Filemtime giving the wrong output

Question

I have no idea why filetime is giving me the wrong date. Anyone have any suggestions?

for($i=0;$i<$image_count;$i++){                         //Setup file names and file types
    $temp_name = $target_dir . basename($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"][$i]);
    $temp_thumb_name = $thumb_target_dir . basename($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"][$i]);
    $temp_type = pathinfo($temp_name,PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
    array_push($target_file, $temp_name);               // Create array of file names
    array_push($target_file_thumb, $temp_thumb_name);   //Create array of thumb path names
    array_push($imageFileType, $temp_type);             //Create array of fileextensions
    echo "<BR>was last modified: " . date ("F d Y H:i:s.", filemtime(basename($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"][$i])));
    array_push($file_creation, date ("F d Y H:i:s.", filemtime(basename($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"][$i]))));
}

Output

was last modified: January 01 1970 01:00:00.

Error log

PHP Warning:  filemtime(): stat failed for DSC07292.jpg

Answer 1

I think the problem is in the path try this :

array_push($file_creation, date ("F d Y H:i:s.", filemtime($temp_name)));

Answer 2

The reason you get the output 1970 at one o'clock is because you are in a timezone (now) that is 1 hour+ compared with GMT.
What happens is that filemtime doesn't find the file or something else is wrong, but most likely a path error.
Filemtime returns false.

Date reads the false as 0. Date looks at the date in UNIX time 0 which is midnight 1970.

Your timezone adds 1 hour.

Output is 1 hour past midnight.

I can bet my left arm on it's a path error or that the file doesn't exist that you try filemtime on.

Make sure your array is correct, and that the file is really stored in basename() or webroot. (Highly doubtful about that).
If it's not in webroot you need to add the path in the filemtime () like:.

date ("F d Y H:i:s.", filemtime("THE PATH" . basename ($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"][$i])));

Also the path may need a /.

Edit:
I see now that you gave the path in comments to the other answer.

Try this:

date ("F d Y H:i:s.", filemtime($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]  . "/uploads/1/" . basename ($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"][$i])));

Answer 3

Have a read for the docs for file upload : how to handle file uploads

1. The uploaded file is located at $_FILES["fileToUpload"]["tmp_name"][$i] (Read it carefully, it is tmp_name)
2. The name of the file in $_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"][$i] does not contain any path. Useless to basename it.
3. You need to move the uploaded file to the location you want with the function move_uploaded_file

Once you've fixed the path issue, i bet you'll be disapointed : file creation date is a meta data of a file, it's managed by the file system (if it wants to) and as such is not inside the file.

This piece of information is not transferred during file upload. Unless you have files in which there may be meta information (like exif in images), there's no way to get the creation date of original files. By the way, you want Creation date but are using a function called fileMtime, the 'M' stands for Modification time...

For the rest Andreas explained you why date is 1970, as filemtime does not find a file to stat

// __DIR__ is directory of this php file, set accordingly
$target_dir = __DIR__ . '/';
$thumb_target_dir = __DIR__ . '/';

$image_count = count($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"]);
for ($i = 0; $i < $image_count; $i++) {
    //Setup file names and file types

    // Create the path to the location where we want to store the file
    $temp_name = $target_dir . $_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"][$i];  

    // We need to move the temp file to the location we want :
    move_uploaded_file($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["tmp_name"][$i], $temp_name);

    $temp_thumb_name = $thumb_target_dir . $_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"][$i];
    $temp_type = pathinfo($temp_name, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
    array_push($target_file, $temp_name);               // Create array of file names
    array_push($target_file_thumb, $temp_thumb_name);   //Create array of thumb path names
    array_push($imageFileType, $temp_type);             //Create array of fileextensions

    // Get the file modif time, but only of the local file.
    $fmtime = filemtime($temp_name);
    echo "<BR>was last modified: " . date("F d Y H:i:s.", $fmtime);
    array_push($file_creation, date("F d Y H:i:s.", $fmtime));
}