How do I set the iPad date format used by apps?

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Level 1

129 points

How do I set the iPad date format used by apps?

Hi,

Using miCal HD in the latest iOS on an iPad 1.

The dates are shown as 11-09-30 (using today as the example). This is backwards to the commonly used (here) ddmmyy format. I asked their help and the answer was...

"Currently you cannot change the date format in app. The region format of your device is used instead, so you would have to change the region."

In Settings on my iPad I find General>International>Region Format, which is simply a list of countries from which I have chosen mine, of course. Under General>Date & Time I can only set the date and time, not the format in which they're displayed. Is there anything I've missed? Maybe a setting I can make in iTunes which will transfer to the iPad during syncing?

Any help appreciated.

Rob

iPad, iOS 4.3.3

Posted on Sep 30, 2011 4:50 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Demo

Level 10

166,494 points

Sep 30, 2011 5:29 AM in response to Rob Stevenson

You can tap on the different countries if you really want to see what those formats look like but I doubt you would want to use another country's date and time format.

AFAIK - you can't sync other settings via iTunes. The iOS settings control what is on the iPad and you are stuck with whatever options are available in the settings.

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Answer 2

Rob Stevenson Author

Level 1

129 points

Sep 30, 2011 11:49 AM in response to Demo

Thanks for the info.

The odd thing is that the date format on the iPad is yymmdd when I choose Canada as my "region." (I'm not sure why a "region" list would just be a list of countries anyway.) It's odd because that is definitely not the standard Canadian date format. I wonder if it's the standard UK date format? There's a tendency among US-based software vendors to think "UK" whenever someone chooses "Canada" as a location. Even Microsoft did that for many years.

I guess I'll submit a feature request to Apple to modify the date format for the "region" Canada -- or just make it possible to customize the date format, as in the Mac OS. And I'll also ask the miCal vendors to include something similar as a choice in their app setup.

Rob

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Answer 3

dcchan2

Level 1

0 points

Mar 25, 2012 11:37 AM in response to Rob Stevenson

The official date format in Canada, as defined in CSA standard Z234.4 is actually

yyyy-mm-dd

At least in Ontario, Driver's Licence, Health Card, etc all use this date format.

See also this federal government document:

http://www.termiumplus.gc.ca/tcdnstyl-chap?lang=eng&lettr=chapsect5&info0=5

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Answer 4

Rob Stevenson Author

Level 1

129 points

Mar 25, 2012 4:20 PM in response to dcchan2

In my initial post I used the phrase "commonly used" in reference to date formats. In my second post I mistakenly said "standard" which must have led you to believe that was what I was referring to. I actually don't care much about standards, especially if they are different standards for different folk in different places and at different times.

The commonly used date format here is day-month-year when using numbers, as in 25/04/12 or 24/04/2012. But being contrary we switch to a varety of forms when using month names, I guess because they're unambiguous in that form.

Yes, my licence too is in the yyyy/mm/dd format, but not my health card (Nova Scotia). And lots of other formats are in use here too, unfortunately. But the one you never see is the one that miCal HD is using. Which was the point of my question.

Incidentally, the iPad on start up says it's "Sunday, 25 March", miCal says it's "Sunday, 2012-03-25", Calendar app says "Sunday, 25 March 2012", Daily Notes app says "Sun, Mar 25", Mail app uses the 2012-04-25 format, and so it goes. Standards? Hah! The only way I could get any "standard" format (by which I mean the one I want to standardize on) would be if every app that used a date gave me control over the format. Better yet, do it like my iMac does it. I set the preferred format in the System Prefs > Date & Time and it's done. That's all I really want to do on the iPad too. I don't think it's too much to ask.

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Answer 5

Farrukh

Level 1

41 points

Jul 21, 2012 9:56 AM in response to Rob Stevenson

Yes, correct. Apple is pretty much fragmented, in fact I would say screwed up when it comes to defining date formats especially on iOS devices. Macs somehow are manageable. For some reasons Apple thinks vast majority of people around the globe would follow Month day and year format.

Canada's official date format is day month and year whether you use short style with hypens or long format without any hypens. For example (dd mmmm yyyy; dd mmm yyyy, dd-mmm-yy, dd-mmm-yyyy) etc. Pretty much same as the UK/Europe/Australia/New Zealand).

In Canada, take any federal and mostly provincial document, your passport or any federal government documents. Driver's licence is your provincial document and they mostly follow yyyy-mm-dd or dd mmm yyyy (in Alberta)

On my iPad in order to obtain dd mmmm yyyy or dd/mm/yy, I have my region setup to the UK and language to British English. If I select my region to Canada, it will put the comma after month (dd mmmm, yyyy), which I don't want.

Apple should give users the flexibility to set the date format regardless of the region they have selected. Even if I am living in the US, I should be able to set the date format to they way I prefer.

For example, in Aperture, no matter what you do you are stick with importing your images with MMM dd yyyy format. You can not change that regardless what format you have setup on your Mac. I then manually change the imported folders name to either yyyy-mm-dd or dd-mm-yy (that I mostly use).

Working the the Numbers spreadsheet on Mac and iPad always screw up my spreadshets and it's really hard to work on this way and keep changing the formatting everytime you transfer your document.

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Answer 6

Oct 31, 2012 5:39 PM in response to Rob Stevenson

I would also like to voice to iOS team to allow me to set my dates they way I want to despite the region I live. I live in the USA, but rather use a yyyy-mmm-dd format or a dd-mm-yyyy format. The selection of a region/country determining the time and date format is ridiculous and very constraining for a company that used to pride itself as breaking with norm and imposed conventions.

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Answer 7

Jan 8, 2014 1:24 AM in response to georgegboy

" ... a company that used to pride itself as breaking with norm and imposed conventions."

georgeboy, your point is well taken. Perhaps you are a long time Apple user (my first Mac was in 1984). The company you are thinking of started to disappear 4-5 years ago.

Here's my comment from another thread concerning wallpaper resizing (another ridiculous and hard to explain issue).

"This should be (and was not very long ago) so easy.

Apple is determined to take away as much control from the end user as possible.

And in this Apple shows one of its principle characteristics (which incidentally traces its origin back to the company's founder), i.e., HUBRIS."

(Multi-national corporations always believe they know what's best for us. However, up until a few years ago Apple was give us a little more room to decide for ourselves)

PS English speakers who want the dd/mm/yy should use Farrukh's tip.

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Answer 8

Apr 21, 2014 2:46 PM in response to Rob Stevenson

Thanks for raising this issue, which is still ongoing, and well overdue for a fix.

Australia as a Region Format beats the UK for me, for a couple of reasons. They use dollars so the $ sign stays on the onscreen keyboard, and the phone numbers look slightly better (it's xxxxxxxxxx rather than xxxxx xxxxxxx with the space 5 digits in). The clock uses am/pm, rather than 24-hour, which I prefer too.

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