Modification time is not preserved when uploading MediaStore content via Android share

⚠️ Before posting ⚠️

• This is a bug, not a question or an enhancement.
• I've searched for similar issues and didn't find a duplicate.
• I've written a clear and descriptive title for this issue, not just "Bug" or "Crash".
• I agree to follow Nextcloud's Code of Conduct.

Steps to reproduce

1. Take an existing media file (photo) whose modification time is older than the current time.
2. Upload that file normally from within the Nextcloud Android app.
3. Verify that the original modification time is preserved on the server (as expected).
4. Delete the uploaded file again or choose another destination.
5. Open the same file in an Android app with sharing possibility, which shares it as a MediaStore content:// URI, e.g. the Google Photos app.
6. Use the Share function and select Nextcloud.
7. Upload the file to Nextcloud.
8. Compare the modification time of the uploaded file and see that it has the upload time as modification time instead of the original modification time.

Expected behaviour

The original file modification time should be preserved, just as it is when uploading the same file directly from within the Nextcloud app, provided that the source ContentProvider exposes the modification time.

Actual behaviour

When the file is uploaded through Android's Share function, the modification time is not preserved and the uploaded file gets the time of the upload / temporary copy instead.

Android version

17

Device brand and model

Google Pixel 11 Pro

Stock or custom OS?

Stock

Nextcloud android app version

35.0.0

Nextcloud server version

n/a – FileRun server, version 2026.3.0

Using a reverse proxy?

No

Android logs

No response

Server error logs

Additional information

I am using the Nextcloud Android app with a FileRun server, not a Nextcloud Server. However, this issue appears to happen on the Android client side before the actual upload, so the server implementation should not be relevant.

Looking at the current Android app code, CopyAndUploadContentUrisTask.queryLastModified() only checks:

DocumentsContract.Document.COLUMN_LAST_MODIFIED

If that column is not available, the function returns 0L and the modification time is not applied to the temporary file.

This seems problematic for files shared through Android's share sheet using a MediaStore URI such as:

content://media/external/images/media/...

MediaStore commonly exposes the modification timestamp as:

MediaStore.MediaColumns.DATE_MODIFIED

rather than DocumentsContract.Document.COLUMN_LAST_MODIFIED.

This situation can also be seen in the historical issues #7745 and #7752, where a MediaStore cursor exposed date_modified but not last_modified.

A possible solution would be to first try DocumentsContract.Document.COLUMN_LAST_MODIFIED and, if unavailable, fall back to MediaStore.MediaColumns.DATE_MODIFIED.

Please note that the units differ:

• DocumentsContract.Document.COLUMN_LAST_MODIFIED: milliseconds since epoch
• MediaStore.MediaColumns.DATE_MODIFIED: seconds since epoch

So the MediaStore value would need to be converted to milliseconds before applying it.

Suggested fix:

private fun queryLastModified(
    contentResolver: ContentResolver,
    uri: Uri
): Long = runCatching {
    contentResolver.query(uri, null, null, null, null)?.use { cursor ->
        if (!cursor.moveToFirst()) return@use 0L

        val documentColumn =
            cursor.getColumnIndex(
                DocumentsContract.Document.COLUMN_LAST_MODIFIED
            )

        if (
            documentColumn >= 0 &&
            !cursor.isNull(documentColumn)
        ) {
            return@use cursor.getLong(documentColumn)
        }

        val mediaColumn =
            cursor.getColumnIndex(
                MediaStore.MediaColumns.DATE_MODIFIED
            )

        if (
            mediaColumn >= 0 &&
            !cursor.isNull(mediaColumn)
        ) {
            return@use TimeUnit.SECONDS.toMillis(
                cursor.getLong(mediaColumn)
            )
        }

        0L
    } ?: 0L
}.getOrDefault(0L)

If neither value is exposed by the provider, the current fallback behaviour could remain unchanged.

Start in app/src/main/java/com/owncloud/android/ui/asynctasks/CopyAndUploadContentUrisTask.kt, especially queryLastModified(), and inspect how shared MediaStore content:// URIs are copied before upload. Reproduce the share flow with a file exposing date_modified, then verify that its original modification time is preserved while the existing fallback remains unchanged when no timestamp is available.