Filezilla is displaying wrong dates.

[mthorne]

I have an sftp server running on a Windows 2003 server.

I am using Filezilla to connect and download files. A customer copied files to my sftp site. Windows shows the "Date Modified" is 7/1/09 and 7/6/09. Filezilla shows the Last modified date as 12/31/1969 and 1/5/1970. I have only seen this with this one customer account. Is this a bug or misconfiguration?

[botg]

It's a broken server that's in violation to the SFTP specifications.

You have to upgrade to a proper server.

[ZANYGENIUS]

Actually, there may be a much easier workaround to "trick" Filezilla into displaying the date you expect to see. Simply create a file in the root folder with a name such as "! This file MUST REMAIN HERE". Be sure to begin the filename with the exclamation point, but do not include the quotation marks.

Actually, the only requirement is that the first object (file or folder) alphabetically in the login folder MUST be a FILE. In other words, if the first FOLDER alphabetically is named "Archive", any FILE name alphabetically ahead of "Archive" would work, even "Archivd". If the first FOLDER is named "Archives", then a FILE named "Archive" would work.

Although Folders are always displayed above Files when sorted alphabetically, that doesn't matter for this purpose. Using the exclamation point ensures that it's very unlikely a folder would ever have a name alphabetically ahead of the filename.

I don't know why this workaround has never been posted before in the Forum for users searching for a solution to the problem. This comes from a bug report comment on Ticket #3698 by Sean Devoy (of Filezilla Project) over 3 years ago:

Changed 3 years ago by SeanDevoy

cc sdevoy@… added

I have additional information that explains WHEN and WHY this happens:
My Server is running FreeFTPd and I use it in sftp mode on Windows 2008 R2.

when connecting with FileZilla from my Windows 7 client, sometimes the dates are fine, others they are screwey. I have found that if the FIRST file or directory (alphabetically) is a Directory the mtime function fails when getting the timezone offset. If the first object is a FILE the mtime function succeeds and calculates the correct timezone offset.

Now, having observed that, I do not know if the "error/bug" is in FileZilla client or FreeFTPd server. Here is some sample output:

Status: Calculating timezone offset of server...
Command: mtime "Admin"
Response: 4294967295
Status: Timezone offsets: Server: 1312383480 seconds. Local: -18000 seconds. Difference: -1312401480 seconds.

Status: Calculating timezone offset of server...
Command: mtime "AboutUs.html"
Response: 1309747324
Status: Timezone offsets: Server: -18000 seconds. Local: -18000 seconds. Difference: 0 seconds.

I suppose creating an aaaa.txt file in the login folder would be a workaround.

Hope that helps.

[botg]

Updating the server seems much easier to me.