am/pm in Date & Time

Question

am/pm in Date & Time

I've just been into the Date & Time preference to change the menu bar clock from 24 hour to showing am/pm - however am/pm is greyed out and I can't figure how to get around this.

I have searched around this forum for an answer, but have either found links to third party menu bar clocks, or a method which worked through Terminal.

Is it possible to get am/pm to appear in the menu bar simply from the Dat & Time preference?

Thank you.

MacBook Pro 2.33GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Dec 7, 2007 4:09 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Michael Conniff

Level 7

33,149 points

Dec 7, 2007 4:14 PM in response to David Johnson7

David Johnson7 wrote:
I've just been into the Date & Time preference to change the menu bar clock from 24 hour to showing am/pm - however am/pm is greyed out and I can't figure how to get around this.

In System Preferences > Date & Time > Clock you need to uncheck "Use a 24-hour clock" before you can check "Show AM/PM".

But if everything is greyed out, you probably haven't "Clicked the lock to make changes".

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Answer 2

Dec 9, 2007 1:34 PM in response to David Johnson7

David

Well the problem is solved … went to International -> Formats and in the Time box chose Customize to change the format to Medium. Went back to Date & Time and AM/PM was now selectable.

Thank goodness for that! I haven't played around in the International Formats pane, so I'm not sure how that contributed to solving things.

What did the Terminal commands do

The first one added the symbols for "am" and "pm" to your ".GlobalPreferences.plist, since I noticed you didn't have them. The second set the "AppendAMPM" option to true in the com.apple.MenuBarClock.plist These would all have been set if you had hit on the right combination of options using the GUI, but things did rather seem to be going in circles. The last command just restarted the SystemUIServer, which is what looks after the right hand side of the menu bar.

The defaults command is a bit of an oddball and usually takes some experimentation to get the results you want 😟

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Answer 3

Dec 9, 2007 11:10 AM in response to David Johnson7

David

Here is the Terminal output - what is it telling you?

The first one says you have no format symbols defined for AM/PM, and the second one says you have not chosen to "AppendAMPM".

Now, I know you have been trying to do this, but for whatever reason it hasn't stuck. Let's see if we can have better luck using Terminal. Copy and paste the following into the Terminal window, one line at a time, with a return after each line:

defaults write -g AppleICUDateTimeSymbols -dict-add 5 '( am, pm) '
defaults write com.apple.MenuBarClock AppendAMPM 1
killall SystemUIServer

Your Right Hand Menu Bar will disappear briefly after the last command, and then re-appear, hopefully with "am or "pm". If not, try selecting it again through System Preferences.

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Answer 4

Dec 9, 2007 11:25 AM in response to Michael Conniff

Michael,

Well the problem is solved and I assume that it is what you had me type into Terminal - though it didn't quite happen in the way that you said.

I typed in the commands into Terminal, that alone didn't solve the problem, though like you said the Right Hand Menu Bar disappeared briefly. I then went into Systems Preferences and AM/PM was greyed out. So I then went to International -> Formats and in the Time box chose Customize to change the format to Medium. Went back to Date & Time and AM/PM was now selectable. I then went back to International -> Formats and changed the format back to Short, and back in Date & Time AM/PM was still selectable.

So thank you for your time in helping sort this one out (in fact thanks to everyone here).

What did the Terminal commands do - I'd like to learn more about Terminal.

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Answer 5

Dec 7, 2007 4:18 PM in response to David Johnson7

I can change any of my settings with the lock locked...

You might make sure you have the "Digital" Clocked checked...
If the Analog is checked, everything is grayed out.

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Answer 6

Dec 8, 2007 1:02 PM in response to David Johnson7

David,
Here are 3 things you can try.
1. Remove the com.apple.systempreferences.plist in your home folder -> Library -> Preferences
Remove the .plist from the folder and put it in the trash. do not empty trash but restart immediately.
Below is a list of items that are stored in the systempreferences.plist
One of them is Date & Time........
See if that works for you...

systempreferences.plist:
bplist00ß ()*+,?@ABCDEFGJ_com.apple.preferences.sharing_2com.apple.preferences.accounts.o utline.usersparent_NSNavSidebarWidth_*Main Window Frame SystemPreferencesApp 7.0_-com.apple.preference.keyboard.lastselectedtab_AppleIntlCustomFormat_ com.apple.sharing.ESWarningShown_&com.apple.datetimepref.lastselectedtab_!NSNav PanelExpandedSizeForOpenMode_%com.apple.dtandsspref.lastselectedtab_NSWindow Frame Identity Picker_AvailableLanguages_(com.apple.PreferenceSync.ExcludeSyncKeys[ShowAllMode _'com.apple.sharing.filesharing.splitview_NSWindow Frame DVHelpSheet_&NSNavBrowserPreferedColumnContentWidthXSoundTab_NSNavLastRootDirec tory_NSWindow Frame DVLogSheet_!com.apple.preferences.energysaver_NSNavLastCurrentDirectoryÑ_FirstA ctiveService #@b@_{{623, 538}, {668, 480}}_mouseTabIdentifierÒ !&_AppleIntlCustomICUDictionary_AppleIntlCustomLocaleÑ"#_AppleICUDateFormatStri ngsÑ$%Q1XM/d/yyyyUen_US \MenuBarClockZ{518, 403}_6com.apple.preference.desktopscreeneffect.screeneffects_782 719 357 270 0 0 1920 1178 ¯-./0123456789:;<=>RdaRnlRenRfiRfrRdeRitRjaRkoRnbRplRptUpt-PTRruResRsvWzh-HansW zh-Hant¡"C_682 514 550 472 0 0 1920 1178 #@g@Uinput_/Volumes/Backup HD_625 600 664 386 0 0 1920 1178 ÑHI_ShowDetailsOnLaunchSYES_/Volumes/Backup HD/Users/XXXXXX

2. Remove the com.apple.clock.plist from the same folder and then restart....

3. Remove the com.apple.MenuBarClock.plist from the same folder and then restart....

Maybe try removing all of them at the same time and then restart.
You can always put the systempreferences back in later and see if the grayed out AM PM returns.

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Answer 7

Dec 7, 2007 4:15 PM in response to David Johnson7

Yes, it is...

Not sure why yours is grayed out.

Do not have the 24 hour checked.
Then restart your machine and see if the AM/PM is still grayed out.

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Answer 8

Dec 9, 2007 1:44 AM in response to David Johnson7

It has worked for me on several Macs.
Add the AM/PM to all time lengths, short, medium, long and full.
If you have the time displayed in your menu bar the change will show immediately. I like to set the hours to display 1 - 12, the minutes always as double digit a wide range of formats is catered for. Good luck I hope it works this time.

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Answer 9

Dec 9, 2007 10:12 AM in response to David Johnson7

David

This topic keeps popping up in "My Posts" and I'm surprised you haven't solved it yet.

I think we'll need to resort to Terminal to find out exactly what is going on. Open the Terminal (from /Applications/Utilities) and copy and paste the following into the Terminal window, one line at a time, with a return after each line:

defaults read -g | grep -A5 AppleICU
defaults read com.apple.MenuBarClock

Copy and paste all the results from the Terminal window to a post here.

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Answer 10

Dec 8, 2007 2:49 PM in response to David Johnson7

in order to view time as am/pm or 24 hrs, you need to go to system preferences>international>formats>times and customize either am/pm or 24hrs by drag/drop the options you would like.

hope this helps.

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Answer 11

Dec 7, 2007 5:47 PM in response to David Johnson7

Here's a link to another discussion which appears to be about the same problem...no real solution though:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5824078&#5824078

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Answer 12

Dec 9, 2007 8:29 AM in response to Mark Forge

Thanks Mark. I'm now wondering if something that I installed is conflicting with the clock and preventing AM/PM from being displayed? Though why that and no other part of the time format I don't know. I'll just carry on playing around with different options.

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Answer 13

Dec 9, 2007 10:26 AM in response to Michael Conniff

Michael,

Thanks for your response. Here is the Terminal output - what is it telling you?
david% defaults read -g | grep -A5 AppleICU
AppleICUTimeFormatStrings = {
1 = "hh:mma";
};
AppleID = ecodave;
AppleKeyboardUIMode = 2;
AppleLanguages = (

david% defaults read com.apple.MenuBarClock
{
AppendAMPM = 0;
ClockDigital = 1;
ClockEnabled = 1;
ClockLocation = 0;
DisplaySeconds = 0;
FlashSeparators = 0;
LastSavedGlobalTimeString = "HH:mm:ss";
PreferencesVersion = 2;
ShowDay = 1;
TimeFormatString = "%H:%M:%S";
Transparency = 0.3;
Use24HourClock = 0;
}

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Answer 14

Dec 9, 2007 11:01 AM in response to Joseph Kriz

Joseph,

Sorry for not getting back earlier. I'd initially just removed the com.apple.clock.plist and com.apple.MenuBarClock.plist and Restarted, with no change in behaviour. I just removed all three now (forgot to do it earlier after remving the other two), including com.apple.systempreferences.plist, Restarted and still AM/PM greyed out.

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Answer 15

Dec 7, 2007 5:21 PM in response to Joseph Kriz

Thanks all for your replies. The lock isn't locked, I am on digital clock and have deselected 24-hour clock, but still "Show AM/PM" remains greyed out. I shall try a restart and see what happens.

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