FILE EXPLORER CHANGE THE DATES CREATED AND MODIFIED

Question

ABOUT 2 YEARS AGO MICROSOFT CHANGED THE DATES AND HOW THEY WERE SET. THE DATE CREATED AND THE DATES MODIFIED WERE CHANGED AND MAKES IT DIFFICULT TO FIND THE ACTUAL DATE OF A FILE. I HAVE DECIDED TO LIVE WITH IT FOR THE LAST YEAR OR SO, BUT NOW I WANT IT GET IT FIXED. I HAVE THOUSANDS OF PHOTOS ON MY COMPUTER. SOMETIMES I WANT TO ORGANIZE THEM BY THE ACTUAL DATE CREATED. IF I MOVE IT OR OPEN IT CHANGES TO DATE MODIFIED, WHICH IS OKAY BUT I STILL WANT TO BE ABLE TO SORT BY THE DATE CREATED, OR DOWNLOADED.

Answer 1

Hi STANLEY WOOD,

I can understand why this would be frustrating, especially when you're managing thousands of photos and relying on date information to keep them organized.

In Windows, Date Created and Date Modified are separate file attributes, but their values can change depending on how a file is copied, downloaded, restored, or moved between locations. In many cases, this behavior affects the Date Created field even though the original content of the file has not changed.

For photo collections, you may find it more reliable to use the Date Taken column, which is typically stored in the photo's metadata and is often preserved regardless of where the file is moved. In File Explorer, switch to Details view, right-click a column header, select More, and add columns such as Date Taken, Date Created, and Date Modified so you can sort using the date that best matches your needs.

If the Date Created value is changing for files that remain on the same drive and are not being copied or restored, please let us know whether the files are stored locally, synchronized through OneDrive, or transferred between different drives. That information may help identify what is affecting the timestamps.

I hope this helps clarify the different date fields and gives you a practical way to organize your photos more effectively. Let us know if you can share a few more details about how the files are stored and managed.

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Answer 2

"Date created" and "Date modified" refer to a file, not to its contents.

Each time you copy or move a file, or change its properties, as examples, you are creating or modifying a file.