Can't change the date or timestamp of a Folder

I am unable to get Advanced Renamer to change the date or time attribute of a folder. Is anyone else having this issue?

My simple test fails on two different computers, one running Win 10 and the other Win 11. I've tested with Advanced Renamer v4.11 and several earlier versions.
1. Pick a folder on a fixed NTFS drive with a Created date in the past. (Mine was a folder named 2024-01-01 with a creation and modified date of 01/01/2024.)
2. Open Advanced Renamer
3. Open Columns, Add Created Date and New Created Date columns.
4. Click the green plus button and add Timestamp method. (no other methods are selected)
5. Check the Created date box and Set to Now.
6. Drag and Drop a folder named 2024-01-01 into the Files window.
7. In the Add Folder dialog box, click on Add the folders and check the Add root folders box.
8. The tab changes to Folders, if not already on that tab.
9. The folder is listed with the original Created Date and the current date in the New Created Date column.
10. Click Start Batch and verify one Method and one Item in Batch Rename mode.
11. Click Start. Briefly see a dialog confirming 1 item and 0 errors, then file disappears.
12. Checking folder created date in Windows Explorer properties shows it did not change to the current date. (NOW)
13. Click add successful items adds the folder back to the list, but the displayed date is confirmed to be the original unchanged creation date.

Notes:
1. I can change the Created, Modified, and Accessed dates on this folder using a program called Attribute Changer without any problems.
2. I was able to get this test to work with Advanced Renamer v3.88.1 portable a couple of times, if the batch contains just one folder. Multiple folders always fail with an Error 101. After a few successful changes, it stopped working until I rebooted my PC, so it's really not very usable for me.

Reply to #1:

Hi Howard,

Since nobody's answered I thought I'd just tell you that I tried your experiment and it failed.

Not to take anything away from ARen or Kim (I hold them both in high regard, and I use the program pretty much every day), but I've never found the timestamp method to be very useful. Most all my time handling is to put a date in a foldername and then change the Windows Created date to that folder name date, and ARen has always either been unable to do that, as in v4.x, or it had to be done in a separate batch because the v3.x timestamp method wouldn't play nice with other methods. For the last several years I've been using another renaming program to do JUST the date stuff, and it works consistently and in a "flash". Otherwise I really don't like that program, for a number of reasons. And I've come to love javascript, so I'm more than happy with ARen otherwise.

Anyway, best of luck.
DF

Reply to #2:
Thanks, DF. At least I know it's not just me. I share your opinion about this program and the developers. I know every project has competing priorities, but I hope they find time to fix this broken feature.

My use case:
I normally sort folders for my project by Modified date, but if you add or delete anything inside an NTFS folder, it changes that folder's modified date, which spoils my sort order. So i I could really use a quick way to reset folder dates using a nice batch method to fix an entire set of folders at once.

Advanced Renamer solution:
The timestamp method with pattern matching would be a perfect solution for my use case. In fact, everything seems to work up to the point of actually committing the correct datestamp. Feels like this is just a bug and I would hope it could be resolved without a tremendous amount of effort.

My workaround:
II, too have another utility that lets me change the created, modifies, or accessed dates for a folder, but it doesn't have batch capabilities or pattern matching. So at this point, I just correct folders manually, one at a time.

Reply to #3:

Howard,

Drop me a line at [email protected], we can discuss it.

Best,
DF

I got the "created date" to work with the new version 4.11

I second to this matter. I can't change date of folder with timestamp method too. Modified and created NOT changing. Version 4.11.

It is shame that this bug continues to be despite of our reports. It spoils usage of this app for me very bad.

Reply to #6:

It works for me in 4.11 portable.

Reply to #7:

NOT worked for me 4.11 portable. Under Windows 11 PRO latest updated.

What Windows are yours?

Reply to #8:

Hi Yaqut,

I'm using the same, Windows 11 Pro with all updates.

Which option are you using for the new date, and what values (if necessary to be supplied)?

I used:
Change Created and Modified dates, change to parent folder pattern, pattern <Year>-<Month>-<Day>

Just tried "Set to: Filename pattern", "Set to: Now", "Set to: Image date and time", and they worked as well.

I'm wondering if it may be because of some differences in file structures. Kim sees a lot of that, and apparently it's a huge job trying to capture all of the variations in those different structures.

Good luck...
DF

EDIT: I'm using both NTFS drives and drives under some NAS structure that I'm pretty sure is some Unix-style variant using a highly redundant RAID. So I'd guess it's not the drive structure, but again the file configurations. Can you try with some files from other sources and see what happens? END EDIT

Reply to #9:
We are talking about renaming folders, right? Because renaming files is working ok on my Windows.

Timestamp:
Apply to: "modified date and time"
Set to: "File pattern"
Pattern: "<Year>-<Month>-<Day>"

I use "Rename Folders" panel. My folder list loaded to this panel.
Before run app shows me my folders in this panel which supposed to get new "modified date and time".
In the panel they all ok. New modified dates are all correct in the panel.

Then I start a batch. Run it and app says OK. Then I go check modified dates into file explorer, but all folder modified dates are still old values without update.

So the app shows me like it is working OK but it is NOT at all.

P.S. I ran app with Administrator rights.

Reply to #10:

Sorry, I thought you must be talking about some other timestamp function, since we'd already discussed that problem earlier in this thread. The option is labeled "Filename pattern", and that's what it does. See my post #2 above in this thread. I hinted at the name of a program that will do what you need, the one that I use for that this and only this function. Someday maybe Kim will add a "Foldername pattern" option, not just "Parent folder pattern", but for now that's the situation.

Best,
DF

Reply to #10: Your example of using filename patterns to change the folder timestamp is ultimately what I want to do as well.

To eliminate possible issues with pattern matching, I reduced my test above to just setting the timestamp to NOW. In my case on two different computers, running Win 10 and Win 11, AREN cannot change the Created or Modified timestamps to NOW and I get the same results you describe. Clearly, the program knows what we want to do, because it shows the intended timestamp changes just as expected. But when you press Start Batch, it fails to change those timestamps as displayed. Furthermore, the failure is not detected, since Last Result reports zero Errors found.

Note: v4.12 just dropped and it still fails to change folder timestamps for me.

Reply to #12:
The issue has been identified and will get fixed in version 4.13.

Reply to #13:
Thanks, Kim. That is great to hear.