How to change the created date for a file?

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Level 1

1 points

How to change the created date for a file?

I searched and found someone had asked this question last month, and an answer given was to try the site:
http://danilo.ariadoss.com/howto-change-date-modified-date-created-mac/
which I had previously found. However, when I follow the instructions I get a message stating "-bash: -t: command not found"

I have gone through this numerous times, always with the same result. Is it possible that the direction given are not valid for Snow Leopard?

Thanks for any help.

24" iMac 3.06GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.2), 23" Cinema Display

Posted on Nov 23, 2009 8:47 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

V.K.

Level 9

56,174 points

Nov 23, 2009 8:51 PM in response to f8lee

the directions are valid. you are doing something wrong.
start terminal.app. you will see a terminal window. paste the command as given in that link into that window ( DO NOT try to use any menus). it should look like something like this


touch -t 200801120000 /path/to/file

press enter in the terminal window.

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Answer 2

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,179 points

Nov 23, 2009 8:53 PM in response to f8lee

What's the precise command string you're using?

The error you're receiving seems to indicate you're missing something.

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Answer 3

f8lee Author

Level 1

1 points

Nov 23, 2009 10:58 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

First, thanks to both of you for helping - I hadn't realized that the 'touch' was part of the command itself. However, when I type in:

touch -t 0904131115/Users/RobertFately/Desktop/suttonallen/suttonallen.jpg

to test the procedure (there is a jpeg file I made today named suttonallen inside a directory of the same name) I get this error message:

touch: out of range or illegal time specification: [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]

This happens if I use the full year (2009) or just the last two digits (09) as seen above. My thinking is that I am attempting to redate the "create date" to April 13th of this year with an arbitrary time of 11:15AM.

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Answer 4

dbsneddon

Level 4

1,530 points

Nov 23, 2009 11:01 PM in response to f8lee

There should be a space between the "5" and "/Users..."

Dave

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Answer 5

oslodude

Level 1

5 points

Dec 13, 2009 6:44 PM in response to f8lee

I also get the error message:

touch: out of range or illegal time specification: [CC]YYMMDDhhmm http://.SS

When I try to change a jpg file to the date it was taken (in 1872):

touch -mt 187212240000 /Users/myname/Desktop/file.jpg

If TOUCH is unable to edit the Date Created/modified to something older than (whatever the restriction), is there another way to get around the limitation? How about back-dating a file to July 4, 1776?

Thanks!

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