Tiger is wrongly reporting "last use" dates - why?

[AVR2]

My previous PB G4 developed a problem with reporting last-use dates for files; no matter which file you picked, it would report its last-use (or last-modified or last-accessed or whatever you want to call it) date as 5/1/06. Every single file. Even iTunes reported every track's last-played date as 5/1/06.

I've recently upgraded to a MacBook Pro, and I'm getting exactly the same problem. I can't believe that it's just spontaneously doing it and coming up with exactly the same date for everything (still 5/1/06), so I can only assume that when I used Migration Assistant to transfer the files over from my PB G4, it also transferred whatever it is that's screwing up the "last use" date.

FWIW, iCal and the Dashboard calendar always report the correct date, so it must be a "hidden" setting somewere else. Can anyone suggest anything that might fix this? It's more annoying than you might think.

 

[mad jew]

Does the clock in the Menu Bar show the correct date too?

 

[AVR2]

Yes.

 

[theBB]

What happens when you create a new user account? You need to find out whether this is just a user preference or systemwide setting.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Zap the PRAM, I think it might fix it (hold command-option-P-R) after rebooting.

 

[mad jew]

Does it happen to newly created files too?

 

[AVR2]

Tried a PRAM zap, but it didn't help.

I've done a bit more fiddling, and it looks like it's a specific issue with Spotlight's reporting of Last Opened dates :

If I do a "Get Info" on any file, it correctly reports the Created, Modified and Last Opened dates.

If I use Spotlight, it will correctly report the Created and Modified dates, as well as the Last Opened date if it was within the last week. Otherwise, it will report it as 5/1/06.

However, if I click on the file within the Spotlight window and then do a "Get Info", I get all the correct Created, Modified and Last Opened info.

So the data about when each file was last opened *is* being retrieved correctly by Get Info, but not by Spotlight. Which is weird, because I'd have thought that they'd both have used the same source.

Any ideas? Any way of reporting this directly to Apple, rather than just posting on their Discussion forums and hoping an Apple employee takes notice?

EDIT - I've tried setting up a second user account, and iTunes reports the correct "Last Played" date, so it looks like it's an account-specific issue.

 

[mad jew]

Have you tried reindexing Spotlight? You do this by going to the Spotlight pane in System Preferences, adding your hard disk to the Privacy tab and then removing it again. It'll take a while to reindex.

You can tell Apple of your problems through their Feedback site.

 

[G5Unit]

Did you move all the files onto a new HD? That could be the problem.

 

[AVR2]

Have you tried reindexing Spotlight?

Didn't even know you could do that! So I did, and...

It's fixed!

Me happy bunny now! Many thanks!

 

[mad jew]

No worries mate. Apple still has a bit of work to do on Spotlight before it's perfected. Although this specific problem is probably quite rare (first I'd ever heard of it), corrupt databases are quite common. At least the fix is relatively easy.