diff --git a/packages/core/src/collections/tags.ts b/packages/core/src/collections/tags.ts
index 8dbcec394..487f7391f 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/collections/tags.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/collections/tags.ts
@@ -49,19 +49,17 @@ export class Tags implements ICollection {
     return this.all.find((eb) => eb.and([eb("title", "==", title)]));
   }
 
-  async add(item: Partial<Tag>) {
-    item.title = item.title ? Tags.sanitize(item.title) : item.title;
+  async add(item: Partial<Tag> & { title: string }) {
+    item.title = Tags.sanitize(item.title);
 
     const id = item.id || getId();
-    const oldTag = item.id
-      ? await this.tag(item.id)
-      : item.title
-      ? await this.find(item.title)
-      : undefined;
+    const oldTag = item.id ? await this.tag(item.id) : undefined;
 
-    if (!item.title && !oldTag?.title) throw new Error("Title is required.");
     if (oldTag && item.title === oldTag.title) return oldTag.id;
 
+    if (await this.find(item.title))
+      throw new Error("Tag with this title already exists.");
+
     await this.collection.upsert({
       id,
       dateCreated: item.dateCreated || oldTag?.dateCreated || Date.now(),
diff --git a/packages/core/src/migrations.ts b/packages/core/src/migrations.ts
index 7b9c89840..830cd6166 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/migrations.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/migrations.ts
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import { parseHTML } from "./utils/html-parser";
 import { decodeHTML5 } from "entities";
 import { CURRENT_DATABASE_VERSION } from "./common";
 import Database from "./api";
-import { getId, makeId } from "./utils/id";
+import { makeId } from "./utils/id";
 import {
   Color,
   ContentItem,