Laravel Version

12.0

PHP Version

8.4.11

Database Driver & Version

No response

Description

When using a custom pivot model, defining const UPDATED_AT = null; inside the pivot model is ignored. Instead, Laravel seems to respect the parent (main) model’s timestamp settings.

Models

• Announcement
• User
• AnnouncementUser (custom pivot model)

Code Example

$announcement->users()->attach($userIds);

Expected Behavior

Since the pivot model AnnouncementUser has:

class AnnouncementUser extends Pivot { const UPDATED_AT = null; }

I expect the updated_at column to be ignored during attach().

Actual Behavior

Laravel still tries to insert/update the updated_at column, resulting in:

SQLSTATE[42S22]: Column not found: 1054 Unknown column 'updated_at' in ... 

Workaround

If I move

const UPDATED_AT = null;

to the Announcement model, the error disappears.

This suggests that the parent model overrides the pivot model’s UPDATED_AT configuration.

Steps To Reproduce

Create three models: Announcement, User, and a custom pivot model AnnouncementUser extending Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\Pivot.

In the AnnouncementUser model, set:

class AnnouncementUser extends Pivot {  const UPDATED_AT = null; }

Define the many-to-many relationship in the Announcement model:

public function users(): BelongsToMany {  return $this->belongsToMany(User::class)     ->using(AnnouncementUser::class); }

Run the following code:

$announcement->users()->attach($userIds);

Observe the error:
SQLSTATE[42S22]: Column not found: 1054 Unknown column 'updated_at' in ...