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

@Backgammoner: Sorry if I offended you (or anyone else). That was certainly not my intent.

I am a Land Use Consultant and I work regularly with many design, technical, and legal professionals. Many of us use that particular term in our casual conversations as a sort of slang description for the behavior I was describing. Its a pretty widely used term, and if you search for it, you will find many definitions for it that are all consistent.

Here's one definition:

"Intellectual activity that serves no practical purpose."

I used that term because I think it precisely describes your posts in which you have gone to extensive lengths to make esoteric arguments about why something that is clearly a bug is somehow not a bug. And you have done this despite the fact that it doesn't make any difference to the thousands of people who are adversely affected by it. Also, I still disagree with even your highly technical arguments about this.

I think part of what you are seeing is that there are huge numbers of people for whom Apple's completely thoughtless design and careless implementation in iOS 8 Calendar has been extremely disruptive and irritating. I am one of those people. When a guy shows up and then tells all of us that really, we are all mistaken and that this issue is really "technically correct" and that there isn't anything wrong with what the Calendar is doing..we just don't understand it, the natural response is that people get ***** off.

I deal with people, and have to try to predict their reactions to arguments I make, for a living and therefore I am totally unsurprised that this has been people's reaction to your posts. Sometimes people say stuff when they are ***** off that might sound insulting. That's unfortunate, but it is predictable. I'm not claiming that this makes it OK, just giving you an explanation for it. I am sure it feels like a personal attack but in most cases it really isn't, it's more general frustration towards Apple, but its coming out in response to your posts.

Apple's handling of this has been totally sub-par. It demonstrates a complete lack of leadership and accountability. It demonstrates that Apple has total disregard for its customers: it is far more important to Apple to try and maintain an appearance of being infallible than it is to simply acknowledge an obvious mistake they made and provide a timeline for a solution. No one would knock Apple for acknowledging and fixing a mistake. In fact I tend to have MORE confidence in companies that admit errors and then move to address them quickly, not less. I feel like we are dealing with a stubborn teenager who knows he has done something totally stupid but instead of just saying "I screwed up, I'll make it right" keeps ignoring the issue or trying to argue that he didn't screw up at all. This is a joke, and it's insulting to me and a lot of other Apple customers.

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@JG in SB thanks for your post, I appreciate it!

I am 100% with you that Apple's handling of this situation is sub-par and disrespectful to its customers, at least their support folks are aware of it and communicate that something is in the works, that was the response I got yesterday when chatting with a customer rep.

For what ever it's worth I am currently using the switch to All-day and back trick as a workaround, it is ugly and irritating but achieves its purpose of getting rid of the GMT non-sense and takes only few more strokes to enter a new event and needs to be done only once.

Siri just found me a couple of links to discussions of this problem. It does appear she knows of it even if the geniuses don't!

Jeremy

Apple Support Communities - Terms of Use

https://discussions.apple.com/static/apple/tutorial/tou.html

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can anyone ANYONE FIX THIS PROBLEM. Changing all my events to GMT. Have tried everything above with no resolve. Help.

I was bored and read all the posts here. Jeez what a nightmare. I continue to have the issue even with 8.1.3. You'd think at least one of R&D's chief software architects would have encountered this bug with their own calendar, months ago. Maybe they don't eat their own dog food at Apple.

Yes. Apple can. However, it will be several months before we hope to see this fixed. The current hope is April. Circa iOS 8.2.

It's more likely that Apple employees don't use Google Calendar or Exchange. Therefore, they don't encounter the problem.

FWIW it appears new events created post-8.1.3 are not being affected yet by the GMT bug when I edit them. Events created before I upgraded to 8.1.3 are still obviously affected.

Even with the new iOS update...it it still doing it in my end....

Apple please address this issue ASAP, it's really a serious BUG and making calendar mtgs very confusing, cannot believe that it wasn't at the top of 8.1.3 bug fixes

I have to agree. Look at what Marriott did today. Their CEO finally stated that wifi blocking was viewed as anti customer, greedy, and that Marriott "failed" but at least wanted to do it fast. They have pulled the wifi blocking request from FCC application and admitted that they were wrong.

They (Marriott) are 100% customer/consumer based firm and realized their policy had backfired. The iOS GMT issue is appalling and Apple should do the same, "we are sorry that we have not adequately addressed this bug and will do so in the next iOS release" : simple, truthful, and customer focused.

Not so hard.

I tested with new events following 8.1.3 and it is still doing it on my setup.

In other news, I was at my local Apple Store yesterday and can confirm there has been sort of a "Sea Change" with regard to this issue. Every Apple employee I spoke with yesterday was familiar with it. Compare that with two weeks ago when they still claimed they had never heard of this.

The one guy I spoke with at length said he was well aware of it, that many people had come into the store reporting the same thing, that the Geniuses at the store were all aware that this is a bug, and that many of his friends (who are also experiencing this bug) were asking him about it since he works for Apple.

You seriously have to wonder if all this occurred just in the last two weeks. Or whether this has been going on for months and the only thing that has changed is an Apple policy that now allows their employees to acknowledge this problem exists.......

Either way, I consider that progress.

Hello,

same problem... After having spent hours trying different settings or called Apple helpdesk where I got stupid people on the line pretending I was the only one to have this problem I finally understood ( - by the way the support is really useless as their only "solution" - that wouldn't have worked - was to completelly re-initialise my phone!).

Problem : Whatever the device used (iphone, Ipad, ...) if you are using IOS8xx with a sync account on Google or Exchange, you'll have the problem as soon as the calendar entry was enterred on the device side (not in Google) and when it is synchronized. It's well explained here in this video : http://youtu.be/cgP1zyi_iV8

If you search the web for "IOS8 GMT bugs" you'll find thousands of people in many countries having this problem. What is also frustrating (reading the forums) is that a lot of people that have contacted Apple's help line have been told that it was a Google problem and not an Apple problem... so it is Google that would have to provide a fix !!!??

Google sync was working with IOS7, it is working with a Samsung or Windows device, it is NOT working since the IOS8 update and Apple pretends that the problem is not on their side !!! It's really a SHAME... !!!!

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update : Just installed IOS 8.1.3 and................ NOT FIXED !!!!!!!

I'm disgusted....

JG - ditto, did 1 hour of testing today across iphone, ipad, laptops, etc.

Net result -- no change whatsoever to the GMT Bug.... now 100+ days and counting.

P-word effort SLOW....

Media coverage of the GMT Bug is spreading worldwide and visibility is picking up... Apple unlikely to respond until PR is super NEGATIVE.

But, it's been a good week for the "voice of the customer" -- Intuit caved on TurboTax feature/function changes & charges, Marriott caved on blocking WiFi signals, and Verizon caved on allowing opt-out on "Super-cookies". Maybe Apple will wake up -- after rolling in it's $160 billion cash pile -- and throw a few thousand dollars in resources at the GMT bug!

Here is the Test Used Today:

Equipment: iPad Air2 (iOS v8.1.3), iPhone6 (iOS v8.1.3), Laptops (both Win7), MacMini late-2009 (O/S 10.10.2)

Calendar S/W: iPhone/iPad -- either Apple's iOS Calendar and Calendar5 (Readdle)

Settings: iOS devices - All timezone stuff turned OFF (Settings/General/Date & Time/Set Automatically=OFF; TimeZone set to Portland, Oregon)

Email: 4 Emails accounts; 3 on Office365 (cloud) and 1 on MS Exchange (also cloud); no Google, iCloud, Yahoo, other Email services

First, I created a calendar entry on iPad Air2 using Calendar5 app (so I started without using Apple's calendar!)

• Event Created: 2/1/14 6:00-7:00pm local time (I am PST - Pacific time; 8 hours behind GMT)
• Calendar entry shows as correct on Calendar5 and Apple Calendar app -- event is listed in LOCAL time on both (so far, so good)
• However, on iPhone6 (after sync) now shows event at 2:00-3:00am on GMT time (with GMT displayed on iPhone6 screen); any "edits" on iPhone6 now would bet against GMT time (the bug has hit !)

Second, I made edits to the event on iPad Air2 -- using Calendar5 App (e.g., changed event TITLE and moved to 6:30-7:30pm Local time)

• iPad Air2 shows 6:30-7:30pm local time (no GMT yet) -- on both Calendar5 and iOS Apple calendar
• iPhone6 now shows 2:30-3:30am GMT iphone6 shows 2:30am GMT ... expected behavior

Third, I edit the event on the iPad AIr2 using Apple calendar app (e.g., changed TITLE and moved time to 7:00-8:00pm local time)

• iPad Air2 Apple Calendar and Calendar5 now show event at 7:00-8:00pm local time
• iPhone6 now shows event 3:00-4:00am and GMT icon on display... expected behavior.

Forth, I edit the event on the iPhone6 using Apple Calendar app (e.g., changed TITLE and moved event time to 2:00-3:00am, but left event in GMT TimeZone -- I did not change back to my PST timezone)

• iPhone6 shows GMT and 2:00-3:00am... expected behavior (given the way the bug works...)
• But, now the iPad Air2 Apple Calendar shows event time as GMT 2:00-3:00am and GMT icon/time shown on display... the "bug" has now hit this device
• Calendar5 is FINE... shows 6:00-7:00pm local time (so this calendar App never gets screwed by the iOS GMT bug)

Fifth, I edit the event on iPad Air2 in Calendar5 App…. To see if this edit/change fixes GMT on the iPad and/or iPhone6 (e.g., changed TITLE and moved time to 5:00pm local time – translates to 1:00-2:00am GMT)

• iPad Air2 Apple calendar is unchanged... shows 1:00-2:00am GMT; same with iPhone6 Apple calendar
• Therefore, editing in Calendar5 does not fix the bug... not surprised (just means Calendar5 isn't using iOS "tags" like Apple's calendar)

Sixth, I edit event and "force change" (override) the iPad Air2 Apple Calendar back to PST local time -- moved from 1:00-2:00am GMT to 5:00-6:00pm local time

• iPad Air2 Apple Calendar now shows no GMT -- only 5:00-6:00pm Local time for calendar entry
• iPhone6 stays at 1:00-2:00 GMT

Finally, I edit event and "force change" (override) the iPhone6 Apple Calendar back to PST local time -- moved from 1:00-2:00am GMT to 5:00-6:00pm local time

• This fixes the iPhone6 (now displaying event from 5:00-6:00pm local time)....
• But -- the iPad Air2 gets the GMT bug -- it is now showing the event as 1:00-2:00am GMT and any edits on the iPad Air2 going forward are in GMT timezone.

Reminds me of the "Whac-A-Mole" game.... except far less fun!

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