iCal and Mobile Me are One Hour Off!

Been having a HUGE issue with events posted to iCal and Mobile Me. No matter where I post/create and event/appointment, it shows up on the iCal/MM one hour different.

My iCal on my Mac, my Mobile Me and my iPhone do not have the same start times

Yes I used and not used the iCal's time zone support.

It is starting to get very,very annoying.

Help anyone..please.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Nov 17, 2008 7:19 PM

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26 replies

Nov 27, 2008 1:48 PM in response to joe3066

I'm having the same problem my Imac is set to GMT, my iPhone is set to GMT and my mobile me acc is set to GMT. But when I put anything in my iphone calendar and sync it to mobile me via the cloud it sets the time zone on the event as eastern pacific. I can manually change the time zone on the event in the computer, but when you've got hundreds of events this becomes a pain.

Nov 28, 2008 9:13 AM in response to Jack McDonald

Jack

You have probably been through this before, but bear with me!

Go to System Preferences>Date&Time and verify that the Time Zone tab shows your correct location and that the Date & Time tab shows the correct date and time. (I sync with one of Apple's network time servers to avoid issues here.)

Open iCal's preferences and check that the Advanced tab has Turn on time zone support checked.

Open your MobileMe Calendar in a browser, and select Preferences from the 'cog wheel' menu. Select the Advanced tab and ensure that Turn on time zone support is checked here and also that the location matches that in your System Preferences Date & Time pane. (Note that the MobileMe Calendar window title will show the time zone.)

These steps should fix your problem, but if they don't it might be that there's an issue with individual events. Post back if that's the case...

Good luck!

Bernard

Nov 28, 2008 9:57 AM in response to Arkouda

Bernard,

Thx much and I am sure you know this one hour off has been a HUGE issue long before mobileme. As long as I have been using iCal (2-3 years) whenever I import a large schedule of events they are ALWAYS an hour off 😟 No matter how many times I check and uncheck TZ Support.

I did all you suggested and I think I have done this before. Hope it will work.

Thx Much and wish Apple would step up and make this a non-issue for us.

This really has been very, very annoying and now that MobileMe is part of this syncing, it has been even more confusing.

Nov 28, 2008 10:07 AM in response to Jack McDonald

Jack

When you went through the steps, were any of the settings different to those that I suggested?

I don't think you mentioned importing previously. Where are the events originally created?

I don't see that MobileMe is especially different to dotmac - except that you now have explicit control over the time zone of the calendar (whereas it used to be set to the one from which you originally published).

One hour time differences often crop-up on a phone and are usually to do with daylight savings issues, but you don't mention a phone in your set-up so I am assuming this is not the case.

I have to say that I don't have issues with my calendars and I have these synced across different systems and devices, so for me it really is a non-issue. (I should also say that I travel frequently and don't have problems with events in multiple time zones either.)

One thing I neglected to ask you is whether you do need to have time zone support - i.e. do you travel with any of the macs to which you sync or do you get invitations that originate in different time zones?

It would also be enormously helpful if you would provide data on what version of OS X and iCal you are using.

Bernard

Nov 28, 2008 10:40 AM in response to Arkouda

Thx Bernard,

You are very helpful

When you went through the steps, were any of the settings different to those that I suggested?

......Yes, Time zone was uncheck in iCal and MM

I don't think you mentioned importing previously. Where are the events originally created?

.....I have a large spreadsheet of college athletic games that we keep in Excel and I import to iCal, they are ALWAYS one hour off after imported to iCal. Long before iPhone and MM too!

I don't see that MobileMe is especially different to dotmac - except that you now have explicit control over the time zone of the calendar (whereas it used to be set to the one from which you originally published).

...Honestly the TZ Support is a HUGE pain and causes Much more trouble for all than anything it is suppose to help with..., been that way ever since iCal came out...

One hour time differences often crop-up on a phone and are usually to do with daylight savings issues, but you don't mention a phone in your set-up so I am assuming this is not the case.

...again this one hour problem, has been an issue for me long before the iPhone and MM...

I have to say that I don't have issues with my calendars and I have these synced across different systems and devices, so for me it really is a non-issue. (I should also say that I travel frequently and don't have problems with events in multiple time zones either.)

...glad it works for you, but it appears this is an issue for many. I used Now Up-To-Date for 10+ years and NEVER had trouble with import/export/sync...

One thing I neglected to ask you is whether you do need to have time zone support - i.e. do you travel with any of the macs to which you sync or do you get invitations that originate in different time zones?

...I have no need for TZ Support even if I were and astronaut 🙂

It would also be enormously helpful if you would provide data on what version of OS X and iCal you are using.

....I am on 10.5.5 and iCal 3.0.5

Thx Much

Dec 3, 2008 4:48 AM in response to Arkouda

Bernard,

Thx for your help and sorry for not replying...
...............
If you don't need TZ, switch it off in both places!

Before you do, humour me for a minute:

(a) What's the time zone that shows at the top of your MobileMe Calendar?

...do not see a TZ at the top of either my web MobileMe nor on the top of my iPhone calendar.

(b) Double-click on one of your problem events. What time zone does it 'think' it's in?

...I see Eastern TZ and that is where I am

(c) How do you export the spreadsheet data and how do you import it to iCal?

I export using .csv format then import to Palm (so I can save/export as a vcal file), then import to iCal. I have always found it very silly that you cannot directly import spreadsheet files to iCal.

Hope all this helps and again, thx much.

Please know that has been an issue long before pushing events and contacts to MM.

Thx Much

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iCal and Mobile Me are One Hour Off!

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