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macOS Finder modification date off? Try stat

stat foo.sparsebundle
..."Aug  2 07:53:48 2025" "Feb 23 09:09:25 2022" "Aug  2 07:53:10 2025" "May  7 08:30:24 2014"...

  1. Access (atime): Last time file was read (not always updated on APFS or recent macOS versions).

  2. Modify (mtime): Last time file content was modified. This is what "Date Modified" in Finder usually shows.

  3. Change (ctime): Last time file metadata changed (e.g., permissions, ownership, even renaming the file).

  4. Birth (btime): File creation date — what Finder calls "Created".

❧ 2025-08-06