Thunar changes folder timestamps when its contents change...

ginahoy · 2026-02-15 02:27:35

I guess it's a holdover from WinXP, but I expect a folder's timestamp to always reflect its creation date. Thunar updates folder timestamps whenever a file within is added, removed or modified.

I can see how that might be useful to some folks but I can't get used to it. I sometimes find the need to hack the system time/date in order to restore a folder's original timestamp... typically to maintain proper sort order for folders on my backup drive.

Is there a command line setting for Thunar that would prevent it from updating a folder's timestamp when its contents are modified?

Last edited by ginahoy (2026-02-15 23:41:36)

bggf · 2026-04-15 18:22:04

Hi there,

It doesn't seem to work for me that way. To try to reproduce I simply rightclicked the top "name" field in Thunar, selected configure columns, selected both "Date created" and "Date accessed" , copied a file into a folder and date created did not change.

ginahoy · Yesterday 00:38:03

Thanks for you reply. Gosh, I never realized there's a "Configure Columns" option! I can't believe I never checked, as that's something WinXP's file manger had as well. The 'Date Created' column is apparently unchecked by default.

As it turns out, when I reveal the 'Date Created' column for my backup SSD path, all backup folders show 'Unknown' even though I created these folders with Thunar. I'm guessing that's because I formatted that drive as NTFS. I can't even recall now why I did that.

Now that I realize Thunar isn't the issue, my fallback solution is to rename all the folders (dozens) with filenames beginning with yyyy-mm-dd. That way I can sort by name to keep backup folders in creation date order.

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#1 2026-02-15 02:27:35

Thunar changes folder timestamps when its contents change...

#2 2026-04-15 18:22:04

Re: Thunar changes folder timestamps when its contents change...

#3 Yesterday 00:38:03

Re: Thunar changes folder timestamps when its contents change...

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