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

I strongly disagree. Create date should never be changed! That is what the modified date is for!!!!

You may think that that was the original design of create date. I believe you were wrong! I programmed for over 30 years on the mainframe and when we started on PCs the create state the same no matter where you moved a file to! So whoever made that decision to modify the create date was incorrect in their decision!

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

Agree. It started this year. I always have sorted my files by date so as to find the most recently edited. It is now completely impossible and there is absolutely no good reason for this change!

In my win11, I visit a network share on windows server（smb server）. Whether copying files from smb server to local machine, or copying or moving files directly on smb server, the timestamps change. I think this is a problem after win11 was updated with the May patch, because I don't have this problem on a window11 machine that hasn't been turned on since May.

I tested with Windows 11 24H2 26120.961 using a share on another Windows PC. The Date modified property for all files, copying in either direction, was unchanged. I suspect there are other variables involved such as compression, encryption, or OneDrive, possibly in combination with a recent update. It may take quite a lot of trial and error testing to narrow down the specific variables that trigger the problem.

Hello, Lui Lui the 3rd

Welcome to the Microsoft community.

Your eloquently woven tale of temporal displacement within the realms of Windows File Explorer has reached the ears of us mere mortals tending the vast digital libraries at Microsoft.

We understand your frustration, Thank you for your feedback, and Microsoft will continue to make improvements to serve you better.

Best Regards,

Aaron- MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist