This a very simple guide on I wrote back in May 2009. Since then these directions have been updated for Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite. how to change a file’s “date modified” and “date created” attributes on Mac OS X YYYY — The year (the first two digits/century can be omitted).MM — The month of the year, from 1 to 12.DD — The day of the month, from 1 to 31.hh — The hour of the day, from 0 to 23.mm — The number indicating minutes, from 0 to 59. Date Format Key: 1. Open up the Terminal application ( ) or if you prefer use . How to change the “date modified” attribute of a file? /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app iTerm 2. Type this into Terminal (without hitting enter/return) replacing with the desired date information: YYYYMMDDhhmm touch -mt YYYYMMDDhhmm 3. Open a Finder window and locate the file you wish to modify and drag and drop it into the Terminal window. Here’s an example of what should be typed into the Terminal at this point: touch -mt 200801120000 /Volumes/Mac\ HD/Pictures/somefile.jpg in the example above represents “January 12, 2008 at 12:00 AM” or my twenty-first birthday. Make sure to change to the date you want and to replace with the proper path to the file you wish to alter the date for. 200801120000 200801120000 /Volumes/Mac\ HD/Pictures/somefile.jpg 4. If all is in order . press the return key How to change the “date created” attribute of a file? Warning: This will change both the “date modified” and “date created” attributes. 1. Open up the Terminal application ( ) or if you prefer use . /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app iTerm 2. Type this into Terminal (without hitting enter/return) replacing with the desired date information: YYYYMMDDhhmm touch -t 201212211111 3. Open a Finder window and locate the file you wish to modify and drag and drop it into the Terminal window. Here’s an example of what should be typed into the Terminal at this point: touch -t 201212211111 /Volumes/Mac\ HD/Pictures/somefile.jpg in the example above represent “December 21, 2012 11:11 AM” or the end of the 5,125 years that comprise the “Great Cycle” in the sacred Tzolk’in calendar of the Maya (and you can relax the world didn’t end then — and I didn’t think it would when I wrote this article!). Make sure to change to the date you want and to replace with the proper path to the file you wish to alter the date for. 201212211111 201212211111 /Volumes/Mac\ HD/Pictures/somefile.jpg 4. If all is in order . press the return key Below is supplementary information on how to batch modify/update/change files using the commands above. 1. Make sure all the files you want to modify are in the top directory of the same folder. Don’t store files in this folder if you don’t want them to be modified. How to batch update the “date modified” attribute of multiple files? 2. Open up the Terminal application ( ) or if you prefer use . /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app iTerm 3. Type this into Terminal (without hitting enter/return) replacing with the desired date information: YYYYMMDDhhmm touch -mt YYYYMMDDhhmm 4. Open a Finder window and locate the folder containing the files you wish to modify and drag and drop it into the Terminal window. Here’s an example of what should be typed into the Terminal at this point: touch -mt 200801120000 /Volumes/Mac\ HD/Pictures/Album 5. Add to the end of the command. If you’re only targeting a specific file type include its extension (e.g. or ). Your command should look something like this: /* /*.jpg /*.png touch -mt 200801120000 /Volumes/Mac\ HD/Pictures/Album**/*** 6. If all is in order . press the return key How to batch update the “date created” attribute of multiple files? Warning: This will change both the “date modified” and “date created” attributes. 1. Make sure all the files you want to modify are in the top directory of the same folder. Don’t store files in this folder if you don’t want them to be modified. 2. Open up the Terminal application ( ) or if you prefer use . /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app iTerm 3. Type this into Terminal (without hitting enter/return) replacing with the desired date information: YYYYMMDDhhmm touch -t 201212211111 4. Open a Finder window and locate the folder containing the files you wish to modify and drag and drop it into the Terminal window. Here’s an example of what should be typed into the Terminal at this point: touch -t 201212211111 /Volumes/Mac\ HD/Pictures/Album in the example above represent “December 21, 2012 11:11 AM”. Make sure to change to the date you want and to replace with the proper path to the folder containing the files you wish to alter the date for. 201212211111 201212211111 /Volumes/Mac\ HD/Pictures/Album 5. Add to the end of the command. If you’re only targeting a specific file type include its extension (e.g. or ). Your command should look something like this: /* /*.jpg /*.png touch -t 201212211111 /Volumes/Mac\ HD/Pictures/Album**/*** 6. If all is in order . press the return key Hope you enjoyed or at least found this tutorial useful. If you have any questions or comments let me know! Originally published at http://danilo.ariadoss.com on May 31, 2009.

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How to Change a File’s Last Modified and Creation Dates on Mac OS X

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Danilo Stern-Sapad

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How to Change a File’s Last Modified and Creation Dates on Mac OS X

Too Long; Didn't Read

Danilo Stern-Sapad

About Author

TOPICS

Languages

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN...

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