diff --git a/src/DurableTask.AzureStorage/OrchestrationInstanceStatus.cs b/src/DurableTask.AzureStorage/OrchestrationInstanceStatus.cs
index 2cf8d8e96..29dea2c4d 100644
--- a/src/DurableTask.AzureStorage/OrchestrationInstanceStatus.cs
+++ b/src/DurableTask.AzureStorage/OrchestrationInstanceStatus.cs
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
 namespace DurableTask.AzureStorage
 {
     using System;
-    using System.Collections.Generic;
     using Azure;
     using Azure.Data.Tables;
 
@@ -35,7 +34,7 @@ class OrchestrationInstanceStatus : ITableEntity
         public string RuntimeStatus { get; set; }
         public DateTime? ScheduledStartTime { get; set; }
         public int Generation { get; set; }
-        public IDictionary<string, string> Tags { get; set; }
+        public string Tags { get; set; }
         public string PartitionKey { get; set; }
         public string RowKey { get; set; }
         public DateTimeOffset? Timestamp { get; set; }
diff --git a/src/DurableTask.AzureStorage/Tracking/AzureTableTrackingStore.cs b/src/DurableTask.AzureStorage/Tracking/AzureTableTrackingStore.cs
index 49c2ed4ae..f602cd4a8 100644
--- a/src/DurableTask.AzureStorage/Tracking/AzureTableTrackingStore.cs
+++ b/src/DurableTask.AzureStorage/Tracking/AzureTableTrackingStore.cs
@@ -462,7 +462,9 @@ async Task<OrchestrationState> ConvertFromAsync(OrchestrationInstanceStatus orch
             orchestrationState.Output = orchestrationInstanceStatus.Output;
             orchestrationState.ScheduledStartTime = orchestrationInstanceStatus.ScheduledStartTime;
             orchestrationState.Generation = orchestrationInstanceStatus.Generation;
-            orchestrationState.Tags = orchestrationInstanceStatus.Tags;
+            orchestrationState.Tags = !string.IsNullOrEmpty(orchestrationInstanceStatus.Tags)
+                ? TagsSerializer.Deserialize(orchestrationInstanceStatus.Tags)
+                : null;
 
             if (this.settings.FetchLargeMessageDataEnabled)
             {
@@ -716,7 +718,7 @@ public override async Task<bool> SetNewExecutionAsync(
                 ["ScheduledStartTime"] = executionStartedEvent.ScheduledStartTime,
                 ["ExecutionId"] = executionStartedEvent.OrchestrationInstance.ExecutionId,
                 ["Generation"] = executionStartedEvent.Generation,
-                ["Tags"] = executionStartedEvent.Tags,
+                ["Tags"] = TagsSerializer.Serialize(executionStartedEvent.Tags),
             };
 
             // It is possible that the queue message was small enough to be written directly to a queue message,