Are you talking about still images or videos?
For images, no matter what file modify date is digikam reads the creation date from the metadata.
For videos yes digikam will use file modify date as media creation date 'cause exiv2 can't read metadata from video files properly.
I use a script to read the media creation date and write it as the file modify date in order to display video files properly in Timeline. Sometimes you need to delete an xmp sidecar for the video in order to let digikam pickup the new date after running the script.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------
Date: 2018-01-10 11:53 PM (GMT-07:00)
To: digiKam - Home Manage your photographs as a professional with the power of open source <
[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: Digikam changes file date
The file copy operation is delegate to Qt API which call the file system method from libc. Typically digiKAm do not touch explicitly to file date, but depending of FS used in background, i suspect that the date can be changed with low level library.
Also this depend of which operating system you use...
Gilles Caulier