I upgraded a test server (Windows Server 2016) from 8.5.4 to 9.0.0, and one of the jobs started having problems. The task having the issue was a List file(s) task where I set beginning and end dates based on a job variable that was set in a previous task. The same job running on our Production server (Windows Server 2012 R2) under 8.5.4 is still working.

The task is defined thus (all variables have valid values):
File Filter > Location:
Folder: {USERVAR(logFolder)}
Exclude folder(s): <blank>
Include file mask: *
Is regex: unchecked
Case sensitive: unchecked
Use file exclusion: checked
Exclude file mask: *.zip
File filter > Date:
Modified date < {DATENOWADD(Days|-{MATH(Add|Integer|-1|{JOB(Active,Variable,oldestFileAge)}|#0)}|M/d/yyyy 00:00:00)}
AND
Modified date > {DATENOWADD(Days|-{JOB(Active,Variable,oldestFileAge)}|M/d/yyyy 00:00:00)}
Validate dates before saving: checked.

The goal of this task is to list all files that are not .zip files, which have a modified date between 12 AM on the oldest file's date and 12 AM on the next day.

Opening this task and attempting to re-save it produces the following error:
Field 'Newer than' value is an invalid date. Try matching accepted server format: 12/16/2019 1:29 PM

I've tried changing the formula to things like "{DATENOWADD(Days|-{JOB(Active,Variable,oldestFileAge)}|M/d/yyyy)} 12:00 AM", but am still getting the error. So far, the only thing that has not thrown the error is setting the field to a constant like "12/16/2019 12:00 AM".

What can I try?

Please export the Job and send to support@visualcron.com

---

Done.

More info: I reverted the test server back to a snapshot taken before I did the upgrade to VC 9.0.0. This time I upgraded it to 8.5.5. The date selections worked like they do on the production server. That is, comparing Modified date to

{DATENOWADD(Days|-{MATH(Add|Integer|-1|{JOB(Active,Variable,oldestFileAge)}|#0)}|M/d/yyyy 00:00:00)}

and

{DATENOWADD(Days|-{JOB(Active,Variable,oldestFileAge)}|M/d/yyyy 00:00:00)}

selected files with modified dates during the specified 24-hour window. No errors were generated.

An update: I upgraded VisualCron on the test server from 8.5.5 to 9.1.5 and took another look at the job. I still get this error when I open and save the List Files task:



I tried changing the "00:00:00" in the time portion to "12:00 A\M" and got the same error:

I finally figured out a workaround. I created two more job variables, dateRangeStart and dateRangeEnd. These get calculated based on the oldestFileDate variable:



Even though VC was translating the variables to constants, I still could not use them directly in the date selection. I had to wrap them in a date function. The one I chose was DATEADD:


My job is now working like it was before the upgrade. I'm still mystified that the formulae I was using before the upgrade failed validation in the new version. What I've had to do is a bit clunky, I think.

To be clear, I not only had to create two new job variables, but I had to create two new tasks to set their values as constants, plus wrap those constant values in a date function in order to use them. Took a lot of trial and error to figure out, and was very frustrating, considering how the older version of VC handled the previous setup just fine.