File Date Modifier 4+

Very efficient, once you learn it

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

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!!

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.