iCal appointments so alerts work across time zones?

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Level 1

74 points

iCal appointments so alerts work across time zones?

does anyone happen to know definitively if there is a way to get my iCAL appointments to work across time zones? the last time i took a trip to the east coast (i set the appointment while in CST) i almost missed my flight because iCal decided to adjust this time by the amount that the time zone had changed and instead of alerting me 2 hours in advance it alerted me 1 hour in advance.

i have been trying to solve this off and on for about a year and i have read a number of threads on this and i think it is making me cranky.

does anyone know if this can be set so it actually works (i.e. i set and see an event at the correct time and i get the alert at the correct time even if i actually go to the time zone that the event is in). i mean, i am talking to a lot of people that are intending on empirically testing this by actually setting the events in various ways and actually going on a trip (i also tried this) but i cannot figure out and for some reason i cannot remember which settings i used to get this to work (i think i got it to work). basically it is so confusing an issue i would like to have some independent confirmation that it can (or can't) actually work and then some steps on how to get it to work would be great as well. of course independent verification that it does not work would be great too.

or alternatively a good app that can get me this functionality would be great as well.

THANKS

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Sep 16, 2013 7:07 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

matt00

Level 5

4,041 points

Sep 19, 2013 8:45 AM in response to hotwheels22

Hey hot wheels 22,

Thanks for the question, and great question by the way. It sounds like you may be looking for Time Zone Support on both your MacBook and iPhone:

Time Zone Support will allow you to create and view events in a time zone other than the one currently used by your iOS device (other than the one your clock is set to). If you do not use Time Zone Support, your iOS device will default to the current clock setting. iOS devices that are location aware will automatically set their time zone, date, and time using Location Services. You can verify your current date and time settings in Settings > Date & Time.

If you have Time Zone support on, you will have the option to set the specific Time Zone when creating an event (a new field will display under event times when editing). If the event Time Zone differs from your current Time Zone, it will display the specific event in local time. For more information, see these articles:

iOS: How to adjust Time Zone Support for calendars

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4576

Calendar: Change an event’s time zone

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11531

Thanks,

Matt M.

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Answer 2

hotwheels22 Author

Level 1

74 points

Sep 19, 2013 9:31 AM in response to matt00

hi matt.

have you tried this while travelling across time zones?

i ask because there is a lot of angst on other threads about this not working and i have tried it myself (and posted roughly 14 months ago on it) and i am not so sure it works. there is also a (relatively) large discrepancy between lion and mountain lion and ios6 in terms of functionality with respect to setting appointments.

i mean, the real issue here is that there does not appear to be a combination of settings that will let you set an appointment and have it update at your destination in a way that does not essentially corrupt your appointment by adjusting it "upward" or "downward".

and there are a lot of people that have almost missed airline flights or appointments particularly when traveling east (the alert gets pushed back in this case). others traveling west have had alerts go off early in which case they simply have the inconvenience of resetting the alert at the "correct" time.

OTOH, most of us need the alert to read correctly (i.e. tell us when the event is actually happening in the actual time zone) and my experience is that the technical articles are confoundingly obtuse on how to set things correctly which basically is a consequence of the fact that it does not work.

that said, i just downloaded the new iPhone iOS and it would be great to know if this update fixing this (rather large) and not inconsequential bug.

have you tried this functionality?

TIA

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