orm/session.py", line 3289, in _save_or_update_impl
superset_app | self._update_impl(state)
superset_app | File "/app/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/sqlalchemy/orm/session.py", line 3259, in _update_impl
superset_app | raise sa_exc.InvalidRequestError(
superset_app | sqlalchemy.exc.InvalidRequestError: Instance '<TaggedObject at 0x7486d46ff6d0>' has been deleted. Use the make_transient() function to send this object back to the transient state.

superset_app | The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
superset_app | sqlalchemy.exc.SQLAlchemyError: ()

Checklist

• I have searched Superset docs and Slack and didn't find a solution to my problem.
• I have searched the GitHub issue tracker and didn't find a similar bug report.
• I have checked Superset's logs for errors and if I found a relevant Python stacktrace, I included it here as text in the "additional context" section.

[dosubot]

Hi @EddyBess! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the superset team.

This is a known bug in Superset's tagging system: when you remove all objects from a tag and save, the backend tries to update the tag but fails because the in-memory relationship between the tag and its objects isn't properly synchronized after deletions. This causes SQLAlchemy to raise an error like Instance '<TaggedObject ...>' has been deleted—the Tag model still references objects that have already been marked as deleted in the session, leading to the failure when saving the tag update. There is no workaround or patch in Superset 5.0.0 or earlier that addresses this session/relationship synchronization issue, and the bug is not fixed in the current tag update implementation. Upgrading to a future version (once a fix is released) or manually patching the relationship cleanup in your deployment would be required to resolve this.

For more technical details, see the code analysis here.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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