File explorer and date created/modified change when copying files/folders.

I'm late to this topic and probably not as tech savvy but maybe a different example of the harm alteration of the "date modified" and "date created" fields can have. It raises a question I have as to whether this problem is inherent in the Windows OS or only in File Explorer.

I had been backing up my c: using San Disk "Secure Access," which is free software available to users of SanDisk thumb drives. That software would copy folders I would select in c: and save encrypted copies to the thumb. I made alternate backups to two different thumbs given thumb drives occasionally fail. A year or two ago a vulnerability was discovered in "Secure Access" so they replaced it with "Private Access." Sept 2024 while backing up c: as usual a pane appeared stating that files were being MOVED. That told me it was deleting my files in c:, which obviously was catastrophic unless the files were successfully saved in the archive so I could reinstall later. Nevertheless, I clicked on "cancel" and was shocked that, while the progress bar retracted to the beginning (i.e., 0%) it just started all over again. I repeated that once more and then, when that did not work, in desperation, closed that pane by clicking the usual "x" in the upper right corner. Looked good at first. Then I discovered that my browser stopped working and, indeed, all my apps were nonfunctional. Worse yet, not only were all my personal files deleted on c:, none were saved to the thumb. I realized that either there was a bug in Private Access or, more likely I thought, I was hit with malware. Interestingly, Windows and File Explorer were still working as was my antivirus "WebRoot." I did an immediate scan with Webroot and it found no threats. So if it was malware, it was self-erasing and Webroot missed it (as of now, I don't think so). Because I didn't want to do any more saves to my computer so as to preserve any files that might be recoverable later and I urgently needed a computer to complete booking a flight ASAP, I bought a new computer.

Long story longer, when I went to install a previous backup on the new computer I discovered all the "date modified" fields had been altered to the date of that last backup. I don't believe that was the case when I was using Secure Access. Fortunately, the "date created" was carried over unchanged so at least the files not modified much past the date of creation could still be sorted by date created. So I began to use my old files on the new computer. Fast forward a few months and San Disk tech support, denying there was any bug in their software, asked me to repeat what I did originally that led up to the destruction of my files and them provide them a log. I didn't want to try this on the old computer to preserve my chances for file recovery as previously stated. So I tried it on the new computer (duh). Same thing happened. This time I wasted no time forcing shutdown to limit the damage. That saved the apps but nothing else. The one thing I did right was to back all my files with a G-Drive before testing Private Access again so it didn't take me long to replace the destroyed files to c: on the new computer so no harm done. I thought. This time, when copying the backup on the G-Drive to c: it preserved the "date modified," which of course had previously been changed to the date of the last backup, but overwrote the "date created" with the current date. So then all the files on the new computer had "date created" LATER than the "date modified." Now all the dates are worthless.

All I can say is I came to trust Microsoft that the dates for files were not user-editable and that I would always be able to sort my files by "date modified." I have thousands of files going back probably over 30 years that I depend on the "date modified" to find. Now I can't so, from now on, I have to include the date I create/modify any file as the first six characters of every new filename so if this happens again I can at least still sort by "date modified." And the format needs to be year-month-day, rather than the customary month-day-year for a continuous chronological sort, which is not convenient to me.

I hope sometime to use file recovery software to recover deleted files on my old computer with their "date modified" fields intact. Somehow I'm going to have to then replace some of those with later writes to the same filename and combine everything on yet another volume. I think the files are there because even though the filenames display with 0 bytes, clicking on folder "properties" indicates significant file sizes so I think the malware simply changed a flag to indicate the file space to be available to be overwritten without changing the actual data stored.

Hope Microsoft can figure out a way to at least give the user a choice in whether they want "date modified" and "date created" to be preserved or changed when copied whether within or between volumes. Obviously, backups go to a different volume so for that purpose there is no reason to overwrite the date created but there could be for other purposes.

Can anybody tell me if these dates can be edited via a cmd prompt? Thanks

P.S. If this feature comes to pass, future generations will look back on this moment as a turning point in history – the day we let our files journey through time, unaltered and proud, their timestamps shining like beacons of their actual age.

Is this small "Highlight", barely showing above the dark depths without nay a flourish, supposed to be the turning point in history?
Aye, with an unannounced GRADUAL ROLLOUT so as to further confuse thee with a "penchant for organization and accuracy"?
KB5050094

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/january-28-2025-kb5050094-os-build-26100-3037-preview-78fda0ea-79e9-468d-8a77-de7914ca1aefKB5051987 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/february-11-2025-kb5051987-os-build-26100-3194-63fb007d-3f52-4b47-85ea-28414a24be2d

• Fixed: The date and time properties of a file might update after you copy it.

I am wondering if this issue has caused a knock-on issue with OneDrive suddenly and massively modifying file systems.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/onedrive-changed-file-names-on-it-s-own/9ae70303-76de-4713-9c5f-d28a94981f3e

Teracopy still has the 2-second granularity for modified times

Makes sense. FAT and FAT32 have a 2 second date resolution. It's best solved by keeping the file systems the same (i.e. format your external drives NTFS). ExFAT has a 10ms date resolution, so that should also be fine if you need to exchange data with other systems, such as a Mac.

Teracopy still has the 2-second granularity for modified times

Bonjour,

Je pense qu'il existe une solution très simple pour résoudre votre problème. Il suffit, sous l'explorateur de fichiers, dans la barre d'affichage des "Nom" "Modifié le" "Type" etc.. de faire un clic droit, puis de choisir l'option "Prise de vue" dans la liste qui s'affiche.

Cette possibilité s'applique, bien sûr, pour les photos ou vidéos.

La date d'origine de la prise de vue apparaît alors, et c'est tout simple de trier sur cette colonne !!!

Bon, j'ai bien cherché quand même car j'avais le même souci.

Une autre possibilité consiste à utiliser le logiciel "Q-DIR". Celui-ci permet de copier, ou de déplacer, les fichiers et les dates qui apparaissent après copie sont cependant modifiées avec la date de déplacement.

Toutefois, très curieusement, si vous utilisez "Explorateur de fichiers" de Windows vous vous aperceverez que les dates qui apparaissent sont, en fait, les dates d'origine de la création des fichiers, ou de prise de vue des photos et vidéos.

C'est, à mon avis, la solution la plus simple pour récupérer la date d'origine de vos documents, mais il y a des cas où cela ne marche pas, allez savoir pourquoi !!!

Bonne journée.

Francis