Relocated files have creation date of January 24, 1984 on Mac

[RobertTalbert]

Hi, I recently created a new vault and moved a bunch of files over from a vault I created last year to the new one. I did this on a Mac by copying the files from the original vault folder then pasting them into the new vault, all using the Finder. At the end of it, I was setting up a Dataview query to list files with their creation dates, and a large number of those files seem to show the creation date being January 24, 1984.

This is apparently the date that the first Apple Macintosh computer went on sale and it seems that Macs use this date for files whose actual creation dates are lost or corrupted. These files were merely copied from one folder on a Mac and pasted into another folder on the same Mac. Does anyone know why the date might have been changed, and how it can be changed back? (The original files are still in the previous vault.)

EDIT: And the original files in the old vault have the correct creation dates.

[holroy]

Copying a file is usually using the date of the copying as the creation date. Moving a file, can keep the creation date in some cases, but could have dependencies related to being on the same drive to be able to keep the dates.

Using a sync tool, will usually be able to preserve the dates, so that is a good option.

And finally, using a proper archiver should also be able to preserve the creation dates.

In other words, either archive the files you want to relocate, before unarchiving in the new spot. Or possibly find a sync tool, and sync them to the new location.

[rigmarole]

@holroy

In other words, either archive the files you want to relocate

Just replying to paraphrase, in Finder on Mac this would be “compress”, as in make a .zip file, or similar.