Solspace Tag - randomly not working

Question

I have a rescue site where Solspace Tag is in use and seems to be randomly not working even though there are tags in entries.

EE 3.5.11 Tag 5.0.7

Most entries the exp:tag_relate_entries tag is working correctly. However on a couple of entries it is return no results despite there being results.

code:

      {exp:tag:related_entries channel="blog|self_help|books|music|bija-in-the-media|film_and_video|services|about_pages" orderby="relevance" limit="4" url_title="{embed:urltitle}"}

        {if tag_no_results}
            <div class="col-xs-6 .col-md-3">
                <p>No Related Entries</p>
            </div><!-- /.col-xs-6 -->
        {/if}

      <div class="col-xs-6 col-md-3">
        <a href="{if page_uri != ''}{page_url}{if:else}{comment_url_title_auto_path}{/if}">
          <div class="tile">
            <img class="img-responsive" src="{featured_image:ymal}" alt="" width="100%">
            <div class="description green-{switch="1|2|3|4"}">
              <h3>{title}</h3>
            </div>
          </div>
        </a>
      </div>
      {/exp:tag:related_entries}

I have also added a testing div where I have hard coded tags that are in the entry looking for related tags and it outputs dozens of tags

    {exp:tag:entries tag="breath|breathing|breathing into life|poem|poetry|practice"} 
        title: {title},
    {/exp:tag:entries}

See attached screenshot

Answer 1

Have you tried setting the tag group parameter? Never hurts. https://solspace.com/expressionengine/tag/docs/related_entries/#tag_group_id

I would also try adding status=, some of the related entries not showing might have a weird status that is not "open".

Try looking at an entry whose related entries shows correctly and one that does not and look for any differences.

Answer 2

One other time I have seen this before was when another customer's site had dozens (or hundreds) of duplicate and/or malformed tags (including blank ones). Check to see if this site has any of those, and remove them to see if it resolves the issue. :)