How persistent is "sort by date"?

Question

If I sort my files by "date" in File Explorer, will it hold up if the files are modified?

Will "sort by date" and "order by ascending" always sort by the date the file was downloaded/created?

Answer 1

If you sort by Date Created (Ascending) in Windows Explorer, the file list order will not change if you modify a file (but the Date Modified value will change).

If you sort by Date Modified (Ascending), the file list order will change if you modify a file. Exception: if the file is already the most recently modified (i.e., already at the bottom; would be at the top if Date Mod (Descending)), the datetime stamp will change but the order will remain the same.

Note that the new value will not be displayed (nor cause the sort order to change) in an already open Windows Explorer instance until you act on the open Windows Explorer instance (or open a new one that displays the folder with that file). Five of the many possible actions that will "refresh" the data displayed in an open Explorer instance are:

• Pressing F5 (the refresh function key; fn+F5 on some laptops) when that Explorer has focus;
• Changing the sort order (e.g., change ascending to descending);
• Changing the sort field to a different one than the current sort (e.g., change sort to Name from Date Created);
• Changing the view (e.g., from Large Icons to Details); or
• Changing the columns displayed (e.g., display Tags or hide Size).

Interesting illustration - Open three Windows Explorer instances, all displaying the same folder and all set to View Details. (View Details makes the coming comparisons much easier to do.) Sort one Windows Explorer by Name (Explorer instance #1), one by Date Created (#2), and one by Date Modified (#3). Position all three Explorers to show the same file (noting current Date Modified) which you will then modify (e.g., edit a text file in Notepad, add a single character, delete that just added character, save file, and exit Notepad). After saving the modified file, note all three Explorer instances are unchanged. Now open a new Explorer (#4) and check Date Modified. Now reverse sort order on Name (Explorer #1) and note new Date modified value in that Explorer instance (#2 and #3 are unchanged). Choose Explorer #2 that is sorted by Date Modified and press F5 to refresh; note new file sort order and Date Modified value while the Explorer sorted by Date Created (#3) still has the old Date Modified value.

Answer 2

No, not in Windows 10 1809, although possibly for some file types.

• I modified the .txt file ~1 hour ago and Date value changed.
• I modified the .jpg file ~1.5 hours ago but Date value did not change.

If I sort my files by "date" in File Explorer, will it hold up if the files are modified?

Will "sort by date" and "order by ascending" always sort by the date the file was downloaded/created?

The Date attribute (field) in Windows Explorer sometimes uses the same value as Date Modified: the Date value can change when a file is modified and therefore a sort on Date can yield a different order when files are modified (see line 1 highlighted .txt example and line four example in image 1).

Contrast this with the highlighted .jpg example where the ~5 year old Date value (6/28/2014 7:07 PM) matches the Date Taken value (image 2), but does not match the very recent Date Modified (today 4:39 AM) nor the ~4.5 year old Date Created (11/16/2014 11:37 PM).

CAVEATS - Note that my examples do not distinguish between using Date Modified versus using the later of Date Modified and Date Created. Date Modified can be later than Date Created when copying files. (Windows 7 used the earlier, not later of those.)

Date Taken may not be the only attribute that takes precedence. Other files types have comparable date attributes that also may take precedence.

I also do not address whether certain rules are applied to individual files or if the rules are applied to all files in a folder.

MORE DETAIL - Three responses to this linked question provide interesting additional background, possibly superseded, about NTSF and FAT and exiff data. Note that Windows 7 and Windows 10 populate Date quite differently. What is the "Date" column in Windows 7 explorer? It matches no date column from Windows XP explorer