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 \u201cApplications > Utilities > Terminal\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
touch<\/span> <\/span>-t<\/span> <\/span>202509022352.00<\/span> <\/span>~\/Desktop\/file.png<\/span><\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\nNext 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If it is not yet installed, enter the following command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
xcode-select<\/span> <\/span>--install<\/span><\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\nIf you run the above code and see the following output, it is already installed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
error: command line tools are already installed, use "Software Update" to install updates<\/span><\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\nYou can also check whether it is installed correctly using the following command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
which<\/span> <\/span>SetFile<\/span><\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\nIf the Xcode command-line tools are already installed, the following will be displayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\/usr\/bin\/SetFile<\/span><\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\nFinally, the command to change the “Creation Date” is as follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SetFile<\/span> <\/span>-d<\/span> <\/span>'<\/span>09\/02\/2025 23:48:00<\/span>'<\/span> <\/span>~\/Desktop\/file.png<\/span><\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\nIf executed, the creation date will be overwritten to “September 2, 2025, 11:48 PM”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the way, you can check permissions below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ls<\/span> <\/span>-l<\/span> <\/span>~\/Desktop<\/span> <\/span>|<\/span> <\/span>grep<\/span> <\/span>file.png<\/span><\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\nAccess permissions, last modified time, and approximately 5.00MB in size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Taro staff 5231632 9 2 23:52 file.png<\/span><\/span><\/code><\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\nPlease refer to this when adjusting file creation or modification dates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 \u201cApplications > Utilities > Terminal\u201d. 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/touhyo.com\/blog\/?p=1039","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memo","en-US"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/touhyo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/touhyo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/touhyo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/touhyo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/touhyo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/touhyo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1361,"href":"https:\/\/touhyo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions\/1361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/touhyo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/touhyo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/touhyo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}