Files strange behavior - Just curious

Hello,
Recently I am testing / experimenting some video editing program to see if it suits me.
The videos are small mp4 clips.
But there is a strange thing with these files, they all have the same date: 1/1/1970 at 02:00, no matter when they were done.
I tried to change their dates with 3 or 4 different programs, nothing changed. In their properties there is nothing in the attributes.
(Only this program behaves like that.)
Only if I copy them to some other folder, they get the current date and time, not created date. If I copy them back to the previous folder they are back with that strange date.
Is there some explanation to such a thing ?
Answers will be appreciated.
Thanks
Motim

Window 10 pro, 19043.1889 21H1 x64

Try ---videohelp.com ---and it would help to specify the editing programme in use.
"some"is a little vague.

Motim said:

Hello,
Recently I am testing / experimenting some video editing program to see if it suits me.
The videos are small mp4 clips.
But there is a strange thing with these files, they all have the same date: 1/1/1970 at 02:00

That date is the UNIX epoch time starting date, so there's an implication of a file that has no date. Linux and MacOS use the same system, but Windows epoch time starts at 1/1/1601.

Where do you see this date? In File Explorer or only in that video editing program? A screenshot might help.

LesFerch said:

That date is the UNIX epoch time starting date, so there's an implication of a file that has no date. Linux and MacOS use the same system, but Windows epoch time starts at 1/1/1601.

Where do you see this date? In File Explorer or only in that video editing program? A screenshot might help.

Hello,
Thanks for the answer.
I searched about this "Epoch" and understood just nothing.
Here is a small screenshot as the files look in the windows file explorer. I even tried (just now) to copy or cut/paste them to another folder or another drive, no change in the date.
Thanks again
Motim

Motim said:

Hello,
Thanks for the answer.
I searched about this "Epoch" and understood just nothing.
Here is a small screenshot as the files look in the windows file explorer. I even tried (just now) to copy or cut/paste them to another folder or another drive, no change in the date.
Thanks again
Motim

The Date column source can vary based on filetype. Try adding the following columns to your Details view:

• Date Accessed
• Date Created
• Date Modified

and see if those differ....

KeithM said:

The Date column source can vary based on filetype. Try adding the following columns to your Details view:

• Date Accessed
• Date Created
• Date Modified

and see if those differ....

Hello and Thanks,
Added those columns. Created date is not the real date each clip created, may be date modified, but cannot be sure.
I wonder. This is the first time I see something like this, since the time I had my first computer. Each created file always got its creation date which was current at that moment.
And in file explorer there was only the one column date, not all of them.
Any way, if that program will not suit me - problem gone.
Thanks again
Motim
Attached modified screenshot.

You're misunderstanding "Created date". That's the date the file was first put on that particular drive. If you copy the file to another drive, it will have a new Created date on that drive.

Modified date is that last date the file was changed. That's what's usually used for documents.

Date (by itself) will be read from the attributes of some file types (e.g. pictures). In the case of your files, the date property has been set to the UNIX epoch time start value. The files maybe came from a Mac or Linux OS where that property should have been set to the date the file was made, but was set incorrectly.

When you moved files from one device to another, are you sure you were always looking at the same date property?

LesFerch said:

You're misunderstanding "Created date". That's the date the file was first put on that particular drive. If you copy the file to another drive, it will have a new Created date on that drive.


Date (by itself) will be read from the attributes of some file types (e.g. pictures). In the case of your files, the date property has been set to the UNIX epoch time start value. The files maybe came from a Mac or Linux OS where that property should have been set to the date the file was made, but was set incorrectly.

Hello,
Thanks for the explained answer.
May be I used wrong terminology about "date created". These files - video clips, did not come from anywhere. They are the product of the program I'm now experimenting (as I wrote in the begining). They did not exist before, anywhere.
Thanks again
Motim

Motim said:

Hello,
Thanks for the explained answer.
May be I used wrong terminology about "date created". These files - video clips, did not come from anywhere. They are the product of the program I'm now experimenting (as I wrote in the begining). They did not exist before, anywhere.
Thanks again
Motim

Then it's likely a bug in the program. As per the Wikipedia article:

Unix Epoch aka POSIX time, used by Unix and Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS), and programming languages: most C/C++ implementations,[32] Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl, ActionScript. Also used by Precision Time Protocol.

The difference you saw when moving the files around would appear to be due to viewing different date properties. The date simply named "Date" is pulled from the file attributes and should remain constant when moving the files around with File Explorer. Only programs that edit the files would touch that attribute.