After upgrading from 12.04 to 14.04 I found that Nautilus shows the modification times of each file in lists only like "22. Jan 2014" instead of "22.01.2014 10:53:18". Some research showed that the issue is known and currently only "solveable" by either recompiling or taking a precompiled PPA. That means, it either breaks after each Nautilus update or is insecure.

I found a more generic and update-safer way to work around the issue by adding a custom column. It is far from being perfect, because sorting only works if the date format is something like YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss. When using another date format like the German one DD.MM.YYYY HH:mm:ss, the lexicographic order is not particularly useful. Furthermore, it does not work on network shares yet.

In order to be able to use Python to add a Nautilus file list column, install the following package:

sudo apt-get install python-nautilus


Create the following subfolders, if they do not already exist: ~/.local/share/nautilus-python/extensions

Create a file longdate.py in the directory and add the following code:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import os
import urllib
import datetime
from gi.repository import Nautilus, GObject

class ColumnExtension(GObject.GObject, Nautilus.ColumnProvider, Nautilus.InfoProvider):
def __init__(self):
pass

def get_columns(self):
return (Nautilus.Column(name="NautilusPython::Longdate", attribute="longdate", label="Longdate", description="Get long date"),)

def update_file_info(self, file):
if file.get_uri_scheme() != 'file':
return
filename = urllib.unquote(file.get_uri()[7:])
statbuf = os.stat(filename)
formatteddate = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(statbuf.st_mtime).strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
file.add_string_attribute('longdate', str(formatteddate))


After saving, enter nautilus -q in the terminal in order close the program entirely. Make the program file executable. Then restart Nautilus by clicking the file symbol. In the bar above the file list left-click and choose "Longdate" to show the detailed modification date and time of each file.