When running the following AppleScript (other portions were removed for clarity)… set newDate to "1/1/1953 00:00 AM" do shell script "SetFile -d " & quoted form of newDate & " " & quoted form of filePath I can change  the created date to any year from 1970 to 2079 but attempting any year outside that range returns unpredictable results.  For instance, using 1/1/1953, the created date became February 6, 2096. But if I enter 1/1/2096 the created date becomes September 3, 2061. Any year between 1970 and 2079 yields the correct result. So, what’s the workaround? I need to be able set the year to any date from 1920 to the present and SetFile apparently can’t handle that range.