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How Does Date Modified work for Folders in Windows Explorer

Anonymous
2023-09-25T05:15:50+00:00

Here is an example folder structure of 2 folders.

FolderA----->FolderB

In this example, Folder A is a parent of Folder B. It's a parent because it contains the Folder B, as FolderB is inside FolderA.

Now when I change anything in Folder B, for example create a new file, the DateModified of Folder B changes. But this date modified does not change the date modified of the parent folder, Folder A, it remains unchanged.

Now when I rename FolderB, the date modified of FolderB does not change. But, the date modified of the parent does change. So after changing folderB, folderA has a newer date than folderB.

So what are the rules for date modified ? Does it reflect the last time a change was made to the child contents, but not the folder itself ?

And how can I see whether a folder, or ANY of its children have changed ? If I cant see it from date modified, then is there another way, can I propogate the most recent date anything changed to the most parent folders date modified ?

Please do not tell me to run checkdisk, or re-install windows, etc. This is not related to my individual machine, and I have tested this on 3 PCs all with the same behavior, its a "feature" of Windows.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Les Ferch 10,326 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-10-24T17:16:24+00:00

    The original post described the exact scenario where Date Modified doesn't work.

    Here's a similar one:

    Folder A contains Folder B. Folder B contains an Excel file.

    I just modified the Excel file and saved it. The Excel files Date Modified changed correctly.

    Folder B's Date Modified changed correctly.

    Folder A's Date Modified did not change. This seems grossly incorrect.

    Does anyone have an explanation, answer, workaround?

    The folder's Date Modified only changes when an item at the first level is changed. Changes within subfolders don't affect Date Modified of the parent folder(s). It's always worked that way in Windows.

    A possible workaround is to create a folder watching script that updates the upper level folder(s)'s Date Modified when a change occurs in a lower level folder. You would have to be careful about not creating too much overhead with such a script, but it should be possible. There may be utilities out there that already provide that capability. If I find one, I'll update this post.

    6 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Les Ferch 10,326 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-10-24T18:36:53+00:00

    The usual short answer is that such features have a performance impact. Which, is a bit of a laugh these days as users are encountering all kinds of slowdowns in Explorer from who knows what (certainly some of it is OneDrive related).

    IMO, features, like the ones you described, that are reasonable, available in other file managers, and likely desired by a significant number of users, should be implemented and just off by default (with a check box in Options to turn them on or off).

    We can only dream. At the moment, Microsoft is kind of going in the opposite direction. They have added tabs, sure, but they have also removed several features from Explorer.

    Filing a complaint is simple. Just go to Feedback Hub. Will it make a difference? I doubt it. Bugs (as in it worked before the last update, but now is broken) are often (but not always) responded to quickly. Suggestions on the other hand...

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2023-10-24T18:04:34+00:00

    Thanks. I mean I think we all realize that "that's how Windows has always worked"...the real question is WHY? Something in that folder has been modified! Even if it's a level or more down, the modified item is still "in" the parent folder. The Date Modified should change.

    End rant.

    A related vexing feature is that a parent folder's size doesn't reflect the total size of everything it contains. WHY NOT?

    A tool I've used in the past for that is FolderSize. So you have to use a third party tool to more easily manage your disk usage. Gah.

    End second rant.

    Thanks for your quick response. If someone could walk me through filing these complaints formally, that'd be nice.

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2023-10-24T16:29:25+00:00

    The creation and modification dates of a parent folder typically do not change when the contents of a child folder are modified because the file system attributes associated with a folder usually represent the properties of the folder itself rather than the properties of the files or subfolders within it. The file system treats the parent folder and its contents as distinct entities, and changes within the child folder do not directly impact the metadata of the parent folder.

    When files or subfolders within the parent folder are modified, the file system updates their respective attributes, such as their individual modification dates. However, these changes do not inherently affect the parent folder's metadata.

    Just the way it works....

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2023-10-24T16:08:42+00:00

    The original post described the exact scenario where Date Modified doesn't work.

    Here's a similar one:

    Folder A contains Folder B. Folder B contains an Excel file.

    I just modified the Excel file and saved it. The Excel files Date Modified changed correctly.

    Folder B's Date Modified changed correctly.

    Folder A's Date Modified did not change. This seems grossly incorrect.

    Does anyone have an explanation, answer, workaround?

    5 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments