Google Drive File Stream files creation date

Question

I know it has been asked a few times already, but - not in this context I think and other questions have been asked few years ago already, so I'm hoping maybe something changed.

So my issue is - I am uploading files to the Google Drive using Google Drive File Stream. However, while the uploading goes smoothly, I have a problem with files creation date - it is always changed to the timestamp of the time the file got uploaded, not the actual, local file creation date. It is a serious problem, as I am going to use this to back-up huge amounts of data and preserve all the meta-data I can and the creation date is crucial. Is there a way to either upload it with the creation date intact, or to change it after the upload? From what I've seen this seems not to be possible, but I have to try and make it work. Any help and insight will be appreciated. I'm using the Drive File Stream with Python.

EDIT: I didn't make it clear enough - the issue here is that I don't want to use Google Drive API at all, but rather deal with this using only Google Drive File Stream interface if it's possible.

Answer 1

create

If you check the documentation for files.create You will find that acceptable metadata for file creation does include a createdTime You should then just add this to the metadata you use when uploading the file. As you did not post your code I have grabbed the standard example from the documentation and added the created time as follows.

file_metadata = {'name': 'photo.jpg', 'createdTime': 'THETIME'}
media = MediaFileUpload('files/photo.jpg', mimetype='image/jpeg')
file = drive_service.files().create(body=file_metadata,
                                    media_body=media,
                                    fields='id').execute()
print 'File ID: %s' % file.get('id')

Update

In the event that you want to update the ones you have already created you could use the following method.

If you check the documentation for file create you will find that the response is just a File resource

If you check file resource you will see that CreatedTime is write able.

You should run a file.update and reset the createdTime to the proper time.