diff --git a/include/text.php b/include/text.php
index c4249f86c..eb65334fd 100644
--- a/include/text.php
+++ b/include/text.php
@@ -8,10 +8,8 @@ use Friendica\Content\Smilies;
 use Friendica\Content\Text\BBCode;
 use Friendica\Core\Protocol;
 use Friendica\Model\Contact;
-
 use Friendica\Model\FileTag;
 use Friendica\Util\Strings;
-use Friendica\Util\XML;
 
 /**
  * Turn user/group ACLs stored as angle bracketed text into arrays
@@ -186,21 +184,17 @@ function get_cats_and_terms($item)
 {
 	$categories = [];
 	$folders = [];
-
-	$matches = [];
 	$first = true;
-	$cnt = preg_match_all('/<(.*?)>/', $item['file'], $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);
-	if ($cnt) {
-		foreach ($matches as $mtch) {
-			$categories[] = [
-				'name' => XML::escape(FileTag::decode($mtch[1])),
-				'url' =>  "#",
-				'removeurl' => ((local_user() == $item['uid'])?'filerm/' . $item['id'] . '?f=&cat=' . XML::escape(FileTag::decode($mtch[1])):""),
-				'first' => $first,
-				'last' => false
-			];
-			$first = false;
-		}
+
+	foreach (FileTag::fileToArray($item['file'], 'category') as $savedFolderName) {
+		$categories[] = [
+			'name' => $savedFolderName,
+			'url' => "#",
+			'removeurl' => ((local_user() == $item['uid']) ? 'filerm/' . $item['id'] . '?f=&cat=' . rawurlencode($savedFolderName) : ""),
+			'first' => $first,
+			'last' => false
+		];
+		$first = false;
 	}
 
 	if (count($categories)) {
@@ -208,20 +202,15 @@ function get_cats_and_terms($item)
 	}
 
 	if (local_user() == $item['uid']) {
-		$matches = [];
-		$first = true;
-		$cnt = preg_match_all('/\[(.*?)\]/', $item['file'], $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);
-		if ($cnt) {
-			foreach ($matches as $mtch) {
-				$folders[] = [
-					'name' => XML::escape(FileTag::decode($mtch[1])),
-					'url' =>  "#",
-					'removeurl' => ((local_user() == $item['uid']) ? 'filerm/' . $item['id'] . '?f=&term=' . XML::escape(FileTag::decode($mtch[1])) : ""),
-					'first' => $first,
-					'last' => false
-				];
-				$first = false;
-			}
+		foreach (FileTag::fileToArray($item['file']) as $savedFolderName) {
+			$folders[] = [
+				'name' => $savedFolderName,
+				'url' => "#",
+				'removeurl' => ((local_user() == $item['uid']) ? 'filerm/' . $item['id'] . '?f=&term=' . rawurlencode($savedFolderName) : ""),
+				'first' => $first,
+				'last' => false
+			];
+			$first = false;
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/mod/item.php b/mod/item.php
index b126c4825..7af5c712f 100644
--- a/mod/item.php
+++ b/mod/item.php
@@ -327,10 +327,9 @@ function item_post(App $a) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	if (!empty($categories))
-	{
+	if (!empty($categories)) {
 		// get the "fileas" tags for this post
-		$filedas = FileTag::fileToList($categories, 'file');
+		$filedas = FileTag::fileToArray($categories);
 	}
 
 	// save old and new categories, so we can determine what needs to be deleted from pconfig
@@ -338,10 +337,9 @@ function item_post(App $a) {
 	$categories = FileTag::listToFile(trim(defaults($_REQUEST, 'category', '')), 'category');
 	$categories_new = $categories;
 
-	if (!empty($filedas))
-	{
+	if (!empty($filedas)) {
 		// append the fileas stuff to the new categories list
-		$categories .= FileTag::listToFile($filedas, 'file');
+		$categories .= FileTag::arrayToFile($filedas);
 	}
 
 	// get contact info for poster
diff --git a/src/Content/Widget.php b/src/Content/Widget.php
index 066c17413..dcfc1d0e3 100644
--- a/src/Content/Widget.php
+++ b/src/Content/Widget.php
@@ -256,7 +256,7 @@ class Widget
 	 * @param string $baseurl  baseurl
 	 * @param string $selected optional, default empty
 	 * @return string|void
-	 * @throws \Friendica\Network\HTTPException\InternalServerErrorException
+	 * @throws \Exception
 	 */
 	public static function fileAs($baseurl, $selected = '')
 	{
@@ -269,15 +269,9 @@ class Widget
 			return;
 		}
 
-		$matches = [];
-		$terms = array();
-		$cnt = preg_match_all('/\[(.*?)\]/', $saved, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);
-		if ($cnt) {
-			foreach ($matches as $mtch)
-			{
-				$unescaped = XML::escape(FileTag::decode($mtch[1]));
-				$terms[] = ['ref' => $unescaped, 'name' => $unescaped];
-			}
+		$terms = [];
+		foreach (FileTag::fileToArray($saved) as $savedFolderName) {
+			$terms[] = ['ref' => $savedFolderName, 'name' => $savedFolderName];
 		}
 
 		return self::filter(
@@ -312,15 +306,9 @@ class Widget
 			return;
 		}
 
-		$matches = [];
 		$terms = array();
-		$cnt = preg_match_all('/<(.*?)>/', $saved, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);
-
-		if ($cnt) {
-			foreach ($matches as $mtch) {
-				$unescaped = XML::escape(FileTag::decode($mtch[1]));
-				$terms[] = ['ref' => $unescaped, 'name' => $unescaped];
-			}
+		foreach (FileTag::fileToArray($saved, 'category') as $savedFolderName) {
+			$terms[] = ['ref' => $savedFolderName, 'name' => $savedFolderName];
 		}
 
 		return self::filter(
diff --git a/src/Module/Filer/SaveTag.php b/src/Module/Filer/SaveTag.php
index f5d611519..aeafdbeb5 100644
--- a/src/Module/Filer/SaveTag.php
+++ b/src/Module/Filer/SaveTag.php
@@ -41,8 +41,7 @@ class SaveTag extends BaseModule
 
 		// return filer dialog
 		$filetags = PConfig::get(local_user(), 'system', 'filetags');
-		$filetags = Model\FileTag::fileToList($filetags, 'file');
-		$filetags = explode(",", $filetags);
+		$filetags = Model\FileTag::fileToArray($filetags);
 
 		$tpl = Renderer::getMarkupTemplate("filer_dialog.tpl");
 		echo Renderer::replaceMacros($tpl, [