Incorrect time showing in various applications

Question

Level 1

10 points

Incorrect time showing in various applications

This wasn't an issue on Ventura, but I recently upgraded to Sonoma. I live in Mexico, and have my date and time settings set to automatic. Here's the current setup:

Set time and date automatically - checked
Source - default time.apple.com
Date and time - Shows the correct date and time
24 hour time - checked
Set time zone automatically using your current location - checked
Timezone - Eastern Standard Time (correct)
Closest city - Chetumal - Mexico (debatable, but the right time zone). I've also had this set to Cancun with no difference.

Running the date command from the terminal shows the correct time. The time in the upper right corner shows the correct time. Running sudo sntp -sS time.apple.com in terminal syncs and after a reboot still shows the correct time.

However, applications like Slack and Google Meet show an hour ahead on messages and meetings (eg: If it's currently 9 AM, my slack messages will show 10 AM). I've verified settings in both of these applications as well.

Other applications, such as Mimestream, show the correct timestamp on emails.

Digging in with Slack support, I see that their logs show my timezone as America/Havana, which is an hour ahead of here and I think the root of the problem. However, I cannot find anywhere in any setting where that is being applied. Even when I set the timezone to be manual and set it to Chetumal or Cancun.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.0

Posted on Sep 26, 2023 11:08 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 23, 2023 8:52 AM in response to _V4r0_

_V4r0_ wrote:

This is something that happen only in México with the change of the removal of the Daylight savings, this is happening also in Microsoft Teams, Firefox, any app that is no by default with the OS, not sure if is something related to the all the apps need to upgrade or something missing in Sonoma, I open tickets with the app but everyone point that is a Sonoma bug

That extra hour does seem to be related to DST, which Mexico does not have in the current year.

My guess is that the applications that the user referred to are US-centric and assume DST is in effect. Eastern DST would give the hours that the OP is experiencing.

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Answer 2

Oct 23, 2023 11:32 PM in response to Lordsyrinex

Lordsyrinex wrote:

I didn't realize this was something that changed country wide. Here in QR, we've not had DST for awhile now and I incorrectly assumed that this was true for all of Mexico. That would make sense if Apple made a system wide change to support that but didn't realize the nuance of QR already not supporting that.

Except that, if I understood correctly, your system time is accurate.

I entered Chetumal - Mexico in System Settings and it shows Eastern Standard Time (meaning it knows there is no DST in action), and the time is correct. I also tested in the Clock application (it does not show Chetumal but does show Cancun) and again it shows it correctly (one hour less than the US Eastern Time, where DST is in use until Nov 5).

AFAICT, there is no bug in the Apple system. It is Google Chat and Slack that seem to be in error. I bet it will be "fixed" come Nov 5, but likely to be wrong again next Spring :-)

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Answer 3

_V4r0_

Level 1

8 points

Oct 24, 2023 7:00 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

Lordsyrinex wrote:

I didn't realize this was something that changed country wide. Here in QR, we've not had DST for awhile now and I incorrectly assumed that this was true for all of Mexico. That would make sense if Apple made a system wide change to support that but didn't realize the nuance of QR already not supporting that.

Except that, if I understood correctly, your system time is accurate.

I entered Chetumal - Mexico in System Settings and it shows Eastern Standard Time (meaning it knows there is no DST in action), and the time is correct. I also tested in the Clock application (it does not show Chetumal but does show Cancun) and again it shows it correctly (one hour less than the US Eastern Time, where DST is in use until Nov 5).

AFAICT, there is no bug in the Apple system. It is Google Chat and Slack that seem to be in error. I bet it will be "fixed" come Nov 5, but likely to be wrong again next Spring :-)

Maybe is off-topic, but I was with the idea that Daylight savings will be permanent in US

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Answer 4

chdsl

Level 2

410 points

Nov 11, 2023 6:44 AM in response to Lordsyrinex

System Settings > General > Date & Time > Enable Set time zone automatically using your current location.
Also, check the closest city. If your city is not there, find the nearest city, or a city that matches your time zone.
System Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Enable Location Services.
Scroll down to the bottom > System Services > Details > Enable Setting time zone.

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Answer 5

_V4r0_

Level 1

8 points

Oct 23, 2023 8:35 AM in response to Lordsyrinex

This is something that happen only in México with the change of the removal of the Daylight savings, this is happening also in Microsoft Teams, Firefox, any app that is no by default with the OS, not sure if is something related to the all the apps need to upgrade or something missing in Sonoma, I open tickets with the app but everyone point that is a Sonoma bug

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Answer 6

dialabrain

Level 10

137,119 points

Sep 26, 2023 11:34 AM in response to Lordsyrinex

A couple things you could try…

Try booting into Safe Mode then restart normally. Sometimes that will fix anomalies.

Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support
Try creating a new user account and see if it has the same issue.

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Answer 7

Lordsyrinex Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 23, 2023 1:24 PM in response to _V4r0_

I didn't realize this was something that changed country wide. Here in QR, we've not had DST for awhile now and I incorrectly assumed that this was true for all of Mexico. That would make sense if Apple made a system wide change to support that but didn't realize the nuance of QR already not supporting that.

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Answer 8

Lordsyrinex Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 26, 2023 11:25 AM in response to dialabrain

Yeah, I worked really closely with their engineering and support teams to diagnose the issues and everything coming into Slack is showing that it's using America/Havana for my timezone, but nothing in the OS is showing me that, even when I hard set my timezone to something. So I think there's something trapped maybe in a `.plist` file or something somewhere that was set in Ventura that is no longer used in Sonoma but it might still be used by apps in a backwards compatibility issue.

[Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 9

dialabrain

Level 10

137,119 points

Sep 26, 2023 11:18 AM in response to Lordsyrinex

Lordsyrinex wrote:

You should re-read my post as I've already contacted them, but this isn't a slack specific issue, it's impacting a wide variety of applications.

I missed the Slack comment. However, seeing Sonoma is new, there may be a "wide variety" of apps needing updates. I haven't seen the problem, although I am in the U.S.

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Answer 10

Oct 1, 2023 7:26 PM in response to Lordsyrinex

Same in my case. I noticed my Google Chat (which I access via Chrome) and Slack automatically pauses notifications during business hours. Upon checking, the time indicated in my setup for it to pause notifications are correct. The only rational explanation I can come up is that my OS is giving the wrong time zone. This only happened since I upgraded to Sonoma, never happened in any previous versions of macOS.

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Answer 11

dialabrain

Level 10

137,119 points

Sep 26, 2023 11:11 AM in response to Lordsyrinex

Sounds like Slack needs a Sonoma update. Contact them.

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Answer 12

chdsl

Level 2

410 points

Nov 11, 2023 10:15 AM in response to job277

Can you post a screenshot of the right side of your menu bar, the status bar part?

This is mine. The whole country has one time zone.

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Answer 13

Lordsyrinex Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 26, 2023 11:15 AM in response to dialabrain

You should re-read my post as I've already contacted them, but this isn't a slack specific issue, it's impacting a wide variety of applications.

Just to be super clear here, the logs are showing that my SYSTEM timezone is America/Havana.

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Answer 14

Lordsyrinex Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 23, 2023 1:22 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Seems to be a strange thing that only has occurred since being on Sonoma. It'll be interesting to see what happens in a couple of weeks here when the time changes in the US. If it's truly a DST bug, then I would expect to be on the appropriate time starting Nov 5.

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Answer 15

Oct 24, 2023 7:07 AM in response to _V4r0_

_V4r0_ wrote:

Maybe is off-topic, but I was with the idea that Daylight savings will be permanent in US

As far as I can tell, no.

I have friends in the US, and they tell me that most of the US is scheduled to revert to standard time on Nov 5.

That is also the information from timeanddate.com:

https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/2023.html

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