Time Zone Update

One more note: While the time zone on your phone is wrong (Denver), don't add any events to your calendar. Period. Because they will all be wrong. Your phone needs to say Phoenix time zone before you can add events. Because I changed all my events that had been added on my phone to MST on my Mac (they had been added when the phone read Cupertino), I thought it was fixed. But in fact, the time zone shifting actually crashed my Calendar. It stopped syncing altogether and a mobileMe senior advisor had to delete my mobileMe account and recreate it with a backup calendar. So this isn't as simple as it sounds.

I'm going to continue to keep Set Time Zone automatically turned OFF until they get it to read Phoenix. I advise you all to do the same.

All of my iDevices are set to something different when I set them to "Set Automatically" yet they are all sitting in the same room in the Phoenix time zone.

iPad1 = Phoenix

iPad2 = Cupertino

iPhone 4, iPhone 4S = Denver

iPod Touch (4th gen) = Phoenix

Frustrating.

gadgetgirl875 wrote:

All of my iDevices are set to something different when I set them to "Set Automatically" yet they are all sitting in the same room in the Phoenix time zone.

iPad1 = Phoenix

iPad2 = Cupertino

iPhone 4, iPhone 4S = Denver

iPod Touch (4th gen) = Phoenix

Frustrating.

I wonder if it has anything to do with their network connectivity? Are both iPads 3G, or are they Wifi, and are they on the same networks? Have they all been connected to the same places?

I'm just wondering because my iPhone reset itself this morning from Cupertino to Denver after I disconnected it from the network and it was only connected to wifi. I put it in airplane mode and turned on the wifi and it changed to Denver time, and then when I put it back on the Verizone network again it stayed on Denver time. I don't know if that was a coincidence or what, but it worked.

Also, for those with calendar issues, I am really curious why mine is unaffected while yours seem to have suffered a terrible fate? I looked at all of my events and none of the times have changed. I don't use 'floating' events (never knew that was a thing) since my colleagues and I use a standard time zone and I just always automatically change the times. I was in Salt Lake City for three days (came back last night) and when I looked at my calendar, events had not changed times; I didn't worry about it because none of them were happening while I was in the different time zone, but that made me think about how the calendar events changing would be kind of important. If it's 3:00 pm MST, it should appear at 3:00 pm MST no matter where I am. Maybe that's what I wasn't getting before; is that what a 'floating' calendar is supposed to do, and is that what 'time zone support' is for? I wonder if I had changed my time zone support to 'off' if my events would have changed times? I guess I need to look into all of that; I haven't been out of town by myself and had to coordinate a meeting time from anyplace besides home. I suppose this could be a problem.

In the short run, it seems like it's all okay for now for me since it switched automatically to MST and my events are intact, but what if I travel? Hm...

iPad1 = Phoenix

iPad2 = Cupertino

iPhone 4, iPhone 4S = Denver

My experience exactly, except that my iPad2 is also in Phoenix.

I suspect the iPads (both are WiFi only) are getting their timezone from my Airport base station, which is set to Arizona/Phoenix, while the iPhones are getting the timezone from AT&T.

Frustrating.

Very.

On my iPad 2, when this first happened my time zone was set to Cupertino. I turned Set Automatically off and then back on, and the time zone correctly changed to Phoenix and has stayed that way. That hasn't worked on the iPhones.

The difference between the iPads and iPhones could well be related to WiFi vs. cell. I would be surprised if the iPads were getting the actual time zone from the Airport, but I suppose it is possible. Phones have always gotten their automatic time setting from the carrier. But that's time, not time zone. It certainly appears that in iOS 5 the time zone is being calculated based on location - incorrectly in Arizona.

I'm in Arizona. iPhone 4, iOS5. DST bug woke me an hour early in March, so I set it to "Set Manually." That put the click back to normal.

Sometime between then and now (iOS upgrade?), it got set back to "Set Automatically" because the $#&%ing thing woke me an hour late today. Awesome.

The problem is still there. I put it to "Set manually," it sees Phoenix. Put it to "Set Automatically," it switches to Denver. Still does it right this second. First real disappointment in Apple since the Powerbook 5300. This is really not that difficult to fix.

I have the same issue... this is really ridiculous, I can't believe that Apple can't figure this out. My phone keeps thinking that I'm in Winnepeg even though I'm in Calgary which is an entire timezone away. This morning it woke me up 1hr early.

Maybe Apple should spend less time not allowing people to use Siri on their iPhone 4, and more time on fixing this problem. It's been how many years now and this timezone, daylight savings time issue still hasn't been rectified, there really is no excuse.

to clarify my example of flying to new york; the iphone clock will update to new york time automatically because "Set Automatically" is still On in Settings-> General -> Date and Time; the calendar will shift to display things in new york time once the timezone is set manually in Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars. basically, the timezone you set in Mail, Contacts, Calendars is only used by the Calendar app to determine how to display appointments, and becomes the default timezone for new appointments.

Timezone setting does not work for calendar. I flew from Cupertino to DC and time synchs up and so does the email, but calendar fails.

To fix this, I kept the time zone as Cupertino and Turned timezone support "off" and that synchs the calendar.

Looks like iPhone is not Enterprise ready ... good toy

If Time Zone Support is off, your calendar moves as you move, that is, the time zone settings update as you change time zones. For example, if you have that same meeting at 10 a.m. Pacific time in California and fly to New York, your calendar items will be shown in local (eastern) time. So your meeting at 10 a.m. Pacific time will show up at 1 p.m. ET. If you expected to call in to such a meeting, 1 p.m. eastern time would be the correct time to do so. If you had time zone support on, you could end up calling in at 7 a.m., which would be a bit early.

If this the case then why do you call it time zone support?

Looking at the amount of emails on this topic it looks like turning time zone support "on" should keep the calendars in synch with time zone I currently am in (while moving). Otherwise, it is a useless feature.

VS

don't ask me why it's called that, I just happen to know how to use it to workaround the bug which is the topic of this thread.

if you live in a region which observes daylight savings time, you are probably fine with "Time Zone Support" set to off. just know that even in that mode, calendar items you create are stamped with the timezone that ios has decided you are currently in; if your current time zone changes (i.e., you fly), the calendar app will change to the new current timezone, but all your appointments are in the former timezone, and the result is they appear to change times when you look at the calendar. they'll move back when you go home.

it's confusing because timezones are confusing. the way to deal with it is keep this in mind: if you are standing in california and are adding an appointment you'll be attending while in new york next week, set the time of the meeting to what time it'll be in california. that's what the Calendar app is assuming you are doing. then when you get to new york, Calendar will translate it for you.

we people living in a region which does not observe daylight savings time (Phoenix) are seeing a bug where iOS has determined we are in a completely different timezone (Cupertino when daylight savings time is active in California, Denver when daylight savings time is not active in California), causing new appointments to have the wrong timezone in them. this is a problem when the DST events happen other places; our appointments change time when they shouldn't. the workaround is to ask iOS to allow us to set the timezone Calendar should display manually (and also that same option allows us to set the timezone of all new appointments manually; the default timezone for new appointments will start as the timezone we select manually in Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars)

Folks, I posted earlier that the MobileMe senior support tech I was working with to solve my many calendar syncing problems told me, sternly, that Floating events were NOT supported by MobileMe. That seemed (and still seems) crazy to me, since that is the ONLY way to get a flight taking off in one time zone and landing in another to show up properly in both time zones.

Well, I flew east this week and he's right. I entered all flights at the actual local time in my computer iCal and set the zone to "floating." All my flight times were messed up. I had the actual times copied into the notes section. But this is incredibly annoying, as I have entered all my flights as floating events ever since I discovered the option. The description of a floating event says that the time won't change if you move, which is true, but only on iCal, NOT on the phone. So I was scrambling to figure out what time my flight out of Dallas actually left while trying to decide whether to stay on a delayed flight to Dallas or get off and route through another city instead.

So in addition to being stuck in "Denver," and having no ability to sync events I enter on my phone to my Air calendar (there is a trick involving mobile me, if anyone is interested, that will push phone-entered events to the computer), I cannot now enter a flight that takes off in one time zone and lands in another without calculating the time change and then remembering that the arrival time is WRONG until I actually arrive. Causing the problem noted above.

Not happy about this, Apple.😠

I'm sure you know, but MobileMe is a dead end ... I've already converted everything except my iDisk to iCloud. Not good, but it's the truth. everything syncs from iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iCloud.com perfectly.

I don't know if floating events are supported on iCloud. I'm going to stick to keeping "Set Automatically" on and "Time Zone Support" on.

For flights, I intend to set the time zone to whatever end is germane to me; if I'm flying, I'll set it to the timezone I'll be taking off from. Then I can set the takeoff time to whatever the airline tells me, and I'll convert, by hand, the landing time so it's correct in the same timezone as the takeoff timezone. If I were picking someone up from the airport, I'd set the timezone of the event to where the flight lands, and convert the takeoff time to that same time zone.

That way, the event will have the correct time (both take off and landing) no matter what timezone I pick for display in Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

It's more work, but there is a way to have it correct.

Yes, I know all about iCloud. But I don't have Lion yet.

What you suggest works fine if you aren't changing planes in a time zone different from your own. I am. It is a regular occurrence for me to take off in MST, land in CDT, take off in CDT and land in EDT. Floating solves this. What you suggest requires quite a bit of calculation, and clearly WRONG information on actual flight times to be entered. In other words, the lengths of the flights are wrong.

True, a lot of work. Flight durations should be correct, though.

I'd set the calendar entry for the first leg to the Phoenix timezone and the second leg to Chicago timezone. As soon as the first plane lands, set timezone in Mail, Contacts, Calendars to Chicago so it'll display the local time of the second flight's takeoff.

Example: flight 45, from PHX to Chicago; airline lists the time as 8:00am to 1:00pm, and Chicago is observing daylight savings time. This is a three hour flight.

Flight 56, from Chicago to new York; airline lists the time as 2:00pm to 5pm, and of course new York is also on daylight savings time. A two hour flight.

I'd put the first flight on my calendar in the Phoenix time zone, and I'd set its start time to 8:00am, end time to 11:00am. 3 hour duration.

The second flight, I'd set the timezone as Chicago, start time as 2:00pm, end time as 4pm. 2 hour duration.

The times and durations are all correct. When landing in Chicago, immediately set your display timezone in Mail, Contacts, Calendars to Chicago. When landing in new York, immediately set your timezone to new York in Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

It forces awareness of the timezones both on data entry and when traveling into a new timezone. At all times, though, the times and durations are "correct"; you just have to specify what timezone you want it displayed in.