Set the created and modified dates of any file in seconds — exact times, offsets, or a whole batch in sequence. Now in German, French, Spanish and Japanese.
Every file on your Mac carries two dates: when it was created and when it was
last modified. Scanners, converters, restores from backup, downloads and
AirDrop all overwrite them — so a shoebox of holiday photos from 1998 ends up
claiming it was made this morning, and every app that sorts by date gets it
wrong.
File Date Modifier puts those dates back. Drag in a file, a folder, or a few
thousand of them, choose what the dates should be, and apply.
THREE WAYS TO SET A DATE
• Set Date/Time — write an exact created and modified date, down to the second.
Update the date but keep the time, or the other way round. Copy the created
date onto modified, or reuse one for both.
• Adjust By — shift every file relative to its own dates, by days, hours,
minutes or seconds. Positive adds, negative subtracts, and created and
modified can move by different amounts. Perfect for a camera that was an hour
out all week.
• Sequence — stamp a run of files a fixed interval apart: one second, one
minute, an hour, whatever you set. Start from a date you pick or from the
first file's own timestamp, and the list's order becomes the date order — the
fix for photo libraries and media players that sort by date.
BUILT FOR WHOLE FOLDERS
• Drop folders as well as files, and choose how many levels deep to scan.
• Include everything, or leave out the files, or leave out the folders.
• Sort the list by name, date created or date modified. Names sort in natural
order, so IMG_2 comes before IMG_10, exactly as Finder does it.
• Apply changes on drop updates dates the moment files land — no clicking.
• Undo restores every file to the dates it had before the last apply.
• Large batches run in the background: the window stays live, progress keeps
counting, and Cancel answers straight away.
• A log window records anything that didn't apply, and can be copied out or
exported as JSON.
WHO IT'S FOR
• Anyone digitising old photos, slides or negatives, where every scan comes out
dated today.
• Photographers and videographers reconciling files from a camera whose clock
was wrong.
• People restoring from backups, migrating drives or unzipping archives that
flattened every timestamp.
• Anyone who needs a folder to appear in a particular order in an app that only
sorts by date.
HOW IT WORKS
File Date Modifier is a native macOS app. It is sandboxed, it has no network
access, and it only ever touches the files you drag into the window. It changes
dates and nothing else — file contents are never modified.
One purchase, and it's yours. No subscription, no in-app purchases, no account
to make, no ads.
Requires macOS 13 or later.
This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Very efficient, once you learn it
iconmaster
It does exactly what it says on the tin. As another reviewer mentioned, the app features no "confirm" button. You set up your changes first – you can choose to modify modified and/or creation (or sync them with the same change), date and/or time, and directory depth (you probably want this higher than the default value of 1). Then drag in any and all files whose dates you want to change.The downside of this approach is it's a little unusual. The upside is you can make changes very quickly, using the keyboard to quickly change values before dragging in the next batch of files, and never having to stop to hit a button. Having used it on close to 300 files and directories now, I'm not sure it's a bad method.
Developer Response
Thanks for the review.
Unexpectedly helpful, in more ways than one
SpaceyJayCee
I expected File Date Modifier to be something I'd use on occasion. I wound using it every day, often a number of times every day. I use it to change dates so groups of files appear together, in order, when I open a folder and sort it by date. Like most people, I get distracted, I multitask, files get saved (webloc browser files, for example) to my desktop in chaotic fashion. I keep an alias of my Desktop folder on my desktop, so I can open it quickly and see all the files I’ve piled up on my desktop, but in a nice clean list. I can then find related files that are out of chronological order, set File Date Modifier to the desired date and time to fix that, and, one by one (or however many), drag them onto File Date Modifier, and, bingo, they're all reset to the desired time to appear when listed in the desired chronological order. Also surprisingly helpful has been its developer … at least compared to a few others I’ve had occasion to contact. Shaun not only responded very quickly to a suggestion I sent him, but he actually implemented it. I’ve had others tell me my suggestion was a great idea, that they would add it to their next release, but they never do. Shaun did. I’m still impressed.
Love it!!
webpuddin
Sometimes I do series of images. Sometimes it's helpful to sort by "Date created" and/or "Date Modified" as I'm working on them. And sometimes I find, later, I made a mistake in one of them or want to improve it. There goes the sorting!! But with this, I can change the date info back to it's pre-corrected (pre-modified) state and I'm good to go. Sometimes I need to insert one in between others. Again - I can modify the date/time and get it in there. I know I could re-name (I do sometimes), and do other things, but the Apple system has Date Modified set up as a defaul sorting choice and is so easy to use. I find this app works well with that as my most convenient option.
Excellent tool, purpose built perfect
numbChuck
Perhaps not perfect, all good tools have room to grow but this app does exactly what you need.When you work with a high number of media files in a single directory, you need a method to keep them in an orderly fashion. Alphanumeric works on some occasions but in many conditions you need the files to group by date but the problem is that they are not created in that order. File Date Modifier solves this problem.At first it may seem that setting the date and time, then applying that edit to the file is backwards but if you leave it open and drag your files to the window, this makes production sense, it’s very fast.
• A new app icon, redrawn for the latest macOS look.
• File Date Modifier now speaks German, French, Spanish and Japanese, following the language set in System Settings.
• Behind-the-scenes updates for the latest macOS.
File Date Modifier now requires macOS 13.5 or later.
Version 2.2.0
The developer, Shaun Hirst, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
