diff --git a/xarray/backends/api.py b/xarray/backends/api.py
index fd992f3e5d8..4ca7207b3a8 100644
--- a/xarray/backends/api.py
+++ b/xarray/backends/api.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+import contextlib
 import os
 from collections.abc import (
     Callable,
@@ -102,7 +103,8 @@ def _get_mtime(filename_or_obj):
         path = None
 
     if path and not is_remote_uri(path):
-        mtime = os.path.getmtime(os.path.expanduser(filename_or_obj))
+        with contextlib.suppress(OSError):
+            mtime = os.path.getmtime(os.path.expanduser(filename_or_obj))
 
     return mtime
 
diff --git a/xarray/tests/test_backends.py b/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
index 1746235cedc..71a465aa8cf 100644
--- a/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
+++ b/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
@@ -8140,3 +8140,14 @@ def test_h5netcdf_storage_options() -> None:
             storage_options={"skip_instance_cache": False},
         ) as ds:
             assert_identical(xr.concat([ds1, ds2], dim="time", data_vars="all"), ds)
+
+
+def test_get_mtime_non_file_paths() -> None:
+    """_get_mtime should not raise on non-file paths (gh#11386)."""
+    from xarray.backends.api import _get_mtime
+
+    # Non-existent local path should return None, not crash
+    assert _get_mtime("/nonexistent/path.nc") is None
+
+    # GDAL virtual filesystem paths are not real files
+    assert _get_mtime("/vsicurl/https://example.com/file.nc") is None