How to find files by date modified on a Mac

Updated 2026-10-18

Most of the time you remember roughly when you worked on something, not what you called it. Finder can sort, group and search by four different dates, and Terminal can do exact ranges when Finder cannot.

Know the four dates

Column	Changes when
Date Modified	The contents of the file are saved with changes
Date Created	The file is first created, or copied to a disk that does not keep the original date
Date Last Opened	The file is opened on this Mac
Date Added	The file is moved or saved into its current folder

Renaming a file does not change its modified date, and moving it within the same disk changes only Date Added.

Show date columns and sort

Open the folder and press Command-2 for list view.
Press Command-J and tick the date columns you want, such as Date Modified and Date Added.
Click a column header to sort by it. Click again to reverse the order.

View Options apply to the current folder. Click Use as Defaults at the bottom of the panel to apply them to every folder in list view.

Group by date

In a busy folder, grouping is easier to scan than sorting. Choose View, then Use Groups, then pick Group By and a date, such as Date Modified. Finder splits the folder into sections like Today, Previous 7 Days and Previous 30 Days, and you can still sort inside each group.

Search a date range

Press Command-F in a Finder window and choose This Mac or the current folder.
Set the first rule to Last modified date.
Pick a condition: within last a number of days, weeks or months; before or after a date; or today, yesterday, this week, this month or this year.
For a range between two dates, add a second Last modified date rule, one with after and one with before.
Add a Kind rule if you know the type, and save the search if you will reuse it.

To see a single file's dates, select it and press Command-I. Get Info shows Created and Modified at the top.

Exact ranges in Terminal

Terminal is useful when you want a precise list. These commands only read and list; they do not change anything.

ls -lt ~/Documents lists a folder with the most recently modified files first.
find ~/Documents -type f -mtime -7 lists files modified in the last seven days, including those in subfolders.
find ~/Documents -type f -newermt 2026-09-01 ! -newermt 2026-10-01 lists files modified during September 2026.
mdls -name kMDItemLastUsedDate file.pdf prints the last opened date Spotlight recorded for one file.

Replace the folder path with the one you want. Dragging a folder from Finder onto the Terminal window types its path for you.

Search by date in plain English with FileSift

In FileSift you type the time frame with the thing you want: pdfs from last week, screenshots this month or invoice from last month. FileSift shows the date and type filters it understood, so if it read “last week” differently from what you meant, you can change the filter instead of rewording and guessing. Results show as large thumbnails, which helps when the right file is one of several with similar names.

Common questions

Why is Date Last Opened empty for some files?

macOS records it only when a file is opened in certain ways, so files that have never been opened, or were only read by background tools, can show no date.

Does copying a file change its modified date?

A copy made in Finder normally keeps the original modified date. Saving a new version from an app updates it.

FileSift shows your folders as large thumbnails, searches in plain English and clears duplicates. US$19 once, for macOS 14 or later. See what it does.

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