Hi Mitchell! Thanks again for your patience and persistence. I try to reward this with more findings... ;-) Let's focus on what stat shows as "Modify" and "Change", where "Change" might be what the typical file browser (Caja, DoubleCmd) interprets as "Date". I start off with my (slightly modified) script: source=~/Temp/test.bin target=/media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin if [ ! -e "$source" ]; then echo "Creating: \"$source\"..." touch "$source" sleep 10 fi echo "Source:" stat "$source" echo echo "Target (cp --preserve \"$source\" \"$target\"):" rm -f "$target" cp --preserve "$source" "$target" stat "$target" echo echo "Target (rsync --archive \"$source\" \"$target\"):" rm -f "$target" rsync --archive "$source" "$target" stat "$target" That results in: Source: File: /home/user/Temp/test.bin Modify: 2023-08-29 10:52:46.090944857 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 10:52:46.090944857 +0200 Target (cp --preserve "/home/user/Temp/test.bin" "/media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin"): File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin Modify: 2023-08-29 10:52:46.090944800 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 13:10:18.809337400 +0200 Target (rsync --archive "/home/user/Temp/test.bin" "/media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin"): File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin Modify: 2023-08-29 10:52:46.090944800 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 10:52:46.090944800 +0200 (cutting away the irrelevant output for clarity's sake). That indicates a different behaviour of cp --preserve vs rsync --archive: The former does not adjust the change date. I could live with that in a pinch. Now a manual copy frm source to target with Caja: File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin Modify: 2023-08-29 10:52:46.090944000 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 10:52:46.090944000 +0200 - seems to rather mimic rsync's way of doing things. Now for the interesting part. I got this file: File: Der Pakt mit dem Teufel [1950.GER.H264.AAC.576p].mkv Size: 1127457487 Blocks: 2202080 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 811h/2065d Inode: 21897600 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-28 19:55:25.183641164 +0200 Modify: 2016-03-24 10:43:36.804000000 +0100 Change: 2023-08-27 18:55:46.493351658 +0200 Birth: 2023-08-23 23:45:53.104421855 +0200 Copying manually with Caja onto the NAS: File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/Der Pakt mit dem Teufel [1950.GER.H264.AAC.576p].mkv Size: 1127457487 Blocks: 2202112 IO Block: 1048576 regular file Device: 35h/53d Inode: 116823 Links: 1 Access: (0770/-rwxrwx---) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-28 19:55:25.183641000 +0200 Modify: 2016-03-24 10:43:36.804000000 +0100 Change: 2016-03-24 10:43:36.804000000 +0100 Birth: 2023-08-29 13:16:00.089281300 +0200 Deleted the target and repeat: File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/Der Pakt mit dem Teufel [1950.GER.H264.AAC.576p].mkv Size: 1127457487 Blocks: 2202112 IO Block: 1048576 regular file Device: 35h/53d Inode: 116824 Links: 1 Access: (0770/-rwxrwx---) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-29 13:17:22.142932100 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-29 13:17:22.142932100 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 13:17:22.142932100 +0200 Birth: 2023-08-29 13:17:09.820186600 +0200 WTF? Two identical transaction, one preserves Modify/Change timestamps, one overwrites it with the current date. Since you were requesting a confirmation of things on the local (ext4) file system. That would be source=~/Temp/test.bin target=~/Temp/test2.bin in my script. Here we go: Source: File: /home/user/Temp/test.bin Modify: 2023-08-29 10:52:46.090944857 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 10:52:46.090944857 +0200 Target (cp --preserve "/home/user/Temp/test.bin" "/home/user/Temp/test2.bin"): File: /home/user/Temp/test2.bin Modify: 2023-08-29 10:52:46.090944857 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 13:19:33.249941054 +0200 Target (rsync --archive "/home/user/Temp/test.bin" "/home/user/Temp/test2.bin"): File: /home/user/Temp/test2.bin Modify: 2023-08-29 10:52:46.090944857 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 13:19:33.261940939 +0200 So in this case, cp --preserve and rsync --archive behave completely identical. To top things off, I conducted a couple experiments on a Mint 19.2 system I had at hand. For the complete madness, please scroll down, I'm just giving a summary here: - Mint 19.2 does not seem to know the "Birth" attribute. - For VRB_5856.jpg and a SMB target, cp --preserve fails to preserve either "Modify" or "Change" attribute. - Double Commander preserves both. - rsync preserves both as well. - Same with Caja. - With the test file test.bin, cp --preserve *WAS* able to preserve both attributes. - Same with rsync --archive, Caja and Double Commander. To be honest, I don't see a difference between those two files: File: VRB_5856.jpg Size: 134605 Blocks: 264 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 802h/2050d Inode: 13762703 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ anja) Access: 2023-08-29 08:47:05.646302145 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-04 18:42:55.380292511 +0200 Change: 2023-08-04 18:42:55.380292511 +0200 Birth: - File: test.bin Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 regular empty file Device: 802h/2050d Inode: 2228246 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ anja) Access: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698141 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698141 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698141 +0200 Birth: - One was probably imported from a digital camera (FAT file system via USB) and one directly created in ext4. My head is spinning, to say the least... Hope you can make some sense out of all this. Source: user@PCUSER:~$ stat VRB_5856.jpg File: VRB_5856.jpg Size: 134605 Blocks: 264 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 802h/2050d Inode: 13762703 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-29 08:47:05.646302145 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-04 18:42:55.380292511 +0200 Change: 2023-08-04 18:42:55.380292511 +0200 Birth: - Target: user@PCUSER:~$ cp --preserve VRB_5856.jpg /media/rn214/user/Temp/VRB_5856.jpg user@PCUSER:~$ stat /media/rn214/user/Temp/VRB_5856.jpg File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/VRB_5856.jpg Size: 134605 Blocks: 384 IO Block: 16384 regular file Device: 35h/53d Inode: 198465 Links: 1 Access: (0770/-rwxrwx---) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-29 08:47:05.646302100 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-29 09:00:18.792808800 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 09:00:18.792808800 +0200 Birth: - Target (Double Commander): user@PCUSER:~$ stat /media/rn214/user/Temp/VRB_5856.jpg File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/VRB_5856.jpg Size: 134605 Blocks: 384 IO Block: 16384 regular file Device: 35h/53d Inode: 198466 Links: 1 Access: (0770/-rwxrwx---) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-29 08:47:05.000000000 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-04 18:42:55.000000000 +0200 Change: 2023-08-04 18:42:55.000000000 +0200 Birth: - Target (rsync): user@PCUSER:~$ rm /media/rn214/user/Temp/VRB_5856.jpg user@PCUSER:~$ rsync --archive VRB_5856.jpg /media/rn214/user/Temp/VRB_5856.jpg user@PCUSER:~$ stat /media/rn214/user/Temp/VRB_5856.jpg File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/VRB_5856.jpg Size: 134605 Blocks: 384 IO Block: 16384 regular file Device: 35h/53d Inode: 198467 Links: 1 Access: (0770/-rwxrwx---) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-29 09:01:46.599920400 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-04 18:42:55.380292500 +0200 Change: 2023-08-04 18:42:55.380292500 +0200 Birth: - Target (Caja): user@PCUSER:~$ rm /media/rn214/user/Temp/VRB_5856.jpg user@PCUSER:~$ stat /media/rn214/user/Temp/VRB_5856.jpg File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/VRB_5856.jpg Size: 134605 Blocks: 384 IO Block: 16384 regular file Device: 35h/53d Inode: 198468 Links: 1 Access: (0770/-rwxrwx---) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-29 09:02:51.997905000 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-04 18:42:55.380292000 +0200 Change: 2023-08-04 18:42:55.380292000 +0200 Birth: - user@PCUSER:~$ user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ touch test.bin user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ sleep 10 user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ stat test.bin File: test.bin Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 regular empty file Device: 802h/2050d Inode: 2228246 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698141 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698141 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698141 +0200 Birth: - user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ cp --preserve test.bin /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ stat /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 16384 regular empty file Device: 35h/53d Inode: 198472 Links: 1 Access: (0770/-rwxrwx---) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698100 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698100 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698100 +0200 Birth: - user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ rm /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ cp test.bin /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ stat /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 16384 regular empty file Device: 35h/53d Inode: 198473 Links: 1 Access: (0770/-rwxrwx---) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-29 09:18:01.154294600 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-29 09:18:01.154294600 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 09:18:01.154294600 +0200 Birth: - user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ rm /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ rsync --archive test.bin /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ stat /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 16384 regular empty file Device: 35h/53d Inode: 198474 Links: 1 Access: (0770/-rwxrwx---) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-29 09:18:25.368763100 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698100 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698100 +0200 Birth: - user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ rm /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin Target (Double Commander): user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ stat /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 16384 regular empty file Device: 35h/53d Inode: 198475 Links: 1 Access: (0770/-rwxrwx---) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-29 09:16:41.000000000 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.000000000 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.000000000 +0200 Birth: - Target (Caja): user@PCUSER:~/Temp$ stat /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin File: /media/rn214/user/Temp/test.bin Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 16384 regular empty file Device: 35h/53d Inode: 198476 Links: 1 Access: (0770/-rwxrwx---) Uid: ( 1000/ user) Gid: ( 1000/ user) Access: 2023-08-29 09:20:33.265305000 +0200 Modify: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698000 +0200 Change: 2023-08-29 09:15:57.505698000 +0200 Birth: - user@PCUSER:~$ cat /etc/fstab //rn214/user /media/rn214/user cifs noauto,users,credentials=/home/user/.smbcredentials,iocharset=utf8,uid=1000,gid=1000,file_mode=0770,dir_mode=0770 0 0 //rn214/media /media/rn214/media cifs noauto,users,credentials=/home/user/.smbcredentials,iocharset=utf8,uid=1000,gid=1000,file_mode=0770,dir_mode=0770 0 0 user@PCUSER:~$ rsync --version rsync version 3.1.2 protocol version 31 Copyright (C) 1996-2015 by Andrew Tridgell, Wayne Davison, and others. Web site: http://rsync.samba.org/ Capabilities: 64-bit files, 64-bit inums, 64-bit timestamps, 64-bit long ints, socketpairs, hardlinks, symlinks, IPv6, batchfiles, inplace, append, ACLs, xattrs, iconv, symtimes, prealloc rsync comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. See the GNU General Public Licence for details. user@PCUSER:~$ sudo smbstatus --version Version 4.7.6-Ubuntu user@PCUSER:~$ modinfo cifs filename: /lib/modules/4.15.0-20-generic/kernel/fs/cifs/cifs.ko version: 2.10 name: cifs vermagic: 4.15.0-20-generic SMP mod_unload user@PCUSER:~$ uname -a Linux PCuser 4.15.0-20-generic #21-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 24 06:16:15 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux user@PCUSER:~$ lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: LinuxMint Description: Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa Release: 19.1 Codename: tessa