To copy a project between Mac drives while keeping its file modification dates, use macOS’s ditto command in Terminal and verify the result. One limitation matters: ditto documents preserving modification and access times, but not the original file creation date. If “date” means Finder’s Created value, macOS’s documented copy options do not promise to keep it. Check which date matters before deleting or reformatting the source drive.

First identify the date you need to keep

A file’s Modified date records when its contents last changed. Its Created date is a separate file-system attribute. Finder can also show Date Added, which describes when an item was added to a particular location. Apple lists creation and content-change dates as distinct file-system metadata attributes, so preserving one does not establish that the others were preserved. Apple’s file-system metadata keys

For a project archive, Modified is often the date used to identify the last edited version. If you specifically need Created or Date Added—for example, because another workflow sorts files by that field—treat it as a separate requirement. Don’t infer that Created survived just because Modified did.

Copy the project with ditto

For a new destination folder, connect both drives and open Terminal. Replace the example volume and folder names with the names shown in Finder. The destination folder should not already contain a project copy you need to keep: ditto can merge into an existing destination and overwrite files with matching names.

ditto -V "/Volumes/SourceDrive/Project" "/Volumes/BackupDrive/Project"

This copies the project folder’s contents into a destination folder named Project; -V prints each copied item. The macOS ditto manual says copied items retain the source’s modification and access times, and that resource forks and extended attributes are preserved by default. It does not list creation time among the timestamps it promises to preserve. DITTO(1), macOS manual page

If the destination folder already exists, ditto merges the source into it. Use a fresh, correctly named destination folder when you want a clean copy, and check the command’s output for errors before relying on the result. Do not add --norsrc casually: the manual says it disables copying resource forks and, unless overridden, extended attributes and ACLs as well. Those attributes can matter to Mac project files.

Why cp -p is not a creation-date fix

The built-in cp command with -p preserves modification and access times, along with other attributes where permissions allow. Apple’s cp manual does not include creation time in that list either. That makes cp -p useful when you want modification dates kept, but it is not a documented way to carry a file’s original Created date across drives. Apple’s cp manual

Neither command can promise that every attribute will be represented identically on every destination. A drive’s file system and the permissions available to your account affect which metadata can be stored or applied. ditto’s manual, for example, describes preserving some attributes only on supported destination volumes and permissions.

Verify before removing the original

After copying, select a few representative files in Finder and press Command-I to open Get Info. Compare the source and destination Modified values; also compare Created if that is your requirement. In Finder List view, you can inspect and sort by available date columns, though Apple documents List view’s date-modified display rather than a guarantee that all date fields will transfer. Apple Support: Organize your files in the Finder on Mac

Check files nested in the project as well as the top-level folder, and open key project files from the destination. If Modified matches but Created has changed, the copy achieved the documented timestamp preservation but did not meet a creation-date requirement. Keep the source intact until you have confirmed that the dates and project contents you rely on are present at the destination.

If exact Created dates are essential, choose a copy or archive workflow only after confirming that it explicitly supports preserving and restoring creation dates for your source and destination file systems. Apple’s ditto and cp -p documentation does not make that promise, so don’t treat either command as a verified solution for that requirement.

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