Finder tags and file creation/modification date not preserved in macOS

[nullpointerninja]

I tested a backup and restore operation with a Local Directory target on macOS 11.2.2.
The restored files don't keep the file creation and modification dates, and any finder tags (colors) are lost. Is this expected, or is it a bug?
This was tested with a simple text file with different creation and modification dates, with a couple of Finder tags. I can provide more information and/or screenshots if needed.

[bimbashrestha]

@nullpointerninja thanks for asking and welcome to the project!

The restored files don't keep the file creation and modification dates, and any finder tags (colors) are lost. Is this expected, or is it a bug?

The only metadata that is preserved is file modified time at the moment. So yes this is expected. It's not ideal but the initial data format doesn't have support for other metadata.

[bimbashrestha]

Hey @nullpointerninja I just re-read your post. Didn't realize that you weren't seeing modified time on the restored files. Can you confirm this is so? Because that part is unexpected. Modified times should be backed up and restored.

[nullpointerninja]

Yes, the file modification and creation times as seen from the Finder file info dialog show the restore time instead of the original modify date. This is true for both files and folders that are restored. Just tested with v1.0.0.beta2.

[bimbashrestha]

Hmm strange. I'll look into this soon

[bimbashrestha]

Ah actually this makes sense. You are testing using one of the pre packaged releases. Two weeks ago I merged a PR that preserves restore time and that hasn't made it to a release yet.

Perhaps you could give the dev branch a try with pip? The instructions are on the main README. Thanks

[nullpointerninja]

Tried to install with pip but got many errors and couldn't find the root cause :(.
Will try the next packaged release and report back. Would be nice to have creation dates and finder tags supported in the future though.
Thanks!

[bimbashrestha]

Sounds good! Thanks for testing.