Allow file browser columns customization

[artjerry]

Currently, Jupyter Notebook UI only displays "Last Modified" time
(e.g., "a year ago"). There is no option to view the file creation date.

Expected Behavior:
An option to display the file Created Date or at least a toggle to switch between Created Date and Modified Date.

Use Case:
When working with multiple notebooks or training materials,
it becomes difficult to identify newly created notebooks versus old ones,
especially when files are copied or restored.

Environment:
OS: Windows
Jupyter Notebook: 7.5.0
Browser: Chrome

[KH-Coder865]

A good option will be to add a separate column for "Created At" instead of changing the existing "Last Modified" Column.

Kindly guide @krassowski sir.

[krassowski]

It sounds like it could be a part of:

• Add properties context menu entry for files jupyterlab/jupyterlab#18289
• File details pane jupyterlab/jupyterlab#6538
• Support for additional File Browser columns jupyterlab/jupyterlab#15933

[andrii-i]

Hi @arthivigneshwari. Thank you for creating this issue. Would your use case be satisfied by being able to see Created Date in "additional properties" panel which you could see for each file from the file browser context menu (see #7797 (comment) above)? Or are you looking to have it available as one of the file browser columns and therefore be able to sort etc based on it?

If it's the latter, we should potentially generalize this issue a bit and use it to track request for potential feature of allowing users to customize file browser columns. I have looked through the list of open issues and it does not seem to be a duplicate.

[andrii-i]

Let's use this issue to track request for potential feature of allowing users to customize file browser columns.

[artjerry]

Hi Andrii, Thanks for your email. As I am out of station unable to reply. Will check your comments in jira and reply you soon. Thanks, Arthi

…

On Tue, 27 Jan, 2026, 11:24 pm Andrii Ieroshenko, ***@***.***> wrote: *andrii-i* left a comment (jupyter/notebook#7797) <#7797 (comment)> Let's use this issue to track request for potential feature of allowing users to customize file browser columns. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#7797 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AIFWJDHAENNTJY54XINIUX34I6Q4NAVCNFSM6AAAAACQOTPO2KVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTQMBWGYZTEMZVGM> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[artjerry]

Hi @andrii-i Most welcome. Would like to have "Created Date And Time" column and "Last Modified Date and Time" as the file browser columns in UI. It will be helpful to sort in asc or desc order based on last created or last modified date and time.
Currently we have only a "Modified" column which does not show the exact last modified date or time. Instead it shows values like "20 days ago" or "last year" which is not informative. 

[ktaletsk]

Here is how a 'Created' column could look like in JupyterLab (on Mac):

This required changes in two places:

JupyterLab - Add 'Created' column to the file browser

• Add "Date Created" column to file browser jupyterlab/jupyterlab#18533

Jupyter Server - Use st_birthtime for accurate creation timestamps

• The created field currently uses st_ctime, which on Unix is inode change time (updated by chmod, chown, etc.), not actual creation time
• On macOS/BSD, st_birthtime provides the true file creation time
• PR: Use st_birthtime for file created timestamp on macOS/BSD jupyter-server/jupyter_server#1594

Note: On Linux, true creation time is generally unavailable, so created falls back to st_ctime (best-effort).