How can I display milliseconds in the time field in Finder (and other apps) in Sequoia?

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Level 2

208 points

How can I display milliseconds in the time field in Finder (and other apps) in Sequoia?

I'm presently on Monterey. But it's time to upgrade. In Monterey, you can configure four versions of the time format: Short, Medium, Long, and Full. And you can include milliseconds. Well, I was at Best Buy a little while ago, and it appears there is now, in Sequoia, only one time format, and you can't add the milliseconds field. I actually presently need it, as what happens to the times at that level tells me if my file is an original, was extracted from a tar file, or restored from a zip file. Yes, I'm still working on my file corruption problem, trying to pin down just when it happened. (At least four different instances of file corruption!)

I knew it! With each upgrade, something I like (maybe several things!) breaks, doesn't work as well as before, or outright disappears. This problem even affects a third party app (Find Any File). And things I don't like, don't get fixed.

Is there a way to get the milliseconds field back? A workaround? Something? TIA!

iMac 24″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Mar 29, 2025 4:55 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 30, 2025 12:41 AM in response to betaneptune

Yes, older macOS like 10.15 Catalina Photos.app could display the time zone in its Window > Info when it was added as a custom preference to macOS Language & Region > Advanced... > Times > drag the Time Zone to the Medium length format and set its format as desired (+02:00, for example).

However, this GUI option is not present in macOS 13 Ventura or later. Time zone display can be enabled in macOS 13-15 Ventura-Sequoia Photos.app via the Terminal with (re-launch Photos so it takes effect):

defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleICUTimeFormatStrings -dict-add "2" "HH:mm:ss z"

...and reverted to the default time zone-less display with:

defaults delete NSGlobalDomain AppleICUTimeFormatStrings

I use that so Photos.app can display time zones so spotting and correcting wrong image/movie metadata times is easier.

The info is written to:

~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist

macOS Ventura 13.0 - Language Region - Da… - Apple Community

https://gist.github.com/chris-79/654bfcd252280230fa82

I prefer Finder time defaults but I guess you can tweak also them via the Terminal (re-launch Finder or reboot for the changes to apply).

These links might be also be helpful:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/450434/show-finder-item-modified-created-time-with-seconds-in-ventura

https://www.nsdateformatter.com

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Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

130,735 points

Mar 29, 2025 5:13 PM in response to betaneptune

betaneptune wrote:

Is there a way to get the milliseconds field back? A workaround? Something? TIA!

None I'm aware of. I didn't even know it was an option in Monterey. I'll have to look. Not that I have any need for it.

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Answer 3

betaneptune Author

Level 2

208 points

Mar 29, 2025 8:18 PM in response to dialabrain

What about Ventura and Sonoma? Can I upgrade to one of those for now? Do either of them support display of milliseconds?

And I forgot to check this when I was at Best Buy: Does macOS still have the same awful spell-checker?

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Answer 4

betaneptune Author

Level 2

208 points

Mar 29, 2025 9:57 PM in response to dialabrain

What's "wrong" with the Apple spell-checker?

No Replace All function.

What should be called Ignore Once is called Find Next.

What should be called Ignore All is called Ignore.

When it's done, it just leaves up the last result, even carrying it to the next document. Why doesn't it just say done? Why doesn't it clear the fields when you start using it on the next document?

Doesn't touch words that are in all caps.

On the bright side, it's easy to Tab among the control buttons.

Why use a spell-checker?

Not every one can remember the spellings of all words, and not everyone can avoid typos.

Faster and more accurate than proofreading for spelling errors.

I learned how to take a square root by hand. (Yes, there is such a method, but it's cumbersome and laborious, at least by today's standards. Learned this in chemistry class (!) circa 1974-1977.) I usually use a calculator.

Those log and trig tables. I learned how to use them. Oh, and a slide rule, too! But now (and for quite a while!) I use a calculator instead.

I always found it both amusing and cringeworthy that Mr. Spock sometimes uses a circular slide rule.