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Viewing date created after 'modifying' document in Pages?

Casey_B

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Hi, all.

I hope you're well. Long story short, I found a poem on my iPad that I didn't remember writing, but the date was significant. I opened the poem, and now it shows the date modified rather than the created date. Is there any way to restore the created date, so that I know exactly when I first created the document?

Thanks,

Casey
 

twerppoet

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I haven't come up with a way to do this. I thought maybe exporting a copy and looking at it on a computer, but every export option I've tried so far makes a new copy with a new creation date.

I'll fiddle around with it some more later, and see if I can figure out something.

So that I know what you have to work with, do you have a laptop or desktop, and is it Max, Windows, or something else?
 

NSquirrel

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Just a thought. Would zipping the file and then exporting help? Then you may be able to unzip on the PC and see the creation date.
 

twerppoet

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Just a thought. Would zipping the file and then exporting help? Then you may be able to unzip on the PC and see the creation date.

Pages already exports files as Zip. It doesn't help. When exporting files Pages creates a new copy with a new created date. At least it has with every method I've tested so far.

However, you might be able to import files into GoodReader from iCloud Drive, then zip and save them to a computer. Some experimenting I've done suggests that might work. I've come up with a 'very' complicated all iPad method involving GoodReader, Workflow, and iCloud Drive. If the GoodReader zip combo works, it would be simpler and involve paying for one less app.
 

twerppoet

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Ok. I checked out the archiving and emailing option using GoodReader. It does not work. The creation and modification date are updated on all files when they are zipped. Bummer.
 

twerppoet

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What I've got, so far, requires that you have Pages set up to sync using iCloud Drive, GoodReader installed, the Workflow app, and a semi complicated workflow script. You also have to copy the file from iCloud Drive to GoodReader using it's own Import feature. Adding the file to GoodReader by any other method updates the date fields.

Since both of these apps cost money, and I can't guarantee the creation date on the file hasn't been updated, and therefore not retrievable, I'm not certain this would be worth your while. But it's the only thing I've come up with so far. At the least, you would not have to create the workflow action yourself. I've already done so and can easily share it here. Or a download link for it anyway.

If you want to do this, let me know, and I'll supply the link and a more detailed description of how to make it work. Again, without guaranteeing that you'll actually get the information you need. After all, it is possible it is no longer in the file to be retrieved.

Here's how the workflow action results look from inside GoodReader.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427344052.269021.jpg


The workflow itself works inside Pages, but for some reason the dates always show up as the current date and time. This is true of almost every app I tried other than GoodReader. I think that is because they try to pull the file info from iCloud Drive directly, instead of downloading the file to local storage first. GoodReader only works if I do download the file. If I try to view it without copying it to GoodReader the same error occurs.

It's possible an update to Workflow will fix this, or not.
 

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