Windows 10: Searching for files by date *moved*? (not accessed or modified)

I've recently been moving a lot of pdf files from an "unsorted" folder to others where they are sorted by content. There is one I saw about a week ago I am trying to find again, but none of the search options seem to work for locating it because moving a file from one folder to another doesn't automatically change its "last accessed" or "last modified" date. I always read the files before moving them to the sorted folders, and this does not change the file so I understand that it doesn't reset the "modified" date, but puzzlingly (and frustratingly for my current need) it doesn't even seem to update the "accessed" date. Any suggestions, or am I out of luck here?

:)

 

How do I search for files modified after a certain date in Windows 10, NOT files just modifies last week,month,year,etc

Hello Jay,

Thank you for your response.

Follow the below steps and check if it helps.

• Open a Folder and type a file you wanted to search.
• Type Modifiedate of modified in the search box. Example:
  Modified:1/7/2016
• It will show all the files which are modified on the particular date.

Hope this information helps.

 

Quick Access not searching Pictures folder


Summary, that last suggestion didn't work.

• I moved the pictures to another folder temporarily.

• Then I tried to remove the Pictures folder with option one at Add or Remove Folders from This PC in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials. Even after rebooting, the Pictures folder remained.
• So I tried using option two. Same thing: reboot >> Pictures folder still there.

• Since there were no troubleshooting steps for this scenario, just for the heck of it, I ran through the restore steps. Copied some pictures into the Pictures folder, ran a Quick Access search and initial problem remains: Searching all of QA doesn't find any files in Pictures folder, running search on just the Pictures folder does. I want to run a global search and find matching files in any/all of the Documents, Music, Videos, and Pictures folders.

That article dates from 2015 and I'm guessing is out of date. I hope it didn't create potential future problems in my registry.

Bottom line: I'm still looking for a fix.

 

Illogical date modified updating

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I understand that the modified date is just as important as the created date within the metadata of a given file. We will look into this for you.
However, in order to get clarity and to assist you accordingly, please reply with the answers to the questions below.

1. What is the build of Windows 10 running on your system?
   
2. Was there any major change or an update on your system prior to which you weren’t facing this issue?
   
3. Is the issue only with the pictures taken from the camera or the other pictures and files within the system as well?
   

Meanwhile, I would suggest you to follow the steps below and check if it is helpful to you.

Method 1: Enable the Date Modified Column in the File Explorer.

To enable the Date modified column within the particular folder, please follow the steps below.

1. Open the Folder in which you wish to see the Date modified column.
   
2. Right-click on the
   Header for Name, date, type etc. This will give you a list of columns that can be displayed.
   
3. Select the option Date modified, clearing the tick removes that column.
   
4. Modify a file and check if it is being reflected in the Date modified column.
   

If the issue still persists, where you aren’t able to see the value in the Date modified column even after making the changes to the particular file, please follow ‘Method 2’.

Method 2: Create a new user account.

This issue could be due to profile corruption. Hence to eliminate possibilities, I would suggest you to ‘Create
a local user or administrator account’ and check if the issue persists.

Note:
You will not see all your files under your default file location. So your data will be saved under C:\users\user_name.

We await your response.

Aaron Summith

Microsoft Community - Moderator