How to change file creation date. How to change file creation date in Total Commander and FileDate Changer Change file creation date mac os

Changing the creation date of a file (be it JPG, PDF, MP3 or any Word document) is not a trivial task. The very need for such an operation rarely arises, and therefore for most users the question of how to solve this problem is not obvious.

I will say right away: Windows tools do not allow you to perform operations on the dates of creation, modification or last discovery files. Third-party free programs will come to the rescue.

Setting Modified Date in Total Commander

For example, let's take the usual word document. As you can see in the file's properties, it has three completely different dates based on when it was:

1. Created
2. Changed
3. Opened (last time the document was viewed)

We start the program Total Commander, click on the file once with the left mouse button (you do not need to open it, just make it active).

In the top menu, select the option "Files" - "Change Attributes". A window for editing properties will open, where in the corresponding option you can specify any date and time, whether it is the deep past or the distant future.

Check the result in properties:

Total Commander allows you to change only the second parameter, namely the date/time last change document.

Change the creation date in the FileDate Changer

Specify in free form any of the three parameters will be helped by a tiny program (weighing only 49KB) called FileDate Changer. It does not require installation and is launched simply by double-clicking on the exe file.

1. Click on the "Add Files" button and select the desired files.
2. Check the boxes for the attributes you want to change (date of creation, modification or last access), specify any date and time for each parameter.
3. Click the "Change Files Date" button.

The program works fine under Windows 7, even the 64-bit version. I am sure that in Windows 10 there will be no problems with it either. You can download it from

For various reasons, sometimes it becomes necessary to change the date and time the file was created. Or change the date and time the file was modified. There are several ways on Mac OS X to change the date and time a file was created, and the date and time a file was modified.

touch utility

Option to change the modification date through the console utility touch.

Key -t allows you to change the access and modification time to the specified time.

Date and time are specified in the following format (YYYYMMDDhhmm.ss):

YYYY - year
MM - month (01-12)
DD - day of the month (01-31)
hh - hours (00-23)
mm - minutes (00-59)
ss - seconds (00-59)

An example of setting the date and time to 02/21/2018 03:49:27

Let's set the year 2018, month 02, day 21, hour 03, minutes 49, and 27 seconds. Seconds can be omitted, then we do not write them (and the period must also be removed).

How it looks like in a team: 201802210349.27

Set the date of modification and last opening of a file

Note:
If the date we set is greater than the date the file was created, then only the modification timestamp will be changed, that is, the date the file was modified and the timestamp of the last access to the file. And if we set the modification time less than the current file creation date, then not only the file modification date will change, but also the file creation date.

Set current modification date and last opened file

Set file creation date in the past

Note:
You may not immediately see the date changes on the "last accessed file" item, because. it is cached by the system. But if you make a copy (duplicate) of the file, you will see that the date the file was last opened has changed.

Unfortunately, that's all with the touch utility. This utility does not allow you to change the creation date of a file to a plus (future) from the current date of the file. Also, the rest of the utility switches do not magically work, despite their attractive description in the BSD man.

But there is another option for changing some dates.

SetFile Utility

The setfile utility allows you to set and change file attributes in file system HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). Here it is what we need so that we can set / replace the date the file was created. The utility requires the installation of developer tools, that is, the Xcode package.

Set any file creation date

Set file modification date

Note:
If the file modification date we set is older (less than) the current file creation date, then the file creation date and the date the file was last opened will also change. But nevertheless, if it is necessary (I don't know why), after this command, you can set/restore the arbitrarily desired creation date of the file by running the command again with the -d flag.

To help:

How to view information about dates about a file through the console (terminal)?

To view all information about the file or specifically for the specified types of dates, you can use the console utility stat

# View all information about the file stat /home/users/admin/foto.jpg # View the time the file was last accessed (opened) stat -f %Sa /home/users/admin/foto.jpg # View the time the file was last modified stat - f %Sm /home/users/admin/foto.jpg # View the time the file was added to the system stat -f %Sс /home/users/admin/foto.jpg # View the date the file was created stat -f %SB /home/users/ admin/photo.jpg

As a result, with the help of two such different utilities, we can solve not one, but another task.

Now, as we can see, it is impossible to actually prove the creation date of a file, just as it is impossible to determine whether these dates have been changed. So it is impossible to trust the dates by the properties of the file, because these labels can be easily changed.

You may need to change the creation date of a file in different cases, for example, just for fun or for business matters at work. This can be done in several ways: without third-party software, with the help of a little trick on Windows, with various programs. If you need to get the result for sure, then immediately resort to the second method, since the first does not always work. So you can easily pass off a new document as an old one, or vice versa, old file hand over as just created. Try both methods in practice and evaluate the result.

How to change the creation date of a file in Windows

This option is great for text documents, photos, and folders. The essence of the method is as follows: you change the date and time on your computer to the one under which you want to make the file, then change it in the editor, just saving again. At the output, you get a file with the new date that was set on the computer.

• Right click on a file to check its current date. Click on "Properties" at the very bottom of the list that appears.

• In the “General” tab, you will see the specified time data.

• Now look for a small time icon on your computer. Most often it is located on the lower right.

• Click on it to open the calendar. Here, click on the link “Change date and time settings”.

• Again, click on the “Change date and time” button in the window that opens.

• Select the desired date using the arrows and the mouse. Time is set in the right part of the window with arrows or numbers on the keyboard. After changes, click “OK”.

• Do not forget to click "OK" in the previous window.

• Note that the date and time will change in your computer's tray. Select your file again and click on it right click mice.

• Select "Change".

• The program that is selected for this file by default will open. If you change the photo, then Paint will open, if doc - then Word.
• For example text document, select the "File" tab in the upper left corner of the program and click "Save As". Perform a normal save of your file under a different name. You can simply put a number at the end of the former name.

• Now check the creation date of your file in the way already learned. As you can see, the date is now in the future. You can change any type of files like this. In addition, you can try not to change them, but simply copy them. The copied file should also have a new date set at your discretion.
• Do not forget to change the computer settings to the previous values, otherwise some programs will not work correctly.

How to change the creation date of a file through programs

• There are many programs on the Internet for changing file data. The simplest and most common one will be taken as an example: File Date Changer. You can download it from the link from the official website of the developer http://www.nirsoft.net. Go through it and save the software.
• As soon as you open the downloaded archive, double-click on the file with the .exe extension, this utility does not require installation, so the program window will immediately open in front of you.
• Click "Add Files" to add a file to edit.

• Its name and path will be displayed in a window inside the program. Set the date in the line "Created Date" and "Modified Date". The first parameter sets the date of creation, the second - the date of modification. This is necessary if you want to show that you not only created the file at another time, but also worked with it after that.
• Click "Change Files Date".

• If you see such a message on the screen, then the procedure was successful. You will find your files with the new date in the same place.

How often do you need to change the creation date of a file? I don't think so. However, it will come in handy in work environments. Yes, sometimes at home. Moreover, it may be necessary to put the date both past and future.
Well you know what I mean

So. Let's get straight to the point. The easiest way to change the date is to simply change the date in the operating system.
Go to the date and time settings. The easiest way is to left click on the date with time in the bottom right corner. In response, a calendar will come out and there will be a link to change the settings:

This method suitable for changing the date of a new document. Most often, you need to change the date of an existing one. What to do? Alternatively, if this is some file that you can open in installed program(e.g. Word, Excel, text file notepad, presentation, etc.), you can open a file in this program, and then create a new document and copy / paste from an existing file to a new one.
Although it is tritely simple, but for some reason not many people remember about it.

However, let's move on to the most common case - this is when the file is unknown or there is no program that opens it. And also if you need to change the date of modification, and not just creation. In this case, special programs will help us.

I present to your attention: FileDate Changer, Set File Date, eXpress Timestamp Toucher, Attribute Manager, File Date Touch, 2Tware Change File Date, BulkFileChanger, NewFileTime and others...

As you can see, there are a lot of programs. Almost all of them are free, portable (no installation required), and small in size. This allows you to use any even from a flash drive.

Consider the example of the latter - (by clicking on the link, you will be taken to the official website).

Download, launch, agree with license agreement and change the language to Russian to make it more convenient

You can also change the date of creation and modification in .
This is done through the banal "Change attributes"

Description:

Utility setfile allows you to set and change file attributes in the HFS+ (Mac OS Extented) file system. This utility similar to the setfile command in MPW. It is possible to change the attributes of both one and several files at the same time.

Utility GetFileInfoDisplays information about file attributes. If it is called without parameters, only with a file name, then the maximum full information. When using parameters, information about a particular file attribute is displayed. The parameters are the same as those of the SetFile command.

The utilities require xCode to be installed.

Options:

Returned exit statuses:
0 - attribute set
1 - syntax error
2 - any other error

Examples:

Tell OS X that filename.m4b is an audio book:

SetFile -t "m4b " filename.m4b

Install new date last modified file

SetFile -m "11/7/2013 16:13" myFile

Make file invisible/hidden:

SetFile -a V myfile.txt

Make the file visible.