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iOS 8 Calendar on iPhone showing GMT times for new events.

Hi everyone,


Since updating my iPhone 4S to iOS 8, the Calendar app now shows all my newly added events with GMT times, and not the local time (as I am not in GMT, I am +9 hours). All my previous and existing entries are displaying normally. I have not changed any settings at all. However, if I open one of the new events and enter the events details screen, the local times are clearly displayed along with a GMT equivalent time underneath it.


I have tried changing settings but nothing shows my events in local time as it did before the upgrade to iOS 8. Any ideas? Is this a bug? Am I missing a new setting? Many thanks in advance for your help or advice.


Cheers,

James.

iPhone 4S, iOS 8

Posted on Sep 21, 2014 2:16 AM

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Posted on Sep 23, 2014 8:59 AM

sorry no solution here, just jumping in to say I'm having the same issue on the 6. I hope there is a solution as this is pretty confusing.

892 replies

Jan 2, 2015 1:52 PM in response to bdomer

Yeah same story here....thanks for the beating over the head with this...gad not even sure want quick quote I am looking to attempt. Prob sort of brain dead..HEY yeah that's it " beating a dead horse?" ? Many times I hit a glitch ..do a little trouble shooting heck it is only 10:30 pm plenty of time for sleep soon..sure I can do just this one more little step , one last try..tap tap... Heck gotta be close..whoops..

and of course suddenly I look at clock and its past 1am...so it goes.

My mom ..i keep telling her how great iPhone .. siri ...gad now what to I tell her?? Luckily she keeps a paper hospital calendar......

Jan 2, 2015 1:59 PM in response to bdomer

@bdomer: Sorry not working here. I followed all the steps....even the last one "pray."


I'll go in and edit an already-created appointment on my iPhone going through all these steps. Then I will look at the very same appointment on my iPad and it will have transposed itself to GMT. This what I have observed since day 1, the appointments are fine on the originating iOS device and they get jacked up on the receiving iOS device(s).


I think that your work around may be OK if you are just using a single iDevice in your setup. But for me, and other users that need appointments to sync reliably across multiple iOS devices....we are just on ice until Apple delivers the bug fix in an upcoming update.

Jan 2, 2015 2:29 PM in response to bdomer

No it is not limited to Google Calendar. I sync my devices using Exchange. I don't use a single Google product for anything. It affects Google and Exchange users and I have even heard of others seeing this on iCal. The common factor is not he server or service...it is iOS.


Is your Exchange account hosted locally at your company office? Or do you use a remotely hosted account? The reason you aren;t seeing this on Exchange is because your Exchange server's system time clock is set to the same time zone your iOS device(s) are set to. If you have a local company-managed Exchange server you can easily confirm this.

Jan 2, 2015 2:46 PM in response to JG in SB

Yes, exchange is a local account server so that makes sense. I can create an appointment on my iPad and assign it to my exchange calendar and as soon as I reassign it to a google calendar the GMT shows up... of course my toggle "all-day" work around is still clearing it up for all my devices.


Even better... I create on my iOS 8 device assign to my exchange calendar and then reassign it to google and GMT shows up... If I create and assign to google the GMT shows up as expected and if I reassign to my exchange... GMT will NOT go away... I have to toggle "all-day" to get rid of GMT. So as screwed up as this is you are telling me that as soon as I assign my event to a calendar server not housed in my time zone the GMT virus will rear its ugly head? Maybe I will move Greenwich. This is just stupid!

Jan 2, 2015 3:03 PM in response to bdomer

"So as screwed up as this is you are telling me that as soon as I assign my event to a calendar server not housed in my time zone the GMT virus will rear its ugly head?"


Yes, that is precisely what will happen. This bug is present on every single device running iOS 8.x but not everyone will see it depending upon the time zone that is set on their server's clock. As soon as either: 1) they go into a different time zone than their server is set to and the iOS device updates its clock; or 2) their account gets migrated to a server with a different time zone setting, the GMT thing (or whatever the server's clock is set to) will show up.


This has been extremely frustrating because many people can't grasp the concept of a bug that was present all along but didn't show up all along. Many people think that the fact they were just fine on iOS 8.x for a few weeks after the September update and then this showed up "without them changing anything" is "proof" that it isn't a bug in iOS, but is due to Google etc. Not so. The bug was there all along and they just didn't see it. In order to see the bug you need to be on iOS 8 AND sync through a server that is set to a different time zone than your iOS device is set to.


If your company IT guys are willing to test it out, you can make any time zone you want show up on your Exchange synced calendars. Have them set the clock of the hardware on which Exchange is running to EAT and you'll get your appointments automatically transposed to Somalia time courtesy of iOS. Or if you prefer to have all your appointments transposed to Kuala Lampur time have them set the server's time clock to ICT. Or Houston pick CST. Really useful "feature" of iOS huh?

Jan 2, 2015 3:27 PM in response to JG in SB

"This has been extremely frustrating because many people can't grasp the concept of a bug that was present all along but didn't show up all along. Many people think that the fact they were just fine on iOS 8.x for a few weeks after the September update and then this showed up "without them changing anything" is "proof" that it isn't a bug in iOS, but is due to Google etc. Not so. The bug was there all along and they just didn't see it."


This is so TRUE! I encountered this problem last spring before any iOS 8 was released and iPhone6 was still something we were dreaming about. I spent hours trying to figure it out- deleting accounts, recreating appointments, fixing time zone settings, and eventually reentered every appointment on my calendars. At the time there was an issue that turned up on my google calendars and I don't remember what it was or how I fixed it but I do know there was a lot of stress and arguing over missed appointments because of this GMT thing. When I noticed it last week and discovered it was on my calendar for everything created after December 9 I was gonna flip out... so yes, this has been around for at least a year now and it only comes out when the update has the right mix for the bug to be noticed. I don't understand how Apple can't figure it out with all the money they have. I have no clue how to write code or create apps and all that mess but surely there is someone collecting a 6 figure paycheck at apple who can fix this!

Jan 2, 2015 3:40 PM in response to James Barber

I've read through most of this thread and spoken with Apple. They have accepted screenshots and said they are working on it. It is clear the problem is Apple/iOS 8.


But here is a question for those who have a more technical bent - I have found that on an even-by-event basis, the following will correct an entry. It is far too complicated to be a reasonable workaround, but it raises the question, "why does this stop the problem?" considering the breadth to the issue as described by a number of commenters here. In other words, will it help someone find an answer to what is causing it if the following stops it:


1) Enter an event as you normally would. 2) Select "Add". 3) GMT shows up. 4) Go back and edit the event (notice that the start time now shows GMT in the edit mode) 5) select "starts" and when the start-time wheel shows up, select "Time Zone" and reset it to the local time zone (this requires clearing the GMT and entering a few letters of the nearest large city in your time zone). 5) be sure to set the time again to the correct beginning time (because OS has also now set the starting time to the GMT equivalent). 6) Select "Done" 7) Return to the date display.


What is interesting (once you get over the basic issue, which is maddening) is that now the GMT is gone. And you can drag it to a different start time and the GMT will not reappear. If you go through those steps in the original setting of the appointment, iOS won't get it right. So why does it get it right when you enter the same information the second time during the edit.


As I said, it is way too cumbersome to do this for every appointment, but why does essentially the same setting the second time convince iOS that you just want your local time but it doesn't make it work initially?

Jan 2, 2015 4:14 PM in response to Levantus

Levantus,


My read on this is that when you create a new event, it is created at the "default" time zone. The bug makes this "default" time zone the time zone your server is set to, rather than the time zone your phone is set to.


Once you go back in to edit the event, you are modifying the time zone of an event that has already been created, which is a different action than creating a new event. It seems that the bug mainly affects the creation of new events. (I say mainly because there are some folks on the thread who have had problems even when they modify existing events - so there may be other variables that I'm not aware of)


I have been going through that cumbersome process for more than a month now - nothing compared to those who have been suffering since September, but Apple can't release a fix for this a moment too soon for me....

Jan 2, 2015 8:21 PM in response to Ghupka

I have been having the same problem on my iPhone 5s since I updated to OS 8.2.1

I spent about 3 hours on chat and on the phone with Apple technical support, and they were unable to resolve the problem. I find that if I create an event on ical on my phone or on my macbook that the event shows up with PST and GMT. In list view, the event lists with PST (the correct time zone that I am in). When I go to event details, both time zones show, and if I have to edit the event (like change the time of a meeting or day), then it defaults to GMT. Very frustrating! Apple has been unable to fix this at this point, yet did say that there were aware that others were experiencing this same problem. I have not had a problem with events adding on my iPhone in ical that are synced through exchange (my work calendar). The main issue is with my "home" calendar, which is synced through Google. It is very cumbersome to create an event, then to have to immediately edit it in order to erase the GMT and make sure it displays only the PST.

Event details > time zone > select Cupertino (type this in) > then go back and set the correct time of the event.

I have started creating events in Google instead of using ical on my phone right now, because of this issue. It seems to be a bug with the update of OS 8. My hope is that Apple will fix this soon. If anyone has found another work around for creating events in ical on the iPhone, without getting two different time zones appearing, I would like to hear it.

Jan 2, 2015 8:48 PM in response to jsikes

Beware... your solution still results in a GMT bug when I change appointments that I created on the google calendar. Changing the time of the appointment does not affect it but when I assign it to a different calendar (my wife and I have separate calendars but share them) in google then it shows up. Here is something even more frustrating... First, I create an appointment on my google calendar. If I do nothing to the appointment the GMT does not show up on my iOS device. If I edit the time of the appointment on my iOS 8 device the GMT still does not show up. But if I edit the appointment on my iOS 8 device (iPhone 5s or iPad?) and assign it another google calendar that I share with my wife, or with work, etc. the GMT shows up. Then I assigned it back to my google calendar using my iOS 8 device the GMT does not go away AND I have a second appointment appear on my GOOGLE calendar and NOT my iOS devices

Also, I stil am having success with "toggle all-day on and off work around" GMT goes away....

iOS 8 Calendar on iPhone showing GMT times for new events.

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