[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rsngfrce:
I have an Samsung Epic 4G Touch, stock rooted ICS 4.0.4, with Clockwork mod. I have developed a strange problem with my data having dates in the future. Where I first noticed this was in Titanium Backup, where sorting the apps by 'data freshness' results in numerous apps having a data changed' date up to a month in the future of the current date. I contacted Titanium Backup tech support regarding this, and did some checking based on what they told me. What I discovered is that all the apps that have a future data date have a lib file in the data/data/'app'/lib folder that seems to have a modified date with a YEAR (2012) in place of a TIME.

I have only been able to see this YEAR by going into ADB SHELL and doing a BUSYBOX LS -AL listing of the directory. Here is an example of what I see for two apps:

root@android:/ # busybox ls -al /data/data/com.opera.browser/lib

busybox ls -al /data/data/com.opera.browser/lib

/data/data/com.opera.browser/lib:

drwxr-xr-x 2 system system 4096 Aug 14 19:29 .

drwxr-xr-x 9 app_126 app_126 4096 Aug 14 19:29 ..

-rwxr-xr-x 1 system system 9824 Aug 20 2012 libOS14.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 system system 9740 Aug 20 2012 libOS14fallback.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 system system 9824 Aug 20 2012 libOS15.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 system system 9740 Aug 20 2012 libOS15fallback.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 system system 4948 Aug 20 2012 libOS4.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 system system 9284 Aug 20 2012 libOS7.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 system system 13492 Aug 20 2012 libOS8.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 system system 9664 Aug 20 2012 libOS9.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 system system 9568 Aug 20 2012 libOS9fallback.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 system system 1257444 Aug 20 2012 libbream.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 system system 9478860 Aug 20 2012 libopera.so

root@android:/ # busybox ls -al /data/data/com.adobe.reader/lib

busybox ls -al /data/data/com.adobe.reader/lib

/data/data/com.adobe.reader/lib:

drwxr-xr-x 2 system system 4096 Aug 14 19:30 .

drwxr-xr-x 6 app_351 app_351 4096 Aug 14 19:30 ..

-rwxr-xr-x 1 system system 3931800 Aug 25 2012 libAdobeReader.so

If I check the properties of the files that have a year instead of a time in ES Explorer, it shows the same incorrect date and time that Titanium Backup shows for the app data, it does not show the 2012 year as above.

The app with the 'earliest' incorrect data date is Opera Mobile, which is about 5-10 seconds ahead of the actual time (date is correct), I don't know if that indicates this problem somehow originates with that app. When I update an app, it generally now gets its data listed a one month in the future, so this problem is ongoing, and I first noticed it about a month ago. I made no major changes that I know of that would have caused something like this (though I actually have no idea what would cause something like this!).

Titanium support has asked if the date set in my phone could have been incorrect when these apps were installed and has since been corrected. I know of no reason this would have been the case, but I do know that the date and time are correct on my phone now but apps continue to update with the wrong date, so I don't think that could have been what caused this?

Anyone have any idea what is going on and how I can fix it? I am no Android expert, just trying to learn, and a lot of the stuff I have already said is over my head, so please don't assume that I know something... Thanks!