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How to save mail with the original created/modified date.

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  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Matt

When I save mail from Thunderbird, it is saved with the current date and time. I want the mail to be saved with the original created/modified date. How do I do that ?

When I save mail from Thunderbird, it is saved with the current date and time. I want the mail to be saved with the original created/modified date. How do I do that ?

Chosen solution

You are creating a file today. The date and time of the file are quite unequivocally the creation date of the file.

Thunderbird has an email stored in a file with many others, so your not moving a file your creating one. The result is the dates in the email will never appear in the file system. Those dates have no relevance outside of the email context, much as you would like to think they do.

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Chosen Solution

You are creating a file today. The date and time of the file are quite unequivocally the creation date of the file.

Thunderbird has an email stored in a file with many others, so your not moving a file your creating one. The result is the dates in the email will never appear in the file system. Those dates have no relevance outside of the email context, much as you would like to think they do.

I don't like the answer, but you're right. I tried Outlook Express, and it did the same thing -- saved the file with the current date. Bummer!

I knew you would not like the answer. No one who places mail in their operating system folders really likes the answer. It is just a fact of life.

Some purists resort to manually updating the file system http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/filedatech.html but it is a lot of effort for very little return.