Because of how Windows works with other devices like phones (or rather how phones themselves connect to computers), the easiest option would probably be to zip/7z all of the files you want, transfer the compressed file to the computer and then extract it. I haven't tried this myself but from my experience it should preserve the files' metadata
Just a note for other people, quotation marks (" ") is need if the file path have spaces e.g. "C:\Copy Path\Copy Path\Copy Path\CopyPasta\Copy Pathta" - quotation marks needed C:\CopyPatsta\CopyPahsta\CopyPatsa\CopyPaste - don't need quotation marks
Keeping the original timestamps should really be the default. For some reason, OS devs decided basically erasing metadata when copying folders is good practice. It's the same on Linux (at least for KDE's default file manager), you need the terminal to copy files preserving this data.
Man, your a god send! I got a new drive and moved all my movies from the old drive to the new one and titles from 7 years ago were all showing as recently added in my Plex server. Thanks to you and this perfectly laid out video I was able to correct the dates and now my recently added movies are once again displaying correctly. THANK YOU! Seemed to take a little longer than copy/paste, but that's perfectly fine by me.
@@armchair69 I was also in a situation similar to yours, but after watching this video I continued investigating, and it turns out that Robocopy wouldn't work on Android due to Windows limitations (it doesn't recognize the phone as a disk and doesn't assign a letter to it). In the end I was able to do what I needed, and I did it with an app called "Total Commander"... I just forgot to come back here and comment it 😭
thank you for the video but it is kind of ridiculous that so many people suffer from this problem (not to criticize the video but rather windows 11). I find it frustrating to notice that many files that I've copied earlier have a new "date created" and I already deleted the original files on the phone so have no way of restoring the data, especially for vlogs / channels and any archival materials it screws up a lot of things. why would a system do that first thing without giving you an option at least? I remember once in my backup actions on some day when I right-clicked on the folder in my iphone XR, there was an options to transfer with keeping a date - like a special window was possible to open and choose your settings and where to copy photos and videos but overall it's been a nightmare since my Android Samsung S8 stopped working, where I could easily copy "by album" which is so much better for efficient backup and date was preserved and even in the name of the file there was a date unless I'd rename it (my preferred system for fast backup from a phone).
meta dates on file systems are inherently flawed anyways. and of all possibilities to handle the situation Microsoft chose by far the worst approach. actually there should be at least meta date fields for file created, file modified, content created and content modified.
Thanks, however when I used /DCOPY:DAT it returned an error - looking at the command options this was shown as /DCOPY:T and that worked for me. However, I am still using a Windows 7 machine and this may have changed in Windows 10 to the one mentioned in this video. Either way, if one doesn't work try the other.
I was transferring my files to pc and almost all my files were dated as 5 September which is not rue and i formatted the sd card, will the command work?
There is a misconception here. Before you copy verify the date and timestamp of the F:/Backup folder before and after copy. You will realize the difference
@@World_of_OSes when your copying anything into the destination -- the dination will have yhe sourcea timestamp so you have to explicitly define the destination folder or file - for example, the destination ahould say ../“destination folder (after copy)” instead of …/destination which will replace the destination folder timestamp with the source directory timestamp
I want to copy my android device files to my laptop by USB cable and I want to preserve the creation date. I hope I can use the same command on this operation... Please I hope it works!!! 😓🙏🏼6:25pm 26.7.2024
What if I want to copy just one folder in a location where there are many folders? If I use the syntax given here it will only transfer over the content and not the actual root folder I am interested in. If I create that folder manually in advance at the target location it will have the wrong date. e.g. I only want to copy the folder 354 in your example. There must be some trick to do this? EDIT: Nevermind worked it out myself. If you put the source dir name in the target it then copies the root folder and has the correct date. e.g. robocopy C:\354 D:\354 /E /DCOPY:DAT
i have external drive as my phone connected to pc with usb transfer . this method not work for it, shows 'path not found'. So is there any alternative method to do this as really wanted store my photos from phone to pc with its original dates🙂🙂🙂
@@World_of_OSes yea im copying from one PC to another, so I used a hard drive, guessing I have to do it both times for it to work? I just did the robocopy the first time to a hard drive, then just moved it onto the new PC. going to try doing it twice now.
nvm i already found out, just go into properties> advanced> encrypt content to protect data i wanted to copy playlists I've downloaded with the original properties to my phone, couldn't do it through robocopy, after some hour trying how to do this i found out this simple way.
I disagree, I hate it when the date gets changed as I don't remember when I recorded a specific video (I backup my videos from my phone to a hard drive in my computer).
How can I use this command on a phone connected to pc via cable (not a C or an E drive)?
Because of how Windows works with other devices like phones (or rather how phones themselves connect to computers), the easiest option would probably be to zip/7z all of the files you want, transfer the compressed file to the computer and then extract it. I haven't tried this myself but from my experience it should preserve the files' metadata
Useful information and explained in a simple way. Good job 🙂
here's the command so you can copy and paste
robocopy "C:\Copy Path" C:\Paste Path /E /DCOPY:DAT
just replace the path names
THANKS UrikaTractor! IM VERY HAPPY YOU PROVIDED ME WITH THIS AS I DO NOT HAVE TO MANUALLY HAVE TO TYPE IT OUT!
Just a note for other people, quotation marks (" ") is need if the file path have spaces
e.g.
"C:\Copy Path\Copy Path\Copy Path\CopyPasta\Copy Pathta" - quotation marks needed
C:\CopyPatsta\CopyPahsta\CopyPatsa\CopyPaste - don't need quotation marks
Keeping the original timestamps should really be the default. For some reason, OS devs decided basically erasing metadata when copying folders is good practice. It's the same on Linux (at least for KDE's default file manager), you need the terminal to copy files preserving this data.
on Linux and kde i have never encountered that behavior. at least on fedora dolphin behaves not at all like that.
@@LizVanLee did you move the files perhaps? that preserves timestamps. but maybe i did something wrong myself
Man, your a god send! I got a new drive and moved all my movies from the old drive to the new one and titles from 7 years ago were all showing as recently added in my Plex server. Thanks to you and this perfectly laid out video I was able to correct the dates and now my recently added movies are once again displaying correctly. THANK YOU! Seemed to take a little longer than copy/paste, but that's perfectly fine by me.
Robocopy is awesome! Microsoft should include this type of functionality in file explorer.
Thanks you! It fixed my issue of Folder's Date Modified was changed to current date time when copy file from exFAT HDD to Windows 11.
Thanks so much for this! It REALLY helped for what I needed to do.
This is so helpful, thank you for making this video!
why does mine say system can not find the path specified? I am trying to copy files from my phone to an sd card
Because your phone isn't mounted as disk like other partitions
You can try "Total Commander" for Android, it keeps file dates when copying
Whoever liked this, nvm, I got a new phone with 512 gb and IT IS AWESOME I no longer have to worry about space and moving stuff around SD cards 😭😭
@@armchair69 I was also in a situation similar to yours, but after watching this video I continued investigating, and it turns out that Robocopy wouldn't work on Android due to Windows limitations (it doesn't recognize the phone as a disk and doesn't assign a letter to it).
In the end I was able to do what I needed, and I did it with an app called "Total Commander"... I just forgot to come back here and comment it 😭
thank you for the video but it is kind of ridiculous that so many people suffer from this problem (not to criticize the video but rather windows 11). I find it frustrating to notice that many files that I've copied earlier have a new "date created" and I already deleted the original files on the phone so have no way of restoring the data, especially for vlogs / channels and any archival materials it screws up a lot of things. why would a system do that first thing without giving you an option at least? I remember once in my backup actions on some day when I right-clicked on the folder in my iphone XR, there was an options to transfer with keeping a date - like a special window was possible to open and choose your settings and where to copy photos and videos but overall it's been a nightmare since my Android Samsung S8 stopped working, where I could easily copy "by album" which is so much better for efficient backup and date was preserved and even in the name of the file there was a date unless I'd rename it (my preferred system for fast backup from a phone).
meta dates on file systems are inherently flawed anyways. and of all possibilities to handle the situation Microsoft chose by far the worst approach. actually there should be at least meta date fields for file created, file modified, content created and content modified.
great video! very useful! Thanks!
is there any application like total commander or similar that you can do it without a command line?
Thanks, however when I used /DCOPY:DAT it returned an error - looking at the command options this was shown as /DCOPY:T and that worked for me.
However, I am still using a Windows 7 machine and this may have changed in Windows 10 to the one mentioned in this video. Either way, if one doesn't work try the other.
The build number is 10.0.19044. Are you using an LTSC version of Windows 10?
Yes - LTSC 2021
I was transferring my files to pc and almost all my files were dated as 5 September which is not rue and i formatted the sd card, will the command work?
Thank you!
Thank you so much sir
There is a misconception here. Before you copy verify the date and timestamp of the F:/Backup folder before and after copy. You will realize the difference
?
@@World_of_OSes when your copying anything into the destination -- the dination will have yhe sourcea timestamp so you have to explicitly define the destination folder or file - for example, the destination ahould say ../“destination folder (after copy)” instead of …/destination which will replace the destination folder timestamp with the source directory timestamp
I want to copy my android device files to my laptop by USB cable and I want to preserve the creation date.
I hope I can use the same command on this operation... Please I hope it works!!! 😓🙏🏼6:25pm 26.7.2024
it doesnt work when i tried to do the command it worked but it didnt paste anything to the other folder
Hey can you show us how to do this on Linux mostly Ubuntu based Distros.
What if I want to copy just one folder in a location where there are many folders? If I use the syntax given here it will only transfer over the content and not the actual root folder I am interested in. If I create that folder manually in advance at the target location it will have the wrong date. e.g. I only want to copy the folder 354 in your example. There must be some trick to do this? EDIT: Nevermind worked it out myself. If you put the source dir name in the target it then copies the root folder and has the correct date. e.g. robocopy C:\354 D:\354 /E /DCOPY:DAT
This isn’t working on Windows 11 😢
Did you found some way?
Isn't it?
Can you make a guide on how to do this but transferring from an iPhone to a Windows?
Usually that would use some kind of MTP.
What is this comment section?
Is that a VM made to look like your host PC?
Yes
@@World_of_OSes Did you manually make it like your host PC, or did you clone your hard drive into a VM?
i have external drive as my phone connected to pc with usb transfer . this method not work for it, shows 'path not found'. So is there any alternative method to do this as really wanted store my photos from phone to pc with its original dates🙂🙂🙂
Phones connected to a Windows PC use MTP, which doesn't have a drive letter.
@@World_of_OSes hey! Can i somehow still do it? So that it d work
What's the difference if I use /e /copyall instead /e /DCOPY:DAT?
learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/robocopy
How do I do this but from pc to android phone or from Android to pc
Did you find w way
Why doesn't Microsoft do this directly? Ctrl+c to ctrl+v
my folders still were copied with todays date. any help?
Did you add `DCOPY:DAT`?
@@World_of_OSes yea im copying from one PC to another, so I used a hard drive, guessing I have to do it both times for it to work? I just did the robocopy the first time to a hard drive, then just moved it onto the new PC. going to try doing it twice now.
Copy file?
is there an easier way to do this? like an app which lets your drag and drop a file?
What does "robocopy" mean?
Robust Copy
Should we switch from Win 10 to Win 11?
If you don't have any problem with the latter then yes you can switch
NO! I HATE Windows 11 that OS Sucks! Also Dislike.
@@phonl1 I'm not going to Use Windows 11 unless I buy a new computer.
@@wartortlerulestheworld I disagree with your opinion. Both are good
You should use W10 LTSC 2021 for updates until 2032
i cant do this to an removable disk
what do i do?
nvm i already found out, just go into properties> advanced> encrypt content to protect data
i wanted to copy playlists I've downloaded with the original properties to my phone, couldn't do it through robocopy, after some hour trying how to do this i found out this simple way.
The encrypt content option is grayed out for me. I'm trying to transfer files from my iPhone to Windows. Any ideas? Anyone@@aylavsz
This was a waste time. The date creation into command line is the modified date.
?
Sixth
Seventh
Does not matter that much
I disagree, I hate it when the date gets changed as I don't remember when I recorded a specific video (I backup my videos from my phone to a hard drive in my computer).
@@TTony You can add original date to file name and that's it
@@What00054 That completely defeats the point of the "date created" feature existing.
Then why did you come to this video
@@DragonitaPurple Oh my gosh, am I not allowed to share my opinion on this?
Thank you!