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Time Zone Support is STUPID!!!!!

I've tried all kinds of combinations between my MacBook Pro iCal and my iPhone and it just doesn't work.

First, with iCal on my laptop, turning time zone support on gives the option of selecting which time zone to display and set events on the calendar. With support off, the calendar updates times depending on which time zone you're in. This makes no sense!!! If anything, the calendar times should stay fixed and not change at all if support is off. Turning support on should make the calendar adjust times.

Second, what's the point for entering times in different time zones anyway? If I have a meeting or a flight anywhere in the world, the time is the time no matter what. If I have travel to a different time zone and I set an event for 2 PM, that event will change time when I go to another time zone giving me the wrong time. If I set the event for 2 PM in a different time zone, it will diplay the wrong time in my current time zone.

Third, there is no option to start in one time zone and end in another. I fly all the time. If I turn time zone support on and set a time for a departing flight at 4 PM Eastern, there is no option to arrive at a time in another time zone, so the arrival time will be wrong when the calendar updates in the arriving time zone. If I turn support off, and set an event to start at 4 PM and travel an hour ahead, the calendar will then say the event is at 5 PM when it updates in the new time zone, which is wrong and I'll miss that event.

If I turn my laptop calendar time zone support and iPhone TZS both on or off, times keep getting screwed up. If one is on and one is off, it gets screwed up. Just as an example, to keep my laptop calendar to have the actual time of all my events no matter where I am, I turned time zone support on and set to Central time, where I live. With TZS off, all my times would change to one hour ahead when I go to the Eastern time zone which would screw up any event I would need to refer to. My iPhone has TZS on as well. I have a flight at 3:30 eastern arriving home at 4:30 central, but if I create the event in eastern at 3:30 there is no option to finish in central, so I would have to mark my arrival as 5:30 eastern. When I get home, my calendar would say I left at 2:30 and arrived at 4:30. If I had looked at my calendar before my trip to the eastern time zone, my calendar would say I'm leaving at 2:30, which is wrong for the zone I would leave from, but the arrival time is correct.

Now, with all TZS turned on, and my calendar set to central, and a 3:30 PM Eastern flight with a 24 hour advance alert, my phone alerted me at 4:30 Eastern of my 3:30 Eastern flight because my calendar was set to Central time, not Eastern. Had I had TZS turned off and entered the flight as 3:30, it would display at 4:30 when I arrived in Eastern and my departure and arrival time would be wrong when my calendar updated once in returned to Central and, while still in the Eastern zone, every single event in my calendar would be advance by one hour to reflect the Eastern zone and would be wrong for the actual time those events were to take place in Central, or any other time zone.

If I lived in New York and I traveled to Los Angeles and had an 8 AM meeting in LA, while in NY my calendar would say I had a 11 AM meeting if TZS was on and set to Eastern and wouldn't change to 8 until I manually selected the Pacific time zone. If TZS was off, my 8 AM meeting would display as 5 AM when I arrived in LA and the calendar updated automatically.

The whole system just makes no sense at all and serves no purpose that I can see. The time is the time regardless of where I am or what time zone I'm in. I will always be where I am and the time will always be the time. Why make it change? I want to look at my calendar and have the right time no matter where I am. Apple needs to fix this thing to either add multiple time zones for a single event's start and end time and display the time zone in the calendar or they need to get rid of time zone support altogether.

If anybody knows of a way to keep the calendar on both the computer and the iPhone to actually work in a manner that doesn't change times and will alert me to the actual time of events regardless of time zones I'd love to hear it. Outside of turning off location services, which will screw up every other app, I don't see a fix. Unless Apple give the option to turn of location services for iCal on the iPhone.

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.1.1, Aslo MacBook Pro 15 inch Early 2008

Posted on Jun 21, 2012 12:09 PM

148 replies

May 21, 2013 11:14 AM in response to Beachbum33

I couldn't agree with you more!!! I'm sick of making appointments in one time zone and then not being able to see the correct time when I'm in another time zone. It's a big mess! I may have to go back to a paper calendar!

Jun 3, 2013 12:48 PM in response to pinkfloyd1969

Again, I look at the replies and I come to the same conclusion. There are a subset of us who want NO TIME ZONE SUPPORT at all. We are not concerend with the impact an entry has on calendar sharing. I KNOW WHERE I'LL BE AND WHAT TIME I MEAN WHEN I ENTER AN APPOINTMENT! When I make an entry for next week at 2pm, I know what time zone I will be in and that's all that matters to me! I move around between time zones a lot, and am constantly missing meetings and running late (or early) because ICal keeps changing the time I entered. Turning off time zone support should do just that! It should turn all time support off and allow me to "fix" my appointment times to a universal time. Not only from this string of replies, but from conversations with others, I believe that this is a feature that many people want, and I can't understand why Apple engineers are so recalictrant about giving in on this.

chrismcs

Level 1

0 points

Jun 4, 2013 7:54 AM in response to Beachbum33

To be fair - I don't think Apple engineers are "recalictrant about giving in" on this...Apple hasn't commented at all on this thread, so who knows what they think about this topic.

Like someone mentioned in a previous post - this is great feedback to suggest to Apple on their feedback page. That said - you need to be clear on what you're asking for. When you say that you don't want "any time zone features" - that's not accurate...you DO want time zone features. Currently, when you turn off "time zone support", you DON'T have any time zone features - Apple (like every other calendar app on the planet) merely saves the timestamp of when you scheduled your appointment to occur (ie a specific point in time - not just "a time"). iCal is not "changing" anything when you move to another time zone - your appointment still occurs at the same exact point in time that you specified when you created the event (it merely "feels" different to you because your new location calls that point in time something different than your previous location).

What you're really asking for is that Apple to create a feature where the DO change when your appointments occur every time you move from one time zone to another (I realize this sounds counter-intuitive based on what you see on your calendar, but in order for your 3pm CST appointment to still say "3pm" when you fly to California, iCal would have to change the time of your appiontment to 3pm PST). Internally, all calendar apps have to process things in the context of when they occur, not just "the time" something occurs (otherwise, how does a computer know when to fire your alarm, etc?). And like I mentioned in a previous post, this feature already exists in iCal - it's called a "Floating Time Zone". You simply need to turn on Time Zone support and you will have the option on all your events to schedule them as "floating" (I personally think that would create a nightmare of a calendar where you never actually know when something occurs, but to each his own - the feature is there for you to use).

So that all said, I'm not sure what else it is you're looking for Apple to do since they've already given you the floating time zone option.

Jun 4, 2013 11:08 AM in response to pinkfloyd1969

Here's another way of saying it...an example of what I want and I think what others want...

I am in New Mexico right now and I am making appointments for later in the year when I am in India.

Let's say I know there is an event happening (I'm making this up...) at 7pm in New Delhi on December 22nd. I want to be able to look on that date and see that I have something scheduled at 7pm. I don't want to see it as 6:30am which is the time (more or less) that it is in New Mexico when it's 7pm in New Delhi. I don't want to have to enter it in a different time zone..or change time zones back and forth.I just want to enter an event on a certain day at a certain time and have it remain that way no matter where I am.

Got that APPLE?

Jun 4, 2013 11:10 AM in response to vandana22

Exactly!

Jun 4, 2013 11:20 AM in response to vandana22

But that's decidedly not what I want. I want to create an event at 7 PM India time, and say in the event that it is India time. So when I get to India it will be right. However, when I'm in New Mexico I want THAT SAME EVENT to show 6:30 AM, because I need to call into that meeting from New Mexico, and if it appears on my calender at 7 PM either I have to do the mental arithmetic or I'll miss the meeting by 12 1/2 hours.

mwestley

Level 1

1 points

Jun 4, 2013 1:29 PM in response to vandana22

I seriously doubt you'll get Apple or any other calendar app to do it that way. There are a lot of us who have to know when an event is happening in our time zone, not just the event's time zone.

I think you're in the minority on this issue.

Jun 4, 2013 1:53 PM in response to vandana22

vandana22 wrote:

Let's say I know there is an event happening (I'm making this up...) at 7pm in New Delhi on December 22nd. I want to be able to look on that date and see that I have something scheduled at 7pm. I don't want to see it as 6:30am which is the time (more or less) that it is in New Mexico when it's 7pm in New Delhi. I don't want to have to enter it in a different time zone..or change time zones back and forth.I just want to enter an event on a certain day at a certain time and have it remain that way no matter where I am.

You seem to be able to do that with Google Calendar. It lets you chose the time zone of the indivicual appointment.

Jun 4, 2013 2:09 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

You can also choose the time zone of the individual appointment with iCal, with Calendar on the iPhone, and with the various calendar apps for the iPhone including Pocket Informant and Week Calendar (the two best IMO). Also with MS Outlook, Pimlical for Windows and Android, and most other calendar apps. And they all work pretty much the same way. @vandana22 doesn't want to have to choose the time zone, however.

Jun 4, 2013 2:50 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Lawrence Finch wrote:

@vandana22 doesn't want to have to choose the time zone, however.

Seems like an easy enough thing to do. <shrug>

Jun 4, 2013 3:39 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

Actually Meg it's not easy enough! If it were easier to choose the time zone I might be willing to do it.

If I am scheduling many different things that are happening in different time zones (such as a flight with layovers) it's fairly complicated...compared to how easy most things are to do on the iphone...the author of this post is suggesting that this aspect of the phone needs improving upon and I agree!

Jun 4, 2013 4:46 PM in response to vandana22

Life is complicated. Get used to it.

Or find a device that does it better.

Jun 22, 2013 2:52 PM in response to vandana22

Vandana22 completely gets it - I have to figure this out for my boss who lives much of the time in Asia, but travels all over the world. Main office and my office is in California - we have his time zone fixed for Asia and have time zone support turned off on iPad and iPhone - I tried setting appointment times for each individual time zone that he will be in when that appointments happens, but the result is it all adjusts for Asia time so a 2 pm appointment in Los Angeles shows up at 11 p.m. the previous day. Makes it really hard when we are talking to folks and scheduling additional meetings to see what the day really looks like. My best workaround so far is creating a second calendar that I call California (or wherever he will be other than Asia) and duplicating all the appointments to happen in that time zone. So the 2 pm Thursday appointment will show up at 11 p.m. Wednesday on the main "Asia" calendar and at 2 pm on the secondary "California" calendar. Then we will hide the main calendar when he is actually in California to hopefully avoid confusion.

That seems to be a lame solution but better than going back to paper, which I am seriously considering.

Interested in hearing your feedback.

Jul 8, 2013 7:39 PM in response to Beachbum33

Beachbum33 wrote:

I don't want ANY TIME ZONE FEATURES AT ALL. I want the calendar to behave JUST LIKE A PAPER CALENDAR.

Sounds like you should carry a paper-based diary instead of using iCal. At the moment you're using a screwdriver and yelling, "WHY DOESN'T THIS SCREWDRIVER BEHAVE LIKE A HAMMER?!? I JUST WANT IT TO BE LIKE MY OLD HAMMER!!"

So go grab yourself a hammer. Problem solved. *shrug*

Aug 31, 2013 2:29 PM in response to pinkfloyd1969

Here is what I want.

The time i enter should go into a Text or number cell and not be tied to a clock at all.

So when I'm at home in Mountain time and enter my appointment at 4pm in a place that is on pacific time no matter where I am in the world it says I am suppose to be there at 4pm.

Time Zone Support is STUPID!!!!!