Finder sorting bug (by Date Modified)

These screenshots illustrate files sorted in the following strange order:
18 October 2014
19 October 2014
1 January 2014

Has anybody experienced this problem?

Welcome to the forum.

No screenshots to be seen.

What version OS X, what Mac? That order is ascending, which is one option for how to display dates. The other is descending, with most recent at the top. To alternate, click on the column header and the order reverses.

Thanks for response.
MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite 10.10.3
Screenshots:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hxdxkf1ri4cql0v/Apple_finder_sort_problem1.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/45fdmf0rnn3lgel/Apple_finder_sort_problem2.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/no57hp5mtm2vih8/Apple_finder_sort_problem3.png?dl=0

I don't see what the problem is, sorry. The three pictures are in order, just as you selected. Have you tried the "List" view and sorted on the columns by clicking on the header of the columns like I suggested earlier?

I think what the OP means is that 18-Oct follows 19-Oct, but is then followed by 1-January, which should be before 18-Oct.

If that's the issue, the problem is that the camera or someone altering the date left off the leading 0. Changing the date (you can do this in iPhoto or Photos) to 01-January-2014 will cause the sort to work correctly.

But that would be the problem if the sort was by name and the name of the file was the date. But in his examples, the files are named IMG######, and he has selected "Date Modified" for sort. The date is actually stored as a number (I think it's the number of units of time (nanoseconds?) since 1-1-70 according to Wikipedia's entry on Epoch as a reference), translated to the date format when displayed. I don't think that even if he edited the data modified it would "stick" because that would be a change, which would immediately then be changed to the current date by that very modification. Maybe if he changed the display mode for dates in the System Preferences/Languages & Region/Advanced/Date settings the order would shift?

MacInWin - the three pictures are in alphabetical order (by filename), as all other pictures appear to be, in spite of the fact that I selected "Arrange by: Date Modified". They are not sorted by date. I don't think that the date display format affects sorting, it would be another bug.

chas_m - whatever the format of the day ("1" or "01") the January date precedes the October ones, so I would expect the January pictures go first, which is not the case here.

I don't use that view on my Finder, but I just tried it and as soon as I clicked on Date Modified, the order changed, with divider lines between months. However in the second column where I think your picture shows, it doesn't sort at all. The only thing I can think is that in that column mode, the sort order only applies to the first column. I use the List view and there one can click on the column header to sort by that column, either up or down. Have you tried that to see if that meeds your needs?

MacInWin, thank you for the recommendation. I would prefer the column view, so that I can see the dates and preview the pics at the same time, but, because of this bug I will have to use the list view more often.

In the List view, to preview the pics, click once on the file, then tap the space bar. Tap the space bar again to exit that quick view mode. Once you have a picture up, you can arrow down or up to the next picture. If you drag the preview to the side, you can see the file name and date and the picture at the same time.

MacInWin said:

If you drag the preview to the side, you can see the file name and date and the picture at the same time.

Click to expand...

Thank you!

Edit: Sorry, I might have missed the point...