Modified dates on the SharePoint site contents page are not accurate
Symptoms
When users browse to the site contents page in SharePoint 2016 and prior versions of the product, the modified date for inactive lists, libraries, and sites is more recent than expected since no changes were made by users to these objects.
Cause
In SharePoint 2016 and prior versions of the product, the modified date on the site contents page reflects the value stored in the ItemLastModifiedDate property of the object. The value of this property reflects not only changes that are made by users, it may also be updated by system events.
Resolution
This is expected behavior for SharePoint 2016 and prior versions. This behavior has been modified in SharePoint 2019 and SharePoint Online by introducing a new attribute (LastItemUserModifiedDate) to track changes that are the result of the user events. Items on the site contents page now reflect the value of this property.
More information
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