Forum Discussion
OneDrive date modified without changing the file
Hi all,
We have windows 10 1709 with OneDrive files on demand enabled
One of my users have an issue where if he opens and closes a file the changes the date modified.
His computer is a relatively new installation and he is patched up to February's updates. OneDrive Client version is the latest. Most of his files are set to always keep, but when I added a new folder without always keep, created files and checked after a few minutes the issue persists.
I found several forums with the same problem and also several user voices for Microsoft talking about it.
Any ideas beside trying onedrive /reset?
- This is because of AutoSave in the office clients. They continually save as your view them and they will make changes unfortunately sometimes by just looking at them. The only option you really have is to uncheck the option in your OneDrive client so the files don't open directly with office but open locally. It's sort of explained in this article, but this tick box should keep the files opening the old way and not using the auto save functionality.
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/use-office-applications-to-sync-office-files-that-i-open-8a409b0c-ebe1-4bfa-a08e-998389a9d823?ui=en-US&rs=en-001&ad=US
25 Replies
I have no solution yet, but I have something that may help narrow it down. For me, it's only happening to files in OneDrive Folders that are shared with me (owned by another account).
It doesn't happen to local files (not synced to OneDrive) and it doesn't happen to files in my own OneDrive folders.
Maybe for this specific situation, the file needs to be autosaved to keep it in sync with the other account that owns the folder.
That's an interesting observation. I wonder if somehow my files are considered to be not from my account. They are my files, but they are files that I created before I created my Microsoft 365 account, when I was using Office 2017 and earlier. I wonder how I would fix that without losing the last edit date for all of them.
- While many of these files are in folders that are shared with me from another accounts, I am the one who created the files and saved them there. In my case, I probably created them using the desktop version of office 2017 or office 2021. I now also have a Microsoft 365 account but I'm still using the desktop version on my main PC.
It's interesting that it seems to only be happening with Word files though I'm experiencing other strangeness with xlsx files where immediately upon opening them, they ask me to save them with the message, "This file has been moved. We recommend saving it now to finish moving it" (the file has never been moved).
I need to verify if this is happening with all files shared by other accounts or just one of the accounts that shared files/folders with me.
It makes it hard to manage files when you can't search by the modified date and know that was the last time it was modified (and not just opened). This would make things impossible for forensic analysis in legal cases as well. For example, "It shows here the Will for the estate was updated days before his death, yet the document was signed 3 years ago". Maybe not the best example but it could create lots of legal challenges. Maybe a better one would be, someone finds an unsigned will and looks on the computer to open it and the date changes from 3 years ago to today, weeks after the death of the writer. How can the document be trusted?
- I'm still hoping somebody will solve this annoying feature of OneDrive. As I posted earlier, any Microsoft Office (.docx, .xlsx) file that was created prior to my upgrade to OneDrive has this issue. I recently tested this is another manner. I made two copies of an old Excel file (last modified in 2020) and put one copy inside a OneDrive folder and one copy in my old non-OneDrive Documents folder. When I open the non-OneDrive copy (in the desktop Excel app), nothing changes and the date modified remains 2020. However, when I do the same thing with the OneDrive copy, there is an immediate flashing message at the top of the Excel window saying "Saving" and then the date modified is automatically updated to today's date. If anybody can solve this, I would be grateful. I know this can be fixed, because it doesn't do this on my work computer. As mentioned earlier, AutoSave is turned off in Excel.
Though an old thread, I think I've found a workaround that doesn't require turning off autosave or autosync.
We know that simply opening an Office file saved in OneDrive will automatically update 'date modified'. However, it doesn't update 'date last saved'.
You can change the columns in File Explorer to show 'date last saved' instead of 'date modified':
- Navigate to the folder
- Right click on a column heading (e.g name)
- Select 'More...'
- Uncheck 'Date modified'
- Scroll down to 'Date last saved' and check this
- Click OK
For the change to apply to all folders of the same type, follow these simple steps: https://superuser.com/a/1128443/642896
leo-c thanks for that. I came here for work but I'm going to try it tonight on my home Windows 11 computer. It's been bugging the heck out of me, opening File Explorer and the list of my recent files changes in front of my eyes every few seconds as stuff from years ago suddenly appears at the top of the list, I guess because of some sync action by OneDrive.
- Thank you SO much! This has been driving me nuts lately and it's a very good solution that I expect will be useful in other contexts as well
In your local sync'd OneDrive files, select file, hold Shift + RightClick, Open as Read-Only.
Has worked well for me, so far, without file or folder changing modified date, so long as I only read and close the document.
Online OneDrive, I use the document menu, Preview - works as Read-Only.
These features mean that I don't have to change any headings or OneDrive settings.EDIT - wanted to emphasize - when Shift + RightClick, Open as Read-Only, the file opens in Word (etc) with the AutoSave off. This allows to safely save as a copy of the document without damaging the date of the primary document.
- This is because of AutoSave in the office clients. They continually save as your view them and they will make changes unfortunately sometimes by just looking at them. The only option you really have is to uncheck the option in your OneDrive client so the files don't open directly with office but open locally. It's sort of explained in this article, but this tick box should keep the files opening the old way and not using the auto save functionality.
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/use-office-applications-to-sync-office-files-that-i-open-8a409b0c-ebe1-4bfa-a08e-998389a9d823?ui=en-US&rs=en-001&ad=USThis happens even when Autosave is off. It doesn't happen with other file types such as MP3s and JPGs, so is quite a serious oversight by Microsoft.
- Yes, Autosave on/off does not help this issue. I see this issue all over the support threads too. I am a recent convert from Dropbox, and this issue is seriously interfering with my workflow. File Open/Close has functioned one way in Microsoft Products for more than 3 decades. I am hoping this is a bug and not some new "feature."
