From 08eadbb51a80c1a596e0560164bc8bdc33462c3d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Yi-111-a <153097222+Yi-111-a@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2026 20:00:16 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] fix(neuralynx): handle unclosed files with unparseable
 TimeClosed (#1901)

---
 neo/rawio/neuralynxrawio/nlxheader.py     |  5 +++-
 neo/test/rawiotest/test_neuralynxrawio.py | 35 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 39 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/neo/rawio/neuralynxrawio/nlxheader.py b/neo/rawio/neuralynxrawio/nlxheader.py
index 54bd57c99..af7b8d916 100644
--- a/neo/rawio/neuralynxrawio/nlxheader.py
+++ b/neo/rawio/neuralynxrawio/nlxheader.py
@@ -350,7 +350,10 @@ def _setTimeDate(self, txt_header):
             sr = NlxHeader._closeDatetime2_pat.search(txt_header)
         if sr:
             dt2 = sr.groupdict()
-            self["recording_closed"] = dateutil.parser.parse(f"{dt2['date']} {dt2['time']}")
+            try:
+                self["recording_closed"] = dateutil.parser.parse(f"{dt2['date']} {dt2['time']}")
+            except (ValueError, dateutil.parser.ParserError):
+                pass
 
     def _normalize_types(self):
         """
diff --git a/neo/test/rawiotest/test_neuralynxrawio.py b/neo/test/rawiotest/test_neuralynxrawio.py
index 0a1c90980..41411af8b 100644
--- a/neo/test/rawiotest/test_neuralynxrawio.py
+++ b/neo/test/rawiotest/test_neuralynxrawio.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 import unittest
 
 import os
+import tempfile
 import numpy as np
 import re
 
@@ -562,6 +563,40 @@ def test_filename_prop(self):
         hdr = NlxHeader(filename)
         self.assertEqual(r"C:\CheetahData\2000-01-01_00-00-00\CSC5.ncs", hdr["OriginalFileName"])
 
+class TestNlxHeaderUnclosedFile(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_unclosed_file_datetime(self):
+        # Neuralynx files where recording was not properly closed (#1901)
+        header_txt = (
+            "######## Neuralynx Data File Header\r\n"
+            "-FileType NCS\r\n"
+            "-FileVersion 3.4\r\n"
+            "-RecordSize 1044\r\n"
+            "-AcqEntName CSC1\r\n"
+            "-HardwareSubSystemName AcqSystem1\r\n"
+            "-HardwareSubSystemType AcqSys\r\n"
+            "-SamplingFrequency 32000\r\n"
+            "-ADMaxValue 32767\r\n"
+            "-ADBitVolts 0.000000030517578125\r\n"
+            "-NumADChannels 1\r\n"
+            "-ADChannel 0\r\n"
+            "-InputRange 1000\r\n"
+            "-InputInverted False\r\n"
+            "-ApplicationName Cheetah \"5.7.4\"\r\n"
+            "-TimeCreated 2017/02/16 17:56:04\r\n"
+            "-TimeClosed File was not properly closed\r\n"
+        )
+        with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile("w", delete=False, suffix=".ncs") as f:
+            f.write(header_txt.ljust(NlxHeader.HEADER_SIZE, " "))
+            temp_file = f.name
+        try:
+            hdr = NlxHeader(temp_file)
+            self.assertEqual(datetime.datetime(2017, 2, 16, 17, 56, 4), hdr["recording_opened"])
+            self.assertIsNone(hdr.get("recording_closed"))
+            self.assertEqual("File was not properly closed", hdr["TimeClosed"])
+        finally:
+            if os.path.exists(temp_file):
+                os.remove(temp_file)
+
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()