The last modified date does not match the last published date of Confluence pages

Summary

Upon reviewing the Last modified date value of a page and comparing it with the Page history, there are discrepancies on the dates.

Diagnosis

Navigate to the Page History of a page via the ellipsis button at the top-right (...) and select Page History. Notice that the last published date does not match the last modified date value.

Cause

This happens because the page has been archived. Although the process does not publish a new version of the page (hence, no new version sunder the page's history), this change will be displayed on the last modified date value.

Solution

To find out if that is the case, as an administrator of Confluence, check if the page has been ever archived (or unarchived) by accessing the Audit logs of Confluence and filtering it by the Archive word. This will also display the date where any of these actions happened, which should match with the page's metadata.

ℹ️ Alternatively, check with the author of the page for the archival date as such users will receive an email when it happens:

You’ll get an email notification if someone else archives a page you created.