Change file creation date

Here’s how to adjust the creation or modification date of files on a Mac. The operation is completed in Terminal. Use the app located at “Applications > Utilities > Terminal”.

For example, enter the following command and press Enter to force overwrite the modification date of “file.png” on your desktop to “September 2, 2025, 11:52 PM”.

touch -t 202509022352.00 ~/Desktop/file.png

Next is the creation date. Note that changing the creation date requires the Xcode command-line tools to be installed. If they are installed, you can change it.

If it is not yet installed, enter the following command.

xcode-select --install

If you run the above code and see the following output, it is already installed.

error: command line tools are already installed, use "Software Update" to install updates

You can also check whether it is installed correctly using the following command.

which SetFile

If the Xcode command-line tools are already installed, the following will be displayed.

/usr/bin/SetFile

Finally, the command to change the “Creation Date” is as follows.

SetFile -d '09/02/2025 23:48:00' ~/Desktop/file.png

If executed, the creation date will be overwritten to “September 2, 2025, 11:48 PM”.

By the way, you can check permissions below.

ls -l ~/Desktop | grep file.png

Access permissions, last modified time, and approximately 5.00MB in size.

-rw-r--r--@  1 Taro  staff  5231632  9  2 23:52 file.png

Please refer to this when adjusting file creation or modification dates.