finder does not keep the DATE CREATED on dragged in files
In Catalina Finder, I drag in a file created some time ago, and yet the DATE CREATED always shows the current date! How can I preserve the original created date?
iMac 27″, macOS 10.15
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Whether you drag and drop attachments from Mail, or right-click on the attachment and choose Save Attachment… from the secondary menu, you are writing a new file to disk and that results in the current date/time applied to the creation and modification dates of it. That is the way the operating system works.
However, if that file had been zipped (compressed) before it was added as an attachment, you can drag/drop or Save Attachment that .zip file to the local filesystem, and although the zip container receives the current date/time stamp — when you unzip it, the internal file retains its original date/time creation and modification dates before it was zipped and emailed to you.
What I have described is what I observe on Big Sur 11.3, as I purposely do not have a Catalina installation, though it should behave identically.