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Date modified spontaneously changed to the same date

Anonymous
2012-05-24T06:30:55+00:00

All the files in my main document folder have had Date modified changed to the same date.  The folder dates are unchanged.  This is several thousand files and all seem to have been accessed at the same time 7.44pm on the same date, hence the "Date modified".  Note date saved is not changed nad seems to be the correct, except for PDF files where the date saved and date modified are the same.

Of several folders in My Documents, only one folder affected, unfortuately it is my "current" 2012 folder. 

How has this happened and can it be reversed?

I have spoken to several data "experts" who said this is not easy to do if you want to do it intentionally.  I was reloading music into iTunes and I my best guess is that iTunes accessed the wrong folder and while "looking"at all the files it somehow accessed the files resulting on a Date modified change.  This isi just a theory based on what I was doing at the time, although it doesn't really answer why just one folder was affected and one that iTunes shouldn't have been looking at.

Cheers

Matupitu

Win 7 64 bit.

MSE installed.

No virus activity

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-01-19T08:13:23+00:00

    Jim - I've never figured this out or had any help on it come thru. Although it hasn't happened again for a long time. Just live with it when it does.  Frequently put dates on my file names for sorting...   Doug

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-03-28T05:29:01+00:00

    Same thing just happened to me tonight - all files in My Documents folder now have same value in Date Modified column - 3/17/2013 7:16 PM. This includes all files in subfolders, although folders dates were not changed.  Date Created was also not modified...

    The only thing I did new tonight was install NoScript in Mozilla Firefox Add-ons - but I don;t see how that might have changed Date Modified of 1000+ files!  I did not copy any files to anywhere since turning on my computer (Windows 7 Toshiba laptop) this evening. Just suddenly noticed the change.

    Can't imagine how to correct all these dates! Any suggestions as to cause & fix welcome....

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  3. @CmdrKeene 90,626 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-06-17T02:15:05+00:00

    My best guess would be that it was indeed another program scanning the files, either a media program or antivirus program.  MSE does not modify files to my knowledge, but I'm not a deep expert in MSE itself.

    Were these files recently copied from backup or network location?

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-01-19T02:32:25+00:00

    I also had the same problem occur.  All files in "My Documents"folder have the same date/time for "modified date"  ( some at 9:33am, some at 9:34am.) I am running Windows 8.1 on a Dell Laptop.

    This is the exact time I powered up my laptop after a shutdown ( with windows updates).  It did not change the modified dates for files you cannot edit such as PDF files.

    It affected every document in my C:/My Documents folder and sub-folder. Also files on my desktop.  It did not affect the MyPictures folder, or any folders in my OneDrive.

    Any thoughts?

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-10-27T12:33:58+00:00

    My problem kept repeating itself ( all my files in the Docs folder had the same create date),  so I looked up in the windows log & found a DNS error would occur at the same time that the files got the “modified date” changed.  So I did some more google searching and found this has happened to others who used Dropbox. 

    So, I uninstalled Dropbox and the problem has not recurred in over 4 months.

    As this has happened to others with itunes, etc. - it seems like the common thread is synching to the cloud in the background, and I guess there is an error during processing and the dates all change  synched folders.

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