OneDrive File Timestamps

[PK Player]

Hello

I have recently uploaded data from our network to OneDrive on my Microsoft 365 business account.

I was going through the files on our network and needed to send someone a copy of a document so I thought I would send it from OneDrive.

However, I was surprised to note that the timestamp on the file in OneDrive was for the date the file was uploaded and not the date the file was last edited (or created if not edited). I decided to download, to a separate location, One Drive data and saw that the timestamp on the downloaded documents was the date of the download.

If we work on a set of files via OneDrive and then replace them on our network, we lose each file's original timestamp not only for when they were created/edited on our network but also when edited/created within OneDrive.

Is there a way to force OneDrive to preserve the timestamps so that we can see when each file was created and/or last edited?

Thank you.

Mark

[#2]

Hey Mark,

When you upload/download a file onedrive will always treat it as a new file, I am afraid there is no way to control it. You can however use the onedrive sync client. Onedrive sync client preserves the original date of creation of a document. 

Thanks

[#3]

Hi, Harveer
Thank you for responding to my query.
I half-expected this to be the case noting how downloaded files are usually timestamped. I was hoping that OneDrive for business use might preserve the original Created/Modified info.
Thank you for the help :)

[#4]

two years later and this is still a default behavior? I am sorry but I find this pretty silly and it might cause a lot of bad surprises to people who uploaded files and later realized that all timestamps are messed up!
You say use a OneDrive client. However this has serious downsides - what if I want to just upload and backup some data from a PC where I don't use and regularly access my OneDrive? I don't want to install OneDrive client just for this one upload and I don't want the rest of my OneDrive content appear on that PC. What would you do in such case? Maybe use my laptop with OneDrive client to just copy all these things into the local OneDrive folder, let it sync and then unsync those folders in settings so they get deleted locally?

[#5]

I also got this bad surprise after migrating over 2TB of personal data from Google Drive to OneDrive, part of which I unfortunately lost the timestamps. Timestamps can never be lost or ignored, since for the user and for automated tasks they are an important criterion of dissension about how old or new, how updated a certain file is in relation to others or other versions of the same file. Microsoft seems to ignore all of this. Now, I'm here trying to find out if there is any workaround before undoing this migration.