TLDR: In os.scandir directory entries, atime is always a copy of mtime rather than the actual access time. Demo program: Windows 10, Python 3.8.3: # osscandirtest.py import time, os with open('Test', 'w') as f: f.write('Anything\n') # Write to a file time.sleep(10) with open('Test', 'r') as f: f.readline() # Read the file print(os.stat('Test')) for DirEntry in os.scandir('.'): if DirEntry.name == 'Test': stat = DirEntry.stat() print(f'scandir DirEntry {stat.st_ctime=} {stat.st_mtime=} {stat.st_atime=}') Sample output: os.stat_result(st_mode=33206, st_ino=8162774324687317, st_dev=2230120362, st_nlink=1, st_uid=0, st_gid=0, st_size=10, st_atime=1600631381, st_mtime=1600631371, st_ctime=1600631262) scandir DirEntry stat.st_ctime=1600631262.951019 stat.st_mtime=1600631371.7062848 stat.st_atime=1600631371.7062848 For os.stat, atime is 10 seconds more than mtime, as would be expected. But for os.scandir, atime is a copy of mtime. ISTM that this is a bug, and in fact recently it stopped me from using os.scandir in a program where I needed the access timestamp. No big deal, but ... If it is a feature for some reason, presumably it should be documented. Best wishes Rob Cliffe