ROBOCOPY puts the date 1/1/1980 on some copied files

Question

I am having an intermittent issue with ROBOCOPY copying files with an incorrect date.

I am using ROBOCOPY to copy backup files from a local folder to a remote fileshare as a part of having a remote backup solution. The script is scheduled through task manager to run daily. Here is pseudo code:

ROBOCOPY E:\LocalFolder \\RemoteServer\FileShare\Folder *.bak

Most of the files copy with the correct file date, hovever one or two files sometimes will have the date of 1/1/1980. This presents a major issue with managing the backups in the fileshare because the dates are crucial to its management.

What might causes this? What can be done to prevent this behavior?

Answer 1

I was having a similar issue. After some searching, I found reference to a behavior of Robocopy where it sets the modified date to 1/1/1980 until after a transfer is completed. [source]

What was really strange in my case was, if I watched the directory during the copy, I would see the file with the correct date appear, then AFTER it was complete the date would change to 1/1/1980. After some experimentation, I removed the /B switch I had been using and the dates seemed to be left alone.