Moving folders · Safety and verification
Does moving a folder keep my files' dates, permissions and tags?
Short answer: Moves between your Mac and the fast drive keep file contents, names, modification dates, permissions, Finder tags and other extended attributes. A few special attributes, such as Finder's Locked checkbox and custom access-control lists, aren't carried over today.
Yes for what most people care about: file contents, names, modification dates, permissions, Finder tags and other extended attributes come across when a folder moves between your Mac and the fast drive. A few special attributes — for example Finder's "Locked" checkbox and custom access-control lists — aren't carried over today.
Last-opened dates are best-effort, because macOS itself updates them whenever anything reads a file.
Moving to a cloud account is different: what's kept depends on the service. Most keep the modified date; some keep more. Those limits come from the provider.
If a file relies on being locked, check it after the move. See cloud moves.