How do I recover the "Date Added" date in Finder after migrating from a backup?

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How do I recover the "Date Added" date in Finder after migrating from a backup?

I got a new mac and migrated the data from the old one (from a time machine backup). Several folders have information that I normally sort by "Date Added" in order to find what I am looking for. This normally works very well for me when searching for a document in these archive folders of mine.

The problem is, after migrating, all of the "Date Added" dates are now set to the date of the migration. And so now it is impossible to find things because the names of the files don't really help with searching for the content of the file. The date was the only way to efficiently organize things in a way that I could find a file in the folder properly.

So how do I fix this so that the dates are what they used to be?

By the way, one folder is a compilation of a lot of data collected over years for a potential defense in a lawsuit - and the "Date Added" would help me know exactly when certain events occurred. Now I'm screwed.

I will have access to the old computer when it gets out of the shop, but I don't know if the hard drive contents will be there.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Dec 19, 2020 10:59 PM

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Answer 1

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Barney-15E

Level 10

117,886 points

Dec 20, 2020 6:39 AM in response to Alias7

I looked at a Time Machine backup and the Data Added metadata is stored with the files, but I'm not sure how to restore the file and keep the metadata using any GUI function.

The ditto command will preserver metadata when copying, so it may be possible to restore the folders directly from the backup using ditto in Terminal, but I've never tried. Maybe search the internet for using the ditto command to restore from Time Machine.

I think you just need

ditto src_directory dst_directory

You can drag directories into Terminal window from the Finder, so if you just type ditto and leave a space, you can drag in the folder from the backup, leave a space, then drag in the new, empty directory where you want to restore the files into.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

117,886 points

Dec 20, 2020 6:48 AM in response to Barney-15E

After posting that, I dug into tmutil (the Time Machine Utility).

For the restore verb, it stated this:

When using the restore verb, tmutil behaves largely like Finder. Custom Time Machine metadata (extended security and other) will be removed from the restored data, and other metadata will be preserved.

So, that seems to imply that your loss of the Data Added should not have happened, but that statement may not be fully qualified.

You may be able to use tmutil to restore which might preserve the metadata. It may be the Finder after the fact of the restore going in and resetting the metadata. If you use the tmutil command (or ditto), Finder won't be watching over the process and adjusting the metadata.

Again, I don't have any experience using tmutil to provide a good example.

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Answer 3

Alias7 Author

Level 1

48 points

Jan 15, 2021 11:45 AM in response to Alias7

Something strange happened. To review, I had originally backed up macbook 1, then migrated it to macbook 2, and lost the Date Added metadata in finder.

But recently, I made a completely fresh backup of macbook 2, and migrated it back to macbook 1 because macbook 1 returned from Apple repair and they wiped the drive.

The Finder in macbook 1 now shows the proper Date Added.

Why would that be?

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Answer 4

Alias7 Author

Level 1

48 points

Dec 27, 2020 6:47 PM in response to Barney-15E

I will try what you say if it becomes necessary at some point to restore the metadata. Thank you.

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Answer 5

Alias7 Author

Level 1

48 points

Jan 16, 2021 10:16 AM in response to Alias7

My mistake - the Date Added is the date I did the migration. The Date Modified appears to be correct though, and goes back to several years ago. So crisis averted.

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How do I recover the "Date Added" date in Finder after migrating from a backup?

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