ionic cordova platform add android re-adds deprecated <splash> tags

Start with the ionic cordova platform add android flow in the Ionic CLI and trace its resource-generation integration, especially cordova-res 0.15.4; compare it with direct cordova platform add android. Done means adding Android no longer restores deprecated <splash> entries when the modern splash preferences are already present.

Description

When using Ionic CLI with a recent version of cordova-android, running:

ionic cordova platform add android

automatically re-adds deprecated <splash> entries to config.xml.

These tags are no longer supported by recent versions of cordova-android and cause the following warning/error during build:

The "<splash>" tags were detected and are no longer supported.
Please migrate to the "preference" tag "AndroidWindowSplashScreenAnimatedIcon".

The issue does not occur when adding the Android platform directly with Cordova CLI.

Environment

Ionic CLI                     : 7.2.1
Ionic Framework               : @ionic/angular 9.0.1
@angular-devkit/build-angular : 22.1.6
@angular-devkit/schematics    : 22.1.6
@angular/cli                  : 22.1.6
@ionic/angular-toolkit        : 13.0.0

Cordova CLI       : 13.0.0
Cordova Platforms : android 15.1.0
cordova-res        : 0.15.4

NodeJS : v24.20.0
npm    : 11.19.0
OS     : Windows 10

Steps to reproduce

1. Remove the Android platform:

ionic cordova platform rm android

2. Remove all legacy <splash> entries from config.xml.

The relevant part of the configuration contains only the new splash screen preferences:

<preference
    name="AndroidWindowSplashScreenBackground"
    value="#000000" />

<preference
    name="AndroidWindowSplashScreenAnimatedIcon"
    value="resources/android/splashscreen.xml" />

3. Run:

ionic cordova platform add android

4. Check config.xml.

The following entries are automatically added back:

<splash density="port-ldpi" src="resources/android/splash/drawable-port-ldpi-screen.png" />
<splash density="port-mdpi" src="resources/android/splash/drawable-port-mdpi-screen.png" />
<splash density="port-hdpi" src="resources/android/splash/drawable-port-hdpi-screen.png" />
<splash density="port-xhdpi" src="resources/android/splash/drawable-port-xhdpi-screen.png" />
<splash density="port-xxhdpi" src="resources/android/splash/drawable-port-xxhdpi-screen.png" />
<splash density="port-xxxhdpi" src="resources/android/splash/drawable-port-xxxhdpi-screen.png" />

Important comparison

If I repeat the same process but use Cordova CLI directly:

cordova platform rm android
cordova platform add android

the deprecated <splash> entries are NOT added back.

So the behavior appears to be specific to the Ionic CLI wrapper:

cordova platform add android
=> config.xml remains unchanged

ionic cordova platform add android
=> deprecated <splash> tags are added back

Expected behavior

ionic cordova platform add android should not add deprecated <splash> tags when using recent versions of cordova-android.

Ideally, it should preserve:

<preference
    name="AndroidWindowSplashScreenAnimatedIcon"
    value="resources/android/splashscreen.xml" />

without generating legacy splash screen entries.

Actual behavior

Ionic CLI re-adds legacy <splash> elements, even though they are unsupported by cordova-android 15.1.0.

Workaround

Using Cordova CLI directly avoids the problem:

cordova platform add android

After that, builds using:

ionic cordova build android

work correctly and do not re-add the <splash> entries.

Additional notes

This may be related to the Ionic CLI resource generation flow / cordova-res, since cordova-res 0.15.4 is used by the current Ionic CLI Cordova integration.