Set Modified date based on Creation date of files in subfolders in batch mode

Help & Support
1

Hi everyone! I've searched the forum but can't find a solution for this

Problem: I had to process several files in order to remove Metadata fields, when I did this it changed the Creation date to the exact date I made that operation.

The problem is that later I need to use the Creation date to copy some files based on age. Now all the files are as new as the METADATA has changed resulting in copying every single file instead of the "older than x days" method.

Solution: I need to copy the Modified date field of each file back into the Creation date field, I can do this in the metadata panel in a one by one basis, I need to do that in batch since there are about 14,000 files to fix.

Tried: I've tried to make a button but it opens me the Attributes panel, I don't know how to tell "use the files you'll find in selected folders files, extract the modified date and replace the creation date with that date" :slight_smile:

"SetAttr META createdate:modifydate" worked but how do I do that just selecting a folder and making it recursive?

Thanks!

2

The Attributes dialog (in the menu attached to the Properties bottom near the right of the default toolbars) lets you copy one timestamp to another, and can apply that to multiple files:

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3

OP, i know it's not a DOpus solution but i got similar problem 1 year ago and found that https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/folder_time_update.html is exactly what i need. It's also free, with a size of 100kb and portable by default.

4

Exactly but I can't apply the same datestamp for several files, I have to apply every Modified date into Creation date which is different for every file.

This panel let me put a single time for every file. I need it based on each file date stamp.

I finally could do that showing a flat view and applying a button to those selected files.

However I've discovered that some file has modified dates dated before than the creation itself so I'm now struggiling with an if-then-else structure to decide which date must be copied based on dates found, if modified date is older thant created then keep the created date, otherwise change the created date with the modified one.

5

Thanks Morbid, I've used Nirsoft tools many time and I wasnt aware of that.

I want to do it in DOpus since this will be happening many times in the future and I know DO can handle this :slight_smile:

6

The dialog has an option to copy the modified date to the created date. It's shown in my screenshot.