Rails – Force update ActiveRecord updated_at column

When we usually modify any specific column/field in our model, Active-record will check whether the corresponding value is new or not.

If it is new then only it will create a DB query and update that value with current timestamp in updated_at column, if there is no change in existing value means it will only fire commit query only. There wont be any change in updated_at column.

So if we want modify the timestamp of updated_at field without updating any field means, we can follow any of below two methods:

Method 1:
user.update_attributes(:name => “same old name”, :updated_at => Time.now)

Method 2:
user.touch

Both of above two methods will modify updated_at value with current timestamps even if there is any change in other fields or not.