Wrong time from time.apple.com

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Level 1

8 points

Wrong time from time.apple.com

I am a macbook pro user running the latest version of OS X (10.6.3). There is a problem with the time data being provided by time.apple.com for Pakistan. The actual time zone is GMT+5 however the system is running GMT+6 hours. Can this error be fixed at apple's end???

Secondly i have attempted to correct the time manually however this results in an incorrect date (i.e. which goes back one day). Please advise.

Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 14, 2010 12:58 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 14, 2010 2:05 PM in response to blindfiber

No, it can not be fixed on Apple's end. A time server always provides the time in GMT. It is up to the client computer to convert it to the local time zone. If that is not working there is a problem somewhere on your end.

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Answer 2

Apr 14, 2010 3:12 PM in response to blindfiber

Does Pakistan have daylight saving/summer time? Possibly your Mac thinks it does.

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Answer 3

blindfiber Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 16, 2010 1:05 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Pakistan did have DST till last year but they have finished it from this year. I am inputting the correct time but then the date goes back one day. When i use the automatic time set option relying on time.apple.com then the date is correct but my time goes ahead by one hour and the zone says GMT+6

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Answer 4

blindfiber Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 16, 2010 1:05 AM in response to Jeffrey Jones2

Pakistan did have DST till last year but they have finished it from this year. I am inputting the correct time but then the date goes back one day. When i use the automatic time set option relying on time.apple.com then the date is correct but my time goes ahead by one hour and the zone says GMT+6

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Answer 5

Baumi

Level 1

0 points

Apr 16, 2010 1:26 AM in response to blindfiber

DST observation is handled via system on the Mac - my guess is that those files haven't been updated to account for the change in Pakistan's DST rules. (No surprise, apparently the local government only decided not to observe DST 3 weeks ago.) These files should be updated with a future OSX update. It's technically possible to replace them with updated versions yourself, but you'd need to use Terminal and go into OS X's UNIX underpinnings to do so - if things go wrong you might need to do a re-install which isn't any fun at all, and even if they went right, I'm not sure what'd happen as soon as an Apple update tried to replace these files with updated versions.

So you probably have two workarounds until Apple issues an update that includes the correct DST data for Pakistan: You should either switch your location to somewhere like Usbekistan which currently has GMT+5, or you could turn off internet time sync and set the time zone manually.

Both of these aren't optimal, of course, but they shouldn't damage the system and could carry you over until an update to OS X fixes the issue.

Message was edited by: Baumi

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