Use enrol_flatfile to enrol a user on a course without supplying a start date Check the list of enroled users for the course - the user will be enrolled with a startdate showing when the enrol_flatfile sync job ran Use enrol_flatfile to process the same file as in the first step Check the list of enroled users for the course - the user will be enrolled with a startdate showing 1st of Jan 1970 Repeat the process with the fix applied and the update date will be correct See docs for more details on setting up enrol_flatfile: https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Flat_file