incorrect "date modified" information folder (long-lasting problem with MacOS)

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Level 1

9 points

incorrect "date modified" information folder (long-lasting problem with MacOS)

This issue has been raised many times and seems to never get resolved. It is very annoying and frustrating to see that Apple does not care to do anything regarding this issue.

The "Date Modified" information of a folder does not reflect the modification date of a file or a sub-folder inside. The "Date Modified" information is always more recent than the latest modification date of any of the files and/or folders.

In order to simply find a folder that has recently been modified, I intend to sort my folders according to "Date Modified". However, when I go into the folder, I see that none of the files in that folder is updated as recently as the folder itself. Even, Windows does not do it, and it has never done that if I am not mistaken. This is very embarrassing for Apple and MacOS.

Please, tell me that there is a solution, or at least a trick, to overcome this issue!

GS

MacBook, macOS 11.4

Posted on Aug 15, 2021 1:08 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 1, 2021 8:10 AM in response to guvencs

I am having a similar issue, the folder dates are not updating, when a new file is added. See the attached Visual.

The Finals folder, is the latest, shouldn't this folder reflect the latest date, as well as the job folder too?

I am running Catalina 10.15.7, this issue has been present for the past year or so. It's not Catalina. Disk Utility doesn't solve it.

Selecting Date Modified in the view panel, is an assumption, if dates of folders and files, are not accurate.

If this issue has been addressed, accept my apology and please send me a link, to the fix.

Thanks in advance!

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Answer 2

guvencs Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 20, 2021 11:42 PM in response to etresoft

This is exactly what might be happening. But, does this make sense really? Is it OK to see that "modification date" of a folder is determined by that of a hidden file which I have nothing do and cannot get rid of even if I want to? To me, this does not make sense.

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Answer 3

guvencs Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 21, 2021 7:55 AM in response to Barney-15E

Let me simplify it for you... Let us assume that I have a folder A with two subfolders B and C. I am already inside folder A and want to check some of the documents inside B and/or C. If I want to start with the ones that I have most recently modified, I would like to figure out the subfolder that has a more recent updated document WITHOUT going into/inside any of the subfolders. However, when I am looking at the contents of the folder A, I see both B and C exactly with the same modification date (let us say August 1, 2021). However, only when I go inside subfolder B, I see my document(s) updated July 1, 2021 and only when I go inside subfolder C, I see my document(s) updated June 1, 2021.

The problem is very clearly specified in your words: that modification date has absolutely nothing to do with the contents of the folder (in my case subfolders B and C). Yet, it would make a lot of sense if the modification dates of the subfolders B and C would show the modification date of the most recently modified documents they contain.

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Answer 4

Aug 15, 2021 3:36 AM in response to guvencs

I think you are misunderstanding what "Date Modified" means.

Say you have an empty folder called "A" on your desktop, and the "Date Modified" of this folder is, say, yesterday evening.

Somewhere on your drive you have:, "file1" with Date somewhere last year; and "folder2" with Date, say, January 1 of this year.

Drag both file1 and folder2 into your folder "A".

What should become of "A"'s modified date?

Option 1: now

Option 2: January 1

Option 3: last year

Option 4: yesterday

The correct answer is "now", because that is when the folder was last modified.

So effectively this is, by design, a more recent date than any of the files and folders inside. And that is as it should be.

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Answer 5

etresoft

Level 8

46,354 points

Aug 15, 2021 5:41 AM in response to guvencs

Apple stores a hidden file in each folder that you access using the Finder. Even if you just open the folder and make no change to the data, it will create this file and update the date on the folder.

You can use Spotlight to find files based on the modification date.

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Answer 6

guvencs Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 20, 2021 11:39 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

The issue I have explained has nothing to do with this. I understand why Apple recommends this as if this is a solution because they just cannot figure out anything else.

Even when I do not add/move anything inside a folder or do not change the content of anything in the folder for months, I can find the "date modified" attribute of the folder as recent as a couple of weeks ago. This is the issue, not the one described in this reply.

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Answer 7

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,668 points

Aug 21, 2021 6:01 AM in response to guvencs

I guess I don't understand why you want to view the date modified of a folder. That modification date has absolutely nothing to do with the contents of the folder, so I don't see what value it has whether correct or incorrect.

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Answer 8

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,668 points

Aug 21, 2021 9:22 AM in response to guvencs

I just search for the items and order by date modified. You could use Recents, but that uses metadata that must be set. Better to creat your own search folder to show most recent items.

No matter how much you want it to work differently, it won’t.

You could use List or Column view and sort by date modified. Then you could easily see what’s in each of the other folders.

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Answer 9

guvencs Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 1, 2021 8:15 AM in response to HoldTabDownTurn

My complaint is the other way around, indeed. In my case, the Date Modified for FINALS would be Aug 10, 2021 while the Date Modified for the three files in it would have Jul 11, 2016. Yours is even weirder; but I guess the root cause is the same issue.

And as always, Apple people are silent as the night when it comes to an issue not solved and not to be cared about at all :) or :(

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Answer 10

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,668 points

Sep 1, 2021 2:20 PM in response to guvencs

Apple doesn’t speak publicly about much of anything.

You want the OS to work in a way it is not designed to work. As it hasn’t worked that way in over 30 years, I wouldn’t sit around hoping it changes.

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Answer 11

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,668 points

Sep 1, 2021 3:21 PM in response to guvencs

None of us here can fix your problem. If you want that fixed you need to ask Apple. There is nothing we can do except to provide advice on how to work around the issue you’re having because we cannot fix it.

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