How to change the date created and modified of a file
Windows shows a file's Date created and Date modified in File Explorer and sorts by them, yet its Properties dialog offers no way to edit either. The usual workarounds are a PowerShell one-liner per file or a command-line tool. File DateStamp Modifier puts the same job in a window, for one file or a folder of hundreds.
The layout follows three numbered steps. Step 1, Drag files into the list below, accepts any file type, plus Add files… and Add a folder… buttons. Step 2, Select the new dates, is where you choose Where the new date comes from and tick Apply to: Created On, Modified On and Accessed On, in any combination. Step 3, Perform update, is the stamper: click it and the new dates are written.
Before you press it, every row in the list shows the current date crossed out next to the new one, so the effect is visible file by file. Files that need no change say so, and any file Windows refuses to update, for example one open in another program, is named with the reason rather than counted as done.
Four ways to choose the new file date
Where the new date comes from has four choices, and the right one depends on why the dates are wrong.
- Set to: give every file the same date and time. Created and Modified each get their own field, so a document can look created at 9:00 and edited at 17:30.
- From date taken (EXIF): copy the moment the camera recorded into each photo onto the file dates.
- From file name: read the date that phones and apps write into names like IMG_20260314_091522 or WhatsApp Image 2026-03-14 at 09.15.22.
- Shift by: move each file's existing date forward or back by a set number of days, hours or minutes.
Fix photo dates after copying or downloading
Copying photos off a phone, restoring from backup or downloading a shared album often resets each file's dates to the day of the copy. Every picture then sorts as if it were taken on the same afternoon, and gallery apps that rely on file dates lump them together.
From date taken (EXIF) fixes this in one pass. It picks up the capture date stored inside JPEG, HEIC, PNG, WebP, TIFF and several raw formats, and writes it back onto the file. The photo's pixels and its EXIF block are not rewritten; only the file system dates move. If a picture has no date taken, the If none option can use the date written in its file name, which covers most images saved from messaging apps.
Change file timestamps in bulk for a time zone mistake
A camera left on home time after a flight stamps every photo hours off, which scrambles the order once they are mixed with a phone's pictures. Shift by moves each file by the same amount, say +6 h or −3 h, so the set lines up with local time and keeps its internal order. Pick the amount, choose minutes, hours or days, and set Direction to later or earlier.
Dropping a folder adds the files directly inside it. Turn on Include subfolders in Settings when a whole tree of dated folders needs the same correction. Your choices are remembered for next time.
