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A Folder’s Modified Date Tells a Very Different Story Than a Document’s
The Problem
In my work with clients, sometimes questions come up regarding which of their files and folders are newer than others. While most people understand what the Modified date on a file means, many people don’t understand what it actually means for a folder.
What changes to a document would affect its Modified date?
Here are the most common things that you might do to (or with) a document, along with the corresponding effect on its Modified date. The numbers refer to notes that are explained after the list. Note that some of these actions also affect the document’s Created date, but that’s beyond the scope of this discussion.
- (1) Create a new document from scratch, enter some content, and then Save it.
- (1) Open an existing document, make some changes, and then use Save to preserve those changes back into the same file.
- (2) Open an existing document, and then use Save As to create a new, separate copy of that file in the same (or sometimes a different) format.
- (2) Use Rename to change a document’s name.
- (2) Move a document to a different folder on the same hard drive.
- (2) Copy a document to a different folder on the same hard drive.
- (2) Copy a document to a folder on a different hard drive.
- (2) Delete a document; note that most of the time “Delete” actually moves the file to a special folder called the Recycle Bin on Windows and the Trash on Macintosh.
- (3) Attach a copy of a document to an email and send it.
- (3) Upload a copy of a document to a website.
(1) These actions do affect the file's Modified date.
(2) These actions don't affect the original file’s Modified date.
(3) These actions don't affect the original file on your computer, but the copy that the other person receives with probably have its Modified date set to the date that they downloaded it.
Folders and subfolders: Important notes and terminology
- All of the folders on each of your disks form a kind of outline.
- Every file and folder on your computer is located inside some folder within that outline, and that folder is the item’s “parent” or “enclosing” folder.
- If folder A contains folder B, we call B a subfolder of A.
- If folder B in turn contains folder C, we call C a sub-subfolder of A.
- You can see the contents of the top-level folder of your computer’s internal hard drive if you double-click the “C:\” icon on Windows or the “Macintosh HD” icon on Macintosh.
- Every file and folder on your computer has a path that describes its exact location. For example, the path to a document called “abc.doc” in the Desktop folder of a computer user named Mary would be “C:\Users\Mary\Desktop\abc.doc” on Windows or “Macintosh HD/Users/Mary/Desktop/abc.doc” on Macintosh.
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Folders and subfolders are sometimes called directories and subdirectories.
What changes to an existing folder would affect its Modified date?
Here are the most common things that you might do to (or with) an existing folder called “X.” The numbers refer to notes that are explained after the list.
- (1) Create a new document inside folder X.
- (1) Create a new subfolder inside folder X.
- (1) Rename an existing document inside folder X.
- (1) Rename an existing subfolder inside folder X.
- (1) Move or copy a document or folder into folder X.
- (1) Move a document or subfolder out of folder X.
- (1) Delete a document or subfolder from folder X; note that most of the time “Delete” actually moves the item to a special folder called the Recycle Bin on Windows and the Trash on Macintosh.
- (2) Modify the contents of an existing document inside folder X.
- (2) Copy a document or subfolder from folder X to another folder or hard drive.
- (2) Attach a copy of a document in Folder X to an email and send it.
- (2) Upload a copy of a document in Folder X to a website.
- (2) Perform any of these actions in a subfolder of folder X.
- (2) Perform any of these actions in a sub-subfolder of folder X.
(1) These actions do affect the Modified date of folder X.
(2) These actions do not affect the Modified date of folder X.
Conclusion
Files are pretty simple. The Modified date will tell you when their contents were last changed.
Folders are more complex. People often think that the Modified date is affected by any type of change to anything inside that folder, as well as any change to any subfolder, no matter how deep in the hierarchy. In reality, only changes that affect the list of items directly inside a folder will affect its Modified date; any changes to the contents of files or subfolders have no effect.
Bottom line: A folder’s Modified date is does not tell you how recently all of the files inside it have changed. It only tells you whether the list of items directly inside that folder has changed, not how recently any of the actual document data inside it (or any subfolder) has changed.
Where to go from here
- google: what affects file modified date
- google: what affects folder modified date
- google: file created date newer than modified
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