Wrong Date Created Property

[I-d-as]

What I’m trying to do

I am intentionally creating notes in the order I want them sorted, so that I can use the Sort By Date Created functionality in the Explorer and not have to add prefixes to the note names just to get the correct sorting. Unfortunately, I am now realizing that Obsidian is regularly having the wrong date create value, and my notes are not sorting properly. The weird part is that as I create them, they sort properly, but later, they seem to somehow become incorrectly configured. No plugins or themes.

It appears that Obsidian is incorrectly marking the date created values as I create these notes, often times just seemingly cloning the date from the file that is already in that folder. Windows is showing the same values as Obsidian for Date Created for multiple notes, but I am definitely creating the files one after another.

Thanks so much. Unfortunately, all of the work I have put into making my files sort properly will not be able to be fixed, but I’d like to figure out how to get Obsidian to correctly have the correct Date Created value going forward. I use Ctrl + N to create new notes.
Here is a screenshot example that demonstrates it. The Structures Definition Page, I thought I had created yesterday the 4th, but that is besides the fact. It shows that it was created 2nd at 10:47pm. I know 100% that I created the rest of the files in this folder one after another in Obsidian, just this morning on the 5th. You can see their Date Modified values are accurate, but the Date Created values are all shown to be on the 2nd.

In fact, if I look at the Properties, they are shown to have all been created at the same second. I will do further searching. I imagine I am not the first one to notice this, unless it is possibly a new bug.

Hopefully I am doing something wrong here. I probably am. Here is a gif showing my process. It is dawning on me now that this is likely happening because I am using AHK macro to automate my process. The gif has a few seconds edited out of the middle part so that I could meet the 4 MB cap.

Edit: I have found a workaround to create folders full of naturally created sequential blank files and taking that part out of my Macro. But this doesn’t work either. See below to @rigmarole response for direction to actual issue that has already been identified. Thanks again!

[rigmarole]

This is a known issue, and has a feature request here Preserve Creation Dates when Using Obsidian Sync

Are you using Obsidian Sync, or is this an issue in a single local vault as well?

[I-d-as]

Thanks so much! Much appreciated. Glad to hear! Single Vault. I have but don’t use Obsidian Sync as part of my core workflow except perhaps just to just push files to my phone (using a unique sync vault each time). I never Sync to sync back any changes or anything. It is basically being used as a cloud sharing, so that I can look at my files on my phone then delete that vault when I sync future changes from computer (into a new Sync vault). I disable Sync after each use.

Even my workaround did not work. I created a folder of files duplicated one after another in Windows explorer and after pasting the content and renaming them in Obsidian all of their Created Dates now match again. Oh well. I am just happy this is being worked on already. I feel better already. I am with Obsidian for the long haul, so I am happy to wait for a fix for something like this. Edit: I just noticed that the issue is being seen as a Sync issue and that the link is for a feature request. I have Sync disabled and don’t plan on re-enabling it until issue is fixed, but am still having this issue occur without having enabled and disabled Sync.

Another Edit: I just uninstalled Obsidian, then reinstalled it and opened the help vault. I created a file then waited a full minute and created another file, then checked their properties and they both had identical Date Created Values. Unfortunately this issue doesn’t appear to be limited to users of Sync.

[I-d-as]

@rigmarole I really appreciate your help. I have realized it in the past that it is never a good idea to go creating bug reports willy nilly, as they are taken very seriously by the developers and moderators, which I greatly appreciate. That being said, I just wanted to add this gif with a fresh uninstall and reinstall of Obsidian never having enabled Sync, and using the Help Vault. Let me know if you think I should start a new post as a bug and add this. Thanks again!

Edit: Out of curiosity, I did some more testing, because I cannot believe this hasn’t come to my attention before during normal use. So, if I edit the notes, then jump between them editing various other notes, then go and create a new note and edit it, then edit other notes and then return and create another note, it will sometimes register different Creation Times, but even with all that, it only registers them sometimes. This testing was also done in the Help Vault.

[rigmarole]

I don’t follow bugs very closely, but I know the FR I linked to is tagged as “valuable” which I believe means it has some higher priority, and is on the developer’s radar. I agree this is pretty important data to maintain.

For now, some people seem to be using YAML frontmatter to manually track creation dates. Of course, that’s less than ideal!

You may want to reply in that feature request and link back to your thread here, just letting people know that this is not just an Obsidian Sync issue. (I haven’t read the whole thread. Maybe they are already aware of this!)

[I-d-as]

Thanks! Sounds like a good plan. I appreciate the quick response. It is just that YAML won’t help for Explorer Pane sorting, and I am trying to build a clone of Documentation so that I can edit the pages with examples of my scripts. Therefore the modified dates will be changing. You understand. I believe I remember you mentioning you are a technical artist before. It’s nice to know there are others on here that love Obsidian.

[rigmarole]

Of course. It’s a hack workaround for sure.