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

Oooh, calendar freezing, that sounds really bad.
You are the first person i have read a post from who has one of the three problems i had, data not syncing. If i entered the data on iCal, it would sync to iPhone, but nothing i entered on iPhone would sync to iCal (or to iCloud of course).
(one problem, upon updating to OS8 was GMT showing up all over my calendar on the iPhone, another problem was that the Calendar would give me a 30 minute alert on every event, event though i set it as None and in Settings, it defaults to None, and the third problem was that my data entered on my iPhone wasn't syncing to anything, it was only on the phone, so no back up.)

It's been very buggy and crazy. i just listed the problems that happen consistently. There are others that happen sporadically.

The thing for me is that i only use the iPhone calendar, and occasionally i will use iCal if it's more handy.

I DO NOT use Google Calendar, or any other 3rd party calendar.

The reason i think i have had the GMT problem (and the other two) is because one of my Apple IDs (i have at least two) which is my main one that i use for everything except logging into iCloud, is a gmail.com email address. The iCloud email address is identical to the gmail one on the left side of the @. Maybe that confuses OS? all i can do it speculate.

Anyway, so because my main apple ID and my main email address have for years been the gmail user name and email address, i have always had that in my Calendar settings on the iPhone as my default calendar. I didn't know this until this GMT thing came up. I never knew there WAS a default calendar setting. In trouble shooting the GMT/30 minute alert/not syncing data problem, i learned that i have a default calendar setting and that in my case (not on everyone's iPhone but on mine at least) there are multiple possibilities for default Calendar. The top one, in the order they're presented, is iCloud. Under the heading, iCloud, it has a list of sub calendars, Finance, Family, Work, etc. Any one of those can be selected as default calendar. Or, the second heading is my gmail email address, and under that heading is my gmail user name (which is my actual name). It's the same as my iCloud user name, so again, maybe that confuses OS8.

Anyway, because i only use the Apple calendars and not Google Calendar or any other 3rd party calendar, i figured out that i don't need to have my gmail address set as my default calendar, although i would prefer to, but it really makes no difference that i can see. So, i created a generic name iCloud subcalendar (AllCloud) and set that as my default calendar. That immediately got rid of the three problems, unwanted GMT info, unwanted 30 minute alerts, and failure to sync. So i don't have any of that aggravation, but still want to know when the problem is fixed and also want to understand the problem better. I think it has something to do with iCloud and some change that was made with the OS8 code that has disconnected iCloud from gmail and Google and 3rd party Calendar programs which previously worked fine with iCloud.

I have asked this question before on this thread but haven't seen an answer, unless i missed it (so may posts, so little time). My question is, is there something superior about Google Calendar that would prevent people from switching their default calendar to an iCloud calendar, which would get rid of GMT info? I understand that some people have to use Outlook calendar related to work/their job. If not 3rd party calendar is not required, what are the reasons for staying with it, for people who suffer, some quite terribly, with these OS8 calendar problems?

I would like to ask what your default calendar setting looks like. My daughter has an iPhone and no 3rd party calendar. In her settings, there are only the iCloud calendars. I have what i described above.

I am wondering if people who use Google calendar as their default calendar (in the iPhone calendar settings) switched to an iCloud calendar for default, what would they lose? Would they lose all their Google calendar data? I mean, it would still be on Google Calendar, if entered there on the computer, but if entered on the phone, what would happen?

Sorry for your ordeal. I feel so fortunate that i don't use or need Google Calendar or another 3rd party calendar. I don't know the advantages of using Google calendar over using an iCloud calendar but there must be many for people to continue to live with these terrible problems caused by iOS 8.

Hi jaw444 - I think your question strays from the original problem presented in this post (and my responding to another poster's question about google calendar freezing may not have helped, so mea culpa...)

If this is helpful to you and your daughter, here is my response to your question: I continue to use the Google Calendar for a couple of reasons: 1) synch and refresh time are significantly faster for me with the Google Calendar than the iCloud Calendar, 2) I'm used to it and prefer not to change, and 3) Google's web / laptop interface has a couple more views and settings options than iCloud's Calendar, so I feel a bit more in control of my user experience. So, to me it is preferred enough to spend a few hours searching online for an answer rather than exporting from Google Calendar and importing to another calendar, like iCloud's. I don't know if I would lose anything, like recurring appointment information, as I have not tried.

If your daughter wishes to add a default calendar different from her current, and only, iCloud calendar, she would need to add her account first, whether it be and exchange, google, yahoo or other account: Settings / Mail, Contacts, Calendars / ACCOUNTS / Add Account After input-ing her account data, and which services to synch on her phone (mail, calendar, contacts, etc..), then she would designate that new calendar as her default: Settings / Mail, Contacts, Calendars / CALENDARS <-- scroll all the way to the last category / Default Calendar

This thread is so long so I don't know if anyone said this yet but I had this problem with my Yahoo calendar. I went to the Yahoo website then to the my calendar then to the calendar options. I noticed that the time zone was not set. I set this to my time zone and events I add from my yahoo website show correctly on my phone and events I add from my phone show on my yahoo website calendar.

i got a response notice for this thread in my email that arrived 10 minutes ago. At the bottom of the email it said "To post a reply, go to the discussion in Apple Support Communities." 'go to discussion' is hyperlinked. i clicked on it and got a message at the linked page that says "Unauthorized - Access to this place or content is restricted. If you think this is a mistake, please contact your administrator or the person who directed you here." The sender of the post (the email says) is JG in SB.

There's probably a good reason for this but i don't know. I clicked on something (can't find it now) that said this discussion was being branched into a new discussion. That makes sense. But the email shows the same thread title as this one. Beyond that, i'm unauthorized.

The post from JG in SB shown in the email said that iOS 8.2 has a lot of bug fixes, reported by BGR, and these are listed (quite a lot of them). One of the fixed bugs listed is 'a timezone issue where events appear in GMT'

Good news.

I "fixed" my GMT issue back in December by switching my default calendar from my google email user name (which is my main apple ID) to one of the iCloud calendars. I don't use a 3rd party calendar so this wasn't a big deal for me. Better than having the GMT mess all over my calendar.

I have periodically tested this by switching back to my google email user name and entering some test events. As recently as early February, i was still getting the GMT error (along with two other bug errors fixed by the same default calendar change), but when i tested it about a week ago, i didn't get GMT. i tested it again today. Still no GMT.

i was having two other apparently related bugs/errors that accompanied the GMT bug, one, every new event is given a 30 minute alert time, even if the event is set to 'none' for alert and in Settings, alert is set to none, and two, new events were not backing up to iCal or iCloud, no back of Calendar. When i stopped getting GMT, since a week or two ago, my new events back up in iCal--but still not iCloud.

The 30 minute alert has not been fixed. No way to get it to stop doing this.

I have not yet updated to iOS 8.1.3, but recently stopped having the GMT for unknown reasons and at least iCal is backing up my events entered on iPhone.
I don't know why or how this was fixed but it's gone--in advance of iOS 8.2. So i don't know what the relationship to the iOS is.

jaw444 said "every new event is given a 30 minute alert time, even if the event is set to 'none' for alert and in Settings, alert is set to none,"

If this is happening when you sync iOS Calendar to Google Calendar, check your Google Calendar settings. You might find a 30 minute Event notification set for this calendar in Google Calendar itself. I'm curious to know if that's the case.

hey bebopper--thanks for this suggestion! i never consciously use Google calendar, only the iPhone calendar, i don't have a google cal app on my phone. i think long ago, i did have a google cal app that i was trying out for a while because i liked having email alerts, but i got so i never used it and deleted it off my phone. I never use Google calendar on the web. I do use a gmail account and of course , the intrusive and inconvenient relationship with google through you tube in recent years. But until iOS 8, i never even realized my default calendar had something to do with Google, i didn't even know there was a default calendar setting. but when the GMT thing came up, i checked those settings and eventually speculated that the problem had something to do with iOS 8 and my gmail apple ID user name, because of all the people on this thread who have problems with Google calendar. Why i was having the 30 minute alert all of a sudden with iOS 8 but no one else was, was puzzling, but since changing over to an iCloud default calendar fixed all my calendar problems including 30 minute alert, i moved on. Still, it bothered me that iOS 8 had this problem where it didn't exist before (in November i got an iPhone 6, replacing a 4s with iOS 5, and that i couldn't use the default calendar i had always used.

So after reading your suggestion, i explored Google Calendar and sure enough, there was a setting in Calendar notifications to notify of events 30 minutes before. I changed that to no notifications and now it's gone and i can use my previous default calendar with no issues. The GMT issue had inexplicably stopped happening a few weeks ago. I am still using iOS 8.1.2. No known changes that would affect the GMS bug. Also, my entries into iPhone calendar are backing up to iCal, which was the third problem i was having that was "fixed" by changing to an iCloud default calendar. That seemed to go away around the time that GMT went away. the one thing that is not syncing when i use my non-iCloud default calendar setting is iCloud--there is simply no syncing unless i switch to an iCloud default calendar. I hope they will fix that, but for now, i'm glad to be back using my gmail username default calendar.

I also can see what so many people having this problem don't want to switch from Google calendar default to iCloud. I can see that it has more versatility.

Thanks so much.

jaw444 - Glad to hear that this fixed your alert problem!

Google made a change to their Calendar service on about Feb 3rd. Before this change, new iOS Calendar events were converted to GMT, the base time zone for all Google Calendar events. After this change, new iOS calendar events adopted the user’s time zone setting in Google Calendar. Since most folks usually have the same time zone setting for iOS and Google Calendar, the GMT problem effectively disappeared for them.

Apple has released iOS 8.2 that lists the GMT bug as being fixed. Just thought I would post this in case someone didn't see the news. Hope it works for all.

Yup! Fixes it 100% on iOS Calendar synced to MS Exchange. Guess this sort of ultimately resolves the debate about whether this was a "bug" or not right? Since it got resolved by a "bug fix" implemented by Apple?

I am just thrilled this finally happened. Thanks everyone for alLeif the troubleshooting info and for putting relentless pressure in Apple over the past few months.

Thanks JG for so persistently following this bug for so many months ... and for being so logical and steadfast that it WAS an Apple Bug vs a "designed feature". Well done.

There is it, with the update, under "BUG fixes".

Bug fixes

• Fixes an issue in Maps that prevented navigating to some favorite locations
• Addresses an issue where the last word in a quick reply message wasn't autocorrected
• Fixes an issue where duplicate iTunes purchased content could prevent iCloud restore from completing
• Resolves an issue where some music or playlists didn’t sync from iTunes to the Music app
• Fixes an issue where deleted audiobooks sometimes remained on device
• Resolves an issue that could prevent call audio from routing to car speakers while using Siri Eyes Free
• Fixes a Bluetooth calling issue where no audio is heard until the call is answered
• Fixes a timezone issue where Calendar events appear in GMT

I second that JG. Thanks for the persistence. Although my problem with Google Calendar and Outlook seemed to get fixed when Google did whatever they did, your efforts got us all to this point. Maybe this thread will now be closed after 57 pages!!!

Just confirming that iOS 8.2 also fixed the problem for Google Calendar. Events scheduled in iOS Calendar now retain the iOS time zone (or the Time Zone Override setting if that's enabled.) Hooray!

I don't even use google calendar and I have the same issue. If I add an event on the iPad it shows up on the iPhone with the GMT and if I add an event on my iPhone it shows up with the GMT on my iPad. CRAZY.

@DocOrly: That is the classic manifestation of the GMT bug when used with an MS Exchange server, which is I bet what you are using. This is exactly how it showed up in my setup. If you want to fix this 100%, even for all the past events that got messed up, here is what you do:

1. Go into Settings>Mail, COntact, Calendars>Account (where your calendar is hosted). Then flip the little switch next to calendar to the off position. It will ask you if you want to delete all calendar data from your iOS device. Select YES. Your data will still be there on the server.

2. Update your iOS device to iOS 8.2

3. Go back in to the exact same place in settings from Step 1 and turn the Calendar switch back to ON. Your iOS device will now sync down events from your server but it WILL NOT convert them to GMT because the bug is now fixed in iOS 8.2.

You will need to do this on all of your devices but once you do, the bug is GONE.

Good luck!