Please help with timestamps/Android: "Warning: Cannot write modification time" | "silently ignored by the device"

[Deefs]

I've got a really big problem.


On Android, I've just changed my ROM. The old one was Android 10, the new one is Android 14.


Now, when I copy files from my PC to my phone the timestamps get updated to the time of the transfer. That didn't happen before and it completely messes up syncing.


I wonder if it's an Android 14 thing?


In FreeFileSync, however I copy the files (directly copy-paste in Windows Explorer OR sync with FreeFileSync), when I come to sync, the software wants to update the files - because they have different timestamps - even though the files are really the same.


I wonder why more people aren't having the same issue.


When FreeFileSync copies the files from PC to phone, the phone version gets a new timestamp when it should not. FreeFileSync's log shows something like this for every single file:


Setting the modification time (10/12/2023 10:02:37) was silently ignored by the device (08/02/2024 07:50:51).


and


Warning: Cannot write modification time of "mtp:\Galaxy S9\Internal storage\folder_name\Screenshot_20231110-111422_Program_name-edca.ffs_tmp".


But I don't think it's really FreeFileSync's problem. I can see that the timestamps changed even when I just copy and paste from Windows Explorer.


As I say, it seems odd that more people aren't having the same issue. It's a massive thing.


There are a few mentions of "silently ignored by the device" but there is no solution that I can find.


And Googling 'android updates timestamps when copying files from PC' and the like doesn't really throw up anything useful either.


There's this: viewtopic.php?t=9956


OP: "Trying to sync between my Windows 10 laptop and my Galaxy Tab A8 via USB. I get the following error:


Cannot write modification time of "mtp:\Galaxy Tab A8\SD card\[filename]".

Setting the modification time (12/28/2022 5:57:16 PM) was silently ignored by the device (1/5/2023 8:48:59 AM).


I don't get this error when I sync to my Android phone, a Moto g(7). I'm running FreeFileSync 11.29.


Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?"


1st answer: "(I know nothing of phones, but I'll guess that you're not doing anything wrong, simply that the A8 does not support the concept of "modification time".)"


Well, in my case, I haven't changed phones. All I've done is changed ROMs, so surely it's not a hardware issue?


Then there's this: https://forums.androidcentral.com/threads/files-not-syncing-properly-due-to-andoid-changing-the-modified-dates.1042236/


He has this to say: "'date created' field has no information on my Android." It's the same for me: It only shows info for date modified (the wrong date/time because it's just the time that the file was transferred), not date created.


The OP eventually says: "Problem solved. Learned how to adjust setting in FFS for handle this situation." but doesn't come back to say what that solution was. But I think it must have been the workaround of "switch[ing] to compare by 'file content' instead of 'file time and size' [...] unfortunately this particular comparison will take about 75 minutes... compared to about 30 seconds using file size and date."


So that is just not an option.


Why is this happening on my new ROM but didn't on the old one?


I'll be extremely grateful if someone can help me get to the bottom of this. Or point me to a better place to ask this question. Maybe Reddit - but where?


I do have a suspicion that it's something super-simple that I'm doing wrong. Like to do with Developer settings or USB tethering or the method that Android is using to transfer the files. FreeFileSync is using MTP (with a USB cable connecting PC to phone) and I guess MTP is what Windows is using too when I just copy/paste.


Help me out please, would you.

[xCSxXenon]

Does this happen with all files?
I've never had timestamps work on my Android device. I had to switch to file size for comparison and that has been fine for my use

It's probably an Android 'issue' that is just not present in older versions

[azure55]

You're not alone. It's a problem that has occurred again and again, including in my device. I have done some research about this issue before, and what I found matched with what you have observed: it is a software issue, not a hardware one, specifically on the MTP implementation.

Here are some solutions that I found:
1. Robocopy (viewtopic.php?t=1646&start=30)
2. FolderTimeUpdate (https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/folder_time_update.html)
3. BulkFileChanger (viewtopic.php?t=11082)
4. Ditch FFS, switch to Syncthing (at least for transfers between phone and PC). This what I use where I go wireless, skipping MTP and avoiding the issue completely.

[dwhutton]

I am experiencing the same problems, which are making it difficult to manage photo albums synced onto my Android device. I'm aware of two issues:
1. When copying a file to Android, instead of preserving the original file date, the date of transfer is set
2. the last changed date is not set

There are bug reports related to these problems on the Google Issues Tracker website (https://issuetracker.google.com/issues?q=mtp%20setlastmodified) but these are recorded as fixed, obsolete or duplicate. Google does not seem to be aware of the current problems.

Would the FreeFileSync team have more leverage than individuals like me in getting these issues addressed?

David Hutton
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Android 14
FreeFileSync 13.5

[xCSxXenon]

Would the FreeFileSync team have more leverage than individuals like me in getting these issues addressed?

No. Compared to Google's size, neither an individual or a program-community our size is even a blip on the radar