What Time Zone Clock Does OS X use(GTM, UTC, UT1 etc)

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Level 1

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What Time Zone Clock Does OS X use(GTM, UTC, UT1 etc)

hello all !!

just a question, does any one know what time zone clock (or what ever you call it) OS X uses ?

i know Mobile Me just changed to UTC about a month or 2 ago when they were doing a few updates.

but i cant figure out what OS X is getting its time from...

im asking because i have a problem with mobile Me and syncing to back down from the "cloud'
im sure its because of the different time settings Me and OS X uses

more on the sync problem found here :
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1831359&tstart=0

so does any one know ????

5,1, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Dec 19, 2008 4:20 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 19, 2008 6:44 PM in response to Jonooooo

Hello,

I think it's GMT. http://www.keiths-place.com/blogs/keith/2007/gmt-timezone-problem-mac-os-x

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

red_menace

Level 6

17,066 points

Dec 19, 2008 6:55 PM in response to Jonooooo

Network Time Protocol uses UTC, which is about the same as GMT. Time zones are an offset from the base UTC time, so maybe there is an issue with your time zone conversion.

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Answer 3

Jonooooo Author

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Dec 19, 2008 7:09 PM in response to red_menace

thats so weird. so both OS X and Mobile Me use UTC

i cant really find where it says the 100 % time zone on my mac.

in time and date "ive click on New Zealand" (New Zealand's offset is GMT +12:00 / UTC +12:00)

is there command in Terminal to bring up the time info of my mac ??

thanks for the reply

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Answer 4

red_menace

Level 6

17,066 points

Dec 19, 2008 7:27 PM in response to Jonooooo

The date command will show the current date and time. The -u option shows the UTC date and time - at this time on my system (I am in the US mountain zone) the UTC time shows a different day (since the time zone offset isn't used), so maybe something isn't taking the time zone into account.

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Answer 5

Jonooooo Author

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Dec 19, 2008 7:36 PM in response to red_menace

i must just be having bad luck with syncing with Mobile Me. haha

i did the date command
and the time zone that shown was right (the same as what is set on my computer)

BUT
it says 16:34:03 NZDT
NZDT stands for New Zealand Daylight Saving Time

but on Mobile Me its just UTC +12:00

with its Daylight Savings in New Zealand we add or drop an hour. do you think this would confuses Sync between Mobile Me and OS X Client

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Answer 6

red_menace

Level 6

17,066 points

Dec 19, 2008 8:57 PM in response to Jonooooo

I am wondering if the time zone offset is getting used. Since your zone is 12 hours ahead of the base UTC time, is the error you get one day earlier? Do you sometimes get no error (depending on the time of day the sync is performed)?

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Answer 7

Jonooooo Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 19, 2008 9:33 PM in response to red_menace

ummmm the problem is when i sync to Mobile Me my birthday dates change by a day (forward) e.g my birthday is the 8th and when i sync to Mobile Me and check online (www.me.com/contacts) my birthday date is ok, none of them have chage by a day
*BUT*
if i sync back down to another device it will change my birthday to the 9th. (even another mac, iphone, windows XP computer) all computers are set to New Zealand time zone.

(it always changes the dates of my birthdays every day of the week every time i sync. no error comes up it still syncs)

i dont think Mobile Me is offset. but i think in OS X it is.

so the time zone on Mobile Me would be +12 but the time zone in OS X would be offset so making +13

thats what im thinking in my head is that sounding right to you or am i way off haha

thanks for helping by the way.

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Answer 8

red_menace

Level 6

17,066 points

Dec 19, 2008 10:14 PM in response to Jonooooo

The "error" I was talking about is the change in the date. If the Mac time is adding the time zone offset (again) to the base UTC date, you should see a difference when syncing earlier in the day (early enough that the additional time doesn't go into the next day) vs. later.

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Answer 9

Jonooooo Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 20, 2008 12:07 AM in response to red_menace

im not 100% sure.

im 90% sure it doesn't make a different.
ive tried syncing at all different times of the day.

should i do some kind of test ? like sync at like 7am then at night ?

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