Folder and file "date modified" changes without modifying

steve626 wrote:

Opening files inside the folder and then closing them without making changes does NOT change the "date modified" on its enclosing folder, EXCEPT with MS-Office or MS-365 files. Then the folder shows today as "date modified" but none of the files inside it have been modified.

This is induced by something Microsoft is doing, not Apple. Other software does not do this.

LibreOffice does the same. When it opens a file, it creates an invisible temporary file so the folder modification date is changed.

ls -al
-rw-r--r--@ 1 matti  staff   108 Oct 12 06:57 .~lock.test.odt#
-rw-r--r--@ 1 matti  staff  8336 Oct 12 06:53 test.odt

DNA DAVE wrote:

I open an old folder or an old file and Apple moves it to the top of the rank of recently modified files or folders.

What I have observed is this:

Opening an old folder does not change "date modified" value.

Opening files inside the folder and then closing them without making changes does NOT change the "date modified" on its enclosing folder, EXCEPT with MS-Office or MS-365 files. Then the folder shows today as "date modified" but none of the files inside it have been modified.

This is induced by something Microsoft is doing, not Apple. Other software does not do this.

DNA DAVE wrote:

I open an old folder or an old file and Apple moves it to the top of the rank of recently modified files or folders.

Please see Matti Haveri's post, it explains why some programs cause the folder "modified date" to change even when you did not change anything. The creation of an invisible file is a "modification" to the folder so it shows the date/time of the opening of the file by MS-365 or LibreOffice as the "modified" date.

As for simply opening the folder resulting in a change to the "modification date" ... I can't reproduce that. It certainly should not be doing that.