diff --git a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/factory/data/OverwrittenData.java b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/factory/data/OverwrittenData.java
index 35fceddb3..54a1afe06 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/factory/data/OverwrittenData.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/factory/data/OverwrittenData.java
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 import com.google.gson.JsonObject;
 import io.micronaut.context.annotation.Prototype;
 import io.micronaut.http.HttpStatus;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.brapi.v2.model.pheno.BrAPIObservation;
 import org.breedinginsight.api.model.v1.response.ValidationError;
 import org.breedinginsight.brapi.v2.constants.BrAPIAdditionalInfoFields;
@@ -181,7 +182,7 @@ private boolean isValueMatched() {
     }
 
     private boolean isTimestampMatched() {
-        if (timestamp == null) {
+        if (StringUtils.isBlank(timestamp)) {
             return observation.getObservationTimeStamp() == null;
         } else {
             return observationService.parseDateTime(timestamp).equals(observation.getObservationTimeStamp());
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/middleware/process/ImportTableProcess.java b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/middleware/process/ImportTableProcess.java
index 0013f0458..6863cd561 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/middleware/process/ImportTableProcess.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/appendoverwrite/middleware/process/ImportTableProcess.java
@@ -265,7 +265,9 @@ public AppendOverwriteMiddlewareContext process(AppendOverwriteMiddlewareContext
                         BrAPIObservation observation = gson.fromJson(gson.toJson(observationByObsHash.get(observationHash)), BrAPIObservation.class);
 
                         // Is there a change to the prior data?
-                        if ((!cellData.isBlank() && !cellData.equals(observation.getValue())) || (cell.timestamp != null && !observationService.parseDateTime(cell.timestamp).equals(observation.getObservationTimeStamp()))) {
+                        if (
+                                isChanged(cellData, observation, cell.timestamp)
+                        ) {
 
                             // Is prior data protected?
                             /**
@@ -380,4 +382,14 @@ public AppendOverwriteMiddlewareContext process(AppendOverwriteMiddlewareContext
             return this.compensate(context);
         }
     }
+
+    private boolean isChanged(String cellData, BrAPIObservation observation, String newTimestamp) {
+        if (!cellData.isBlank() && !cellData.equals(observation.getValue())){
+            return true;
+        }
+        if (StringUtils.isBlank(newTimestamp)) {
+            return (observation.getObservationTimeStamp()!=null);
+        }
+        return !observationService.parseDateTime(newTimestamp).equals(observation.getObservationTimeStamp());
+    }
 }