MacBook - Not Possible to Change Time Zone (from macOS: Ventura onwards)

Question

MacBook - Not Possible to Change Time Zone (from macOS: Ventura onwards)

Currently, issue on macOS: Sonoma 14.2.1 (but issue began with Ventura)...

Pre-macOS Ventura, settings were branded "Preferences..." (Apple Menu > Preferences...). In these previous macOS, the Date & Time setting page displayed a world night and day map similar to this (not exactly this - this is just an example to confirm what I am referring to):

With this page displayed, the user could click on a location on the map (say) London - and the Date, Time, AND Time zone would be set accordingly. Hence, the user could set the Time zone manually.

From Ventura (onwards), settings were rebranded "System Settings..." (Apple Menu > System Settings...). In this macOS, Date & Time became a page of various settings:

Now, to manually change Time zone, Apple's instructions state:

THIS DOES NOT WORK.

When "Set date and time automatically" and "Set time zone automatically using your current location" are turned off, ONLY the "Closest city" setting becomes selectable. The "Time zone" setting remains greyed out and CANNOT be changed:

And yes, Location Services are set correctly:

Troubleshooting

Every single troubleshooting step has been performed several times over: all settings changed, toggled, set/reset, MacBook restarted/forced quite/restarted, etc, etc... And the macOS upgraded several times. All to no avail.

Comparison to iPhone/iPad

This issue does not exist on either an iPhone or iPad. On both these devices, it is still easily possible to change the Time zone manually.

Apple Bug

I first reported this to Apple on 6 June 2023. At that time, it was escalated to Tier 2 support, with whom I had several lengthy phone calls and numerous emails. They eventually confirmed it as a "bug" and escalated to Apple Engineering.

Unfortunately to date, I have had no further feedback from Apple, nor has the "bug" been fixed.

Workaround

Today, I came across the following post from January 2023:

Cannot manually set the time zone

The posted, salty77, reported the same issue.

Salty77 updated the post, saying he/she had been able to set the Time Zone from the command line as follows:

>sudo systemsetup -settimezone Asia/Jakarta

That resulted in a command line error - but crucially, DID change the Time Zone.

Subsequently, DonTSpamMe replied to the post, also with the same issue. DonTSpamMe had a similar solution, except via creating a Root User, which I presume resolves the command line error.

I have tried the simple command line instruction given by Salty77 and IT WORKS. I haven't been brave enough to try the Root User workaround yet.

APPLE FIX NEED

This issue is very definitely a "bug" in macOS Venture onwards.

Previous to Ventura, MacBook uses were able to set the Time Zone easily by selecting a location on a map. iPhone/iPad users can still do so via a setting. So, very clearly, MacBook users should be able to easily do the same WITHOUT having to revert to command line instructions and/or Root User.

As said, this Apple confirmed "bug", has been reported to Apple: first via Support, then Tier 2 Support, and then escalated to Apple Engineering. And yet, Apple has still not acknowledged the "bug" and, more importantly, not fixed it !!

I've just updated to Sonoma 14.2.1 and the "bug" remains.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to get Apple to fix this "bug", please share.

Hopefully, Apple itself monitors and/or reviews this Community and will take onboard that this is a BUG - and FIXES IT ... please Apple !!

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Jan 15, 2024 2:57 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

williamfrombinfield Author

Level 1

47 points

Jan 15, 2024 7:06 AM in response to Barney-15E

Barney-15E - you're a star 👍

And you are also right - it's not obvious. Even Apple Support and Tier 2 Support did not know that !! Honestly, I must have spent in excess of 2-hours on the phone to Tier 2 support (over several phone calls) and exchanged countless emails. They had me change all sorts of settings, and test and try many things - typing in the city was not one of them 😱. Tier 2 Support was convinced it was a bug - hence their escalation to Engineering.

Even Apple's own instructions are not clear in this regard, "You can then set time, date and time

zone manually" - which gives the distinct impression that one sets the Time Zone - not that it is auto-set by typing-in the closet city.

Incidentally, having revisited it now having taken onboard your excellent suggestion - if one clears the textbox, then selects the dropdown arrow - all world cities are now listed. Obvious really 🤣

Thanks again for your very helpful and definitively correct reply.

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Answer 2

Rudegar

Level 10

180,120 points

Jan 15, 2024 4:24 AM in response to williamfrombinfield

also be sure to let them know using

Feedback - macOS - Apple

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,072 points

Jan 15, 2024 10:06 AM in response to williamfrombinfield

if one clears the textbox, then selects the dropdown arrow - all world cities are now listed. Obvious really 🤣

I would not have expected that.

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Answer 4

Jan 15, 2024 8:17 PM in response to Barney-15E

I doubt very many users would.

Unfortunately, the macOS Date & Time/Time zone settings are not well documented, nor implemented. The documentation is misleading, and the implementation unintuitive.

It becomes even more unintuitive on selection of cities. For example:

If the user enters (say) Paris, the Time zone correctly becomes Central European Standard Time (CEST). All good so far. However, the dropdown now includes UK cities (e.g., London, Bristol, etc.) that are definitely not on CEST. Similarly, if the user enters (say) London, the Time zone correctly becomes Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). However, the dropdown now includes European cities on CEST. Apple appears to have intermixed Time zones and Regions.

This is not the case in iOS, where the user simply enters the city (say) London or Paris, and the Time zone is displayed as London or Paris, respectively. iOS uses only cities and does not have the confusion between Cities, Time Zones and Regions.

When Apple changed from "Preferences..." to "System Settings..." in Ventura, I understand one reason for the change was to better align macOS settings with iOS settings. Unfortunately, however, in this regard the macOS setting seems unnecessarily convoluted when compared to the simpler iOS settings.

I will be updating Tier 2 support with your very valued, and correct, input. I'll also feedback to Apple on the standard Feedback page. Hopefully, Apple will be able to improve both the implementation and documentation in a later macOS update.

Again, thank you for your excellent response - you solved a log-standing issue that many users encountered, and which Apple themselves could not resolve - major kudos to you.....

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Answer 5

Owl-53

Level 10

102,277 points

Jan 15, 2024 3:25 AM in response to williamfrombinfield

You have clearing been following this issue and done a lot of good documenting 👍

Further, you have take the appropriate steps to inform Apple and had it escalated up the Internal Avenues within Apple

But sadly, have to say, the Only Apple Presence on the ASC Forums are the Apple Moderators who work behind the scenes making sure we ALL adhere to the Rules Governing the usage of the Apple Hosted ASC Forums

We are ALL only just fellow Apple Uses like yourself.

So what you present here is probably not going no further

Kudos just the same for all the work you have brung to this issue.

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Answer 6

Jan 15, 2024 4:15 AM in response to Owl-53

Thank you PRP_53 for your kind comments - much appreciated.

I suspected as much re. this forum. Perhaps though, someone internally at Apple will hit the same issue and find this post - one can live in hope 🤞

Also, hopefully it will help our fellow users not waste too much time trying to solve an unsolvable problem - save for the excellent workarounds posted by salty77 and DonTSpamMe in the post I referenced (Cannot manually set the time zone) - so kudos to them too.

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Answer 7

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,072 points

Jan 15, 2024 4:40 AM in response to williamfrombinfield

For the Time zone, you type in the name of the closest city. It's not obvious. While it looks and acts like a popup menu, it will also accept text. It will search for and try to match that city you typed into the field, then present the Time Zones that are appropriate in the other popup menu.

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