Can I filter backlog in Azure DevOps by Negating a Tag?

Question

Is there a way to filter a backlog in Azure DevOps by negating a Tag? For example filter by "NOT MyTag"?

Answer 1

If I'm not misunderstand the feature you expected, what you want is applying the exclude tags in the filter blank in the Backlogs page, is that right?

If this, afraid to say that sorry, no, it hasn't been supported until now.

The exists feature is the positive satisfaction which means we will filter by the any character you enter and could not recognize any negative words at this current sprint(M160).

There has a similar feature suggestion request raised on our official forum: The filter dialog should be able exclude tags. You can go vote and comment there to push its priority and awareness. Our product group would review these suggestions and consider to take them into develop roadmap.

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Until now, the best work around is the way that @Steven mentioned, use Does Not Contain operators in Queries to achieve work items filtered based on excluding tags.

But, if you want to have a same result with the Filter in Backlog page, another condition needed, especially the work item link (tree) specified:

Answer 2

Try the Does Not Contain Operator found in Queries. This can be combined with Contains Operator so you can search for certain tags while excluding others.