Can't Customize Date and Time

Question

Can't Customize Date and Time

I'm running 10.5.8 on my 2.66 Mac Book Pro. I cannot customize the date and time in the menu bar.

I am familiar with the known process of customizing the date, copying it and pasting into the time section. But no matter what I do, nothing changes. In fact, when I select a standard format, it doesn't change either. It stays frozen in the "Thu 8:13 PM" format.

I've tried trashing the MenuBarClock.plist, but no luck getting anything to change.

Any ideas?

24" Intel iMac 2.8; 15" MacBook Pro 2.66 G5 1.8, PB G4; G3, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Nov 18, 2010 5:16 PM

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Answer 1

red_menace

Level 6

17,030 points

Nov 18, 2010 5:22 PM in response to Richard Setterberg

Are you pasting into the medium time format?

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Answer 2

Nov 18, 2010 8:05 PM in response to red_menace

Yes, I just tried that. When I do, it adds the "EST" to the menu bar but nothing else. I didn't even add the "EST" to my customization.

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Answer 3

Nov 24, 2010 7:23 AM in response to Richard Setterberg

Are there any preferences I can trash other than the MenuBarClock.plist?

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Answer 4

Nov 28, 2010 8:38 PM in response to Richard Setterberg

Is reinstalling the system my only option.

Any help out there?

Yes, I've rebuilt permissions.

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Answer 5

red_menace

Level 6

17,030 points

Nov 28, 2010 9:33 PM in response to Richard Setterberg

You might try removing the com.apple.systempreferences.plist file from your user preferences - I see some time formats in there. That preference .plist has some other general settings in it, so you can just move it somewhere like your desktop to see if that resets things after the system rebuilds it.

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Answer 6

Nov 30, 2010 2:21 PM in response to Richard Setterberg

Hi,

As I understand it the Custom Option displays elsewhere other than the Menu Bar.
For Example the date and time references in an Email that can be made into To Do things or how the Date or time is formatted in Word or other word processor.

10:21 PM Tuesday; November 30, 2010

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Answer 7

Nov 30, 2010 3:35 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

No. The time and date appears where I would expect it in the upper right corner of my screen in the menu bar. It appears right before the Spotlight icon at far upper right, and right after my battery level indicator.

The problem is I cannot change the format no matter what I do. Right now, it says "Tue 6:25 PM". I have gone to the International preference pane and tried any number of changes to the date and time formats, but nothing happens. (Originally I wanted to combine the day, short date and time.) No matter what I change, the time reads as above, and the MenuBarClock.plist does not change (i.e., the date/time modified in the Get Info window does not change).

I have tried trashing the MenuBarClock. plist and the systempreferences.plist, as suggested above. I have repaired permissions. Nothing seems to work.

By the way, I did this on my iMac 24 desktop a while ago, and the changes took without problems.

Anything else I might try?

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Answer 8

Nov 30, 2010 3:38 PM in response to Richard Setterberg

Ralph:

Sorry; I misread your post. You are saying that the formats are meant to be used in places other than the menu bar.

If that is so, how is it that I was able to get my time/date display to change on my desktop by fiddling with the time/date format in the international pane?

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Answer 9

Dec 1, 2010 12:26 PM in response to Richard Setterberg

Hi,

Nominally you can change the fort of he Menu Bar clock within these Parameters

The default is 12 hour and no date.

As the tabs indicate the Clock is separate from Date and Time in this sense.

You can Change this

8:25 PM Wednesday; December 1, 2010

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Answer 10

Dec 1, 2010 2:56 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Ralph:

According to

http://www.macyourself.com/2008/08/31/modify-the-default-clock-in-os-xs-menu-bar -to-show-the-full-date/

I get to make substantial changes to the menu bar clock. I'm saying it works with my desktop, but doesn't with my laptop. Both are running the same operating system: 10.5.8.

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Answer 11

Dec 2, 2010 11:37 AM in response to Richard Setterberg

Umm,

In International (System Preferences) I do have this Drop down
http://img.skitch.com/20101202-dsa6qhux12u5gcqdjh9mkrn1xg.png

My Custom Option is not available so nothing I set in the Custom Button works.
(these are the things I remember trying to use before to make the clock change).
I am the Admin account so I don't know why I can't change this to Custom

If I Click the menu bar clock I do see the day in Full (But greyed out) where as the clock displays a shortened version of the day.

I followed you link and tried the settings they used.
Turning Off the Show Day option only removed the short version.
In fact changing it to Not show the 24 Hour clock showed 07 as the Hours with no PM indicator (and that option was greyed out even when I went back and added PM to the Custom option - which was Live after Adding the Date to the Time settings)

I will try a PRAM reset once I have caught up with Subscription emails

7:37 PM Thursday; December 2, 2010

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

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Answer 12

Dec 3, 2010 4:47 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Hmm.

I do have the "Custom" available on that dropdown, but selecting it doesn't seem to matter. I have tried "Custom", "United States" and "United States (Computer)" but it makes no difference.

I, too, have the greyed out day and date if you pull down the time in the menu bar. My objective is to get it to display both without having to pull it down.

My results are the same as yours when turning off "Show the day of the week." I think without doing this (in cases where the link instructions actually works), you get duplicate displays of the week. Doing it simply turns off the default one.

Thanks again for helping. Any other clues out there would be appreciated.

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Answer 13

Dec 3, 2010 10:57 AM in response to Richard Setterberg

Hmm too,

If this did work I can't get it to follow those Instructions.

6:57 PM Friday; December 3, 2010

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Answer 14

JHSkier

Level 1

4 points

Jan 19, 2011 6:12 PM in response to Richard Setterberg

I am Now having the same problem, have you or anyone else solved it? It's quite strange.

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Answer 15

Sterno

Level 1

91 points

Jan 24, 2011 1:52 AM in response to JHSkier

Looks like I am having a similar problem. I want a date format of DD.MM.YY with a 24 hour clock. My options are set that way in the Formats pane of the Language & Text preferences. However, my menu bar clock is still showing MM.DD.YY with a 12 hour am/pm clock. It's the same system wide. For example iCal shows appointments as MM.DD.YY.

I've tried using Australia from the Region Pulldown in Language and Text > Formats, and have also tried to change the date format by using the "Customize" button. No luck, and I'm stuck with MM.DD.YY. Trashing prefs hasn't fixed it, and I really don't want to reinstall the OS just to get my date formats correct.

Anyone else?

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