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Sometimes I use an external drive to back up a folder from my Mac.
I drag the folder I want to back up to the window of the external drive in order to overwrite and update any changes I may have made.
After last time I did so, I wasn't sure I did it in the right direction and the created / modified dates of the folders are not accurate for either of them.
Does anyone know how to find out when a folder was copied onto an external drive?
Many thanks!
MacBook
Does anyone know how to find out when a folder was copied onto an external drive?
macOS does not record that information. The only information may be the modification time of the enclosing folder or volume, but any change to them would alter that modification date / time.
Does anyone know how to find out when a folder was copied onto an external drive?
macOS does not record that information. The only information may be the modification time of the enclosing folder or volume, but any change to them would alter that modification date / time.
I don't recommend this method of "backing up". It wold be better to make another copy. Yes it uses more space, but at least you don't accidentally overwrite anything.
Better yet you should implement a proper backup solution so you don't have to manually copy the files all the time. There are several ways to do this and Apple provides Time Machine as a built-in option. Carbon Copy Cloner is another option as a paid third party app. Of course there are other options as well, but these two are very popular.
Have you checked the contents of the folders to see if you can determine which holds the newer files, either by checking the created date or via QuickLook?
Yes, thank you. This is in addition to Time Machine for extra security.
Yes, I've tried that but sometimes is not that easy to tell from the files. Unfortunately, the created dates are not accurate many times.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Overwriting a folder
