Why doesn't SureSync preserve folder creation and modification dates?

Applies to
Products: SureSync MFT and SureSync
Versions: All

SureSync does not preserve the creation or modification timestamps of folders during synchronization.

When Windows creates a new folder, the operating system assigns it a creation timestamp based on when that folder was created on the destination system. SureSync does not attempt to overwrite this value.

Folder modification timestamps are also not preserved. On NTFS, a folder's modification time changes whenever the contents of the directory change. Common operations that update a folder's modification timestamp include:

• Creating a file in the folder
• Copying a file into the folder
• Moving a file into the folder
• Deleting a file from the folder
• Moving a file out of the folder
• Creating a subfolder
• Deleting a subfolder
• Moving a subfolder into or out of the folder
• Renaming a file or subfolder
• Certain filesystem metadata operations

Because these timestamps change frequently during normal file activity, keeping folder modification dates synchronized across multiple servers would require additional processing and filesystem operations while providing little practical value.

The timestamps that are important for synchronization are the file modification dates. SureSync preserves these timestamps when files are copied, ensuring that the information used to determine whether a file has changed remains accurate.