macOS 14 Sonoma - Numbers date format problem after upgrade

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Level 1

4 points

macOS 14 Sonoma - Numbers date format problem after upgrade

After upgrading to Sonoma, the date formats in my expense file (in Numbers) -which I update every month since 20 years- gone haywire! In Turkiye we use DD-MM-YYYY format. In Language&Regions settings, my region is Turkiye and Date format is DD-MM-YYYY.

But when I try format a cell in Numbers, choosing Date&time, only options available, now, is MM-DD-YYYY or MM/DD/YY or MM/DD/YYY. There is no DD/MM/YYY/ or alike format available to choose.

I created a custom date format and that's OK. But when I try to "format" a series of dates entered as "string", the format does not work. For example:

Date strings (in consecutive rows):

12/09/2023

13/09/2023

When I apply my custom date format they become:

09/12/2023

13/09/2023

and when I try make some calculations on them, like Cell1-Cell2 it gives 87 days :)))))

Very frustrating because it's not just looks :), I need correct dates to sort my expenses and etc.

Any solutions or comments are much appreciated...

Thanks

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 14.0

Posted on Oct 24, 2023 10:00 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Recycleur

Level 4

1,561 points

Oct 25, 2023 10:45 AM in response to OsmanNT

System language (in System Settings) defines the language of the menus.

Language (in File / Advanced / Language) defines the language of the formulas and textual months and days.

They are independent, one doesn't affect the other

I made this big analysis. I set the file language and region to the combination shown in the first line, with in the second line what the dialog shows as the standard format for that combination.

So depending on which combination you prefer, which you said is English / Türkiye, you'd have to enter your date like D.M.YY (as shown in the language selection dialog), YYYY/MM/DD or YYYY-MM-DD to get consistent results.

Process to create that table: In other columns not shown here I started with a fresh column set to Automatic format and typed manually each date as shown in the first column. Then I switched the format of that column to date with day name, day number, month and year (shown in different order depending on the language). Then I copy-pasted the result under the right combination, changed the format to text to preserve it, and fixed alignement according to what it was originally. That's how I can show all this in the same table.

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Answer 2

OsmanNT Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 25, 2023 4:14 AM in response to OsmanNT

First of all, thanks for the reply. Here it is:

You are right. The example is in correct format "5/1/14". But even if I choose it, from the Format options, my dates become:

9/12/23

13/9/23

13/9/23 stays correct (since there is no 13th month :)

and if I try a format like 29-Jan-23, it becomes 13-Sep-23

but dates like 1/9/23, 8/9/23, 12/9/23 etc. converts to 9/1/23 (9Jan23), 9/8/23 (9Aug23)

I prefer my system language to be English, and region Turkiye.

The reason is I couldn't get used to Turkish translation of menu items. I've learned using computers in English when, at the time, no Turkish translation was available. Now, it is very difficult to get used to the menu items in Turkish. So I prefer my System language to be English. But in number and date formats (regional settings) I prefer Turkish.

I thought this was the reason why there is a "Region" option in Settings, besides System setting.

Before Sonoma this was working...

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