File dates for old files

[salis500]

Is there a limit on how far back you can change FileCreateDate's and FileModifyDates?  I searched, found a couple posts but no clear solution.  I have some old pictures that I was changing DateTimeOriginal to when they were taken in the 70's and 80's.  I was able to do that with no problems, but I wanted the FileCreateDate to be the same date, but i get an error for the Pre 1980 pictures.  The pictures from 1980 on work just fine.

I get " Warning: Win32::API::SetFileTime returned 87 - **filename**   "

Thanks

[StarGeek]

The Perl file system libraries that exiftool relies on has problems setting a file time stamp between "1900:01:01 00:00:00" and "1971:12:31 23:59:59", so you won't be able to use exiftool to set a date in that period.  Also, the latter date has been changing every year and I expect it to change to "1972:12:31 23:59:59" when 2022 comes around.  But then, it's technically impossible for a computer file to have been created in that time period anyway.

But your error is strange.  The first thing I'd try would be to delete the files exiftool extracted to your temp directory.  Click the start button and type %temp% there and hit enter.  Look for a directory named "par-" with a bunch of random numbers and letters after it and delete that directory.  Then run your exiftool command again.

If that doesn't work, can you share the exact command you're using?  And is the file system a Windows file system or are you accessing a network or cloud based drive?