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

Absolutely, good definition:

"A software bug is an error, flaw, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways."

You must agree that the system does not produce incorrect results.  Editing an event in your local time zone or in GMT is equivalent.  So, if you entered it in EST (say start time 10AM) but changed it in GMT (say from 3PM to 3:30PM) the system is behaving correctly.  There is no bug in here.  There is no incorrect result here, do you agree?

The problem is with the rest of the definition "...or unexpected..." and "...unintended..." you and I may have different points of view on what to expect and what is intentional.  Therefore this part of the definition requires us to have a document in which we agreed on expectation and intentions.  Since this reference document does no exist, at least not publicly, or is not pointed to in this discussion then we cannot decide if the behavior of the implemented system is buggy or not.

OK, how about this.....  What do you think would happen if I walk down to the street outside my office right now, and ask 100 people the following:

1.  Do you think that when you enter an event in your calendar at 2pm PST, that when you later go to edit that event, or look at it on another device, that it should remain at 2pm PST, so that it is consistently at the time you intended to have the event show in your calendar; or,

2.  Do you think that when you enter an event in your Calendar, that your calendar should convert that event to a time zone that is 8 hours different than the one you are in, and that you should have to look at totally different times than the ones you intended to set up the event for when you edit it, remembering that the times you are editing are 8 time zones away and may even be on a different day than you put the event on, since really, even though they are 8 time zones away they are still technically the same "times?"

I speculate 0% of respondents would choose 2, because NO ONE EXPECTS A CALENDAR TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS.  I don't care if Apple had 3 full pages "documenting" this, no-one expects a calendar to work that way.  And BTW Apple has ZERO documentation of this which sort of indicates this is something that even Apple did not expect or anticipate.

It's unexpected and unintended behavior. 

<Edited By Host>

It is suggested – if at all possible to share the following:

iOS version

iOS Device

Calendar platform you're using.

@SassiRae thank you and noted!

@bdomer noted! However; it would be of great interest to Apple and commenters to discern the obvious and irrelevant trial and error. But seems to have worked out for some and not others.

Again, I'm using:

iOS 8.1.3

iPhone 6 Plus

Google Calendar (CalDav)

I've tried all options that were mention in this thread and the issue persist/remains unresolved.

Alternative; use Sunrise App or Google Calendar via mobile web.

I happen to use GMT a lot because I'm a pilot and file flight plans in GMT. When I us my iPhone 6 (8.1.3) and create an event in EST (my time zone) and, upon editing the event, it has changed to GMT I can "see" that is still at the "correct" world time because I'm intimately familiar with GMT and have been converting times to and from GMT for years for my flight plans.

However, my wife ... and 95% of Apple users ... have NO idea what GMT is, they have never converted time to or from GMT and they are "lost" when they have to move a meeting that is suddenly in a time zone they are not familiar with and, in most cases, never heard of. 

Given that Apple produces their products for the masses and has built a reputation on providing the masses with easy to use, intuitive software, I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say they would never intentionally do this. Thus, since I THINK it is an unexpected or unintended result, I'm willing to wager that it is a "bug" ... even if the time remains "correct" technically. 

If it is not a "bug" and this is how they intended it to work .. then some designer needs to be fired. Mistakes are forgivable ... everyone makes them. But to do this "intentionally" would inexcusable. It would be like changing the positions of the letters on your keyboard. If -- on purpose -- you moved the E to where the S is and moved the S to where the T is and move the T to where the E was I guess that would not be a "bug" because you moved the letters on purpose ... but it most certainly would be inordinately stupid.  Since I don't think they're stupid, it's a bug.

Daryle

JG -- looks like your Post related to iOS 8.2 Beta v4 got deleted by Apple (human or machine).

Guess they are not happy with your URL post!

And, yes -- I think Apple is going to try to fix the GMT problem with iOS 8.2 update -- but that might not be until April/May!

Unbeleivable!!!  It was a PUBLIC URL!!!  I would never disclose something that was only meant to be reviewed by developers etc.  You, or anyone can search for it and find it on Google.  Just do a search for "iOS 8.2 Release Notes" and it will be the very first search result  

URLs seem to be removed generally whether they are public or not. Anyone who

has subscribed to this thread and is getting email responses does however,

have a record of all URLs that have been posted to this thread in their

email.

-R

James, just spent 1 hour with the genius at the local apple store.  no answer.  Software update just released did not fix problem. Store personal are pointing to gmail sync

Hof is right. That is the appropriate step to fixing this issue. Turn off Time Zone Override in your settings ^^

did so, along with the Genius at the Apple Store--  No go same result.  This happens on two devices but not on the cal app on the macbook.  Issue is strictly with the IPad Air and the iPhone 6 (both devices updated today to 8.1.3

I just asked Siri how to fix Apple's GMT bug on iOS 8 And she replied that she thought someone else had asked her that recently!  At least Siri understands, even if Apple's humans don't.

"You must agree that the system does not produce incorrect results."

No.  I don't have to agree to that, and I am/was a programmer.

The system must produce results that are acceptable to the user. Period.  I don't give one crap for what the programmer intended, and i don't care if it is a programming bug or a design flaw.  I am the consumer.  What I care about is that the software gives me useful and expected results.  If it doesn't, or if it changes the way something worked before so that I have to work to read the results, it's a bug.

That's really all there is to it.  If Apple wants to sell products to consumers, the product has to generate useful results, or the consumers will rebel.

Mincing words, as you have here, doesn't solve a problem, nor does it relieve Apple of it's responsibilities.

In response to Sid Plait 1.  Obviously I did not express myself well enough in my post.  The intensity and emotion of some of the responses I received really surprised me, some were completely out of line, offensive, aggressive, and personal.  My comment is purely technical.

First, let me just set the record straight, I am a programmer/architect myself and have done so for many years. So at  lease you and I have the same vocabulary.

At no point did I say that Apple did the right thing and that they should not fix the issue, a major issue.  However, their system is behaving correctly, as annoying and unintuitive that behavior may be.  I believe, but can't prove it, that if one would take a case to the court and claim they lost money since they missed an appointment because their calendar was incorrect, that case would have been lost and the ruling would be in Apple's favor.  Presenting the time in GMT even when entered in another time zone is literally correct, even if not intuitive.  Moreover, the event is placed in the correct spot in the graphical repsresentation.

With that said let me emphasize that Apple has demonstrated lack of care for their customers by not fixing this issue for such a long time and by not communicating their intent and a time line by when they will be doing so.  However, I still stand by my word that per-se this is not a bug.

Answer is simple, fix the bug and offer option/check box to allow for the to display GMT.  Being new to Apple I was under the impression that Apple just works.  Seems that Windows-Android combo for now is the greener grass

I DON'T think the court would agree.  A bad design, and coding to that design, doesn't relieve Apple of responsibility, it just relieves the programmer of responsibility.

I knew you were talking about the technical aspects of all this, but I don't think - no, I KNOW, that no one outside of the technical realm would care one whit about who's fault it was or what the technical definition of a bug is.  However, even technically, there is a bug in the software.  Whether it is a design bug or a coding bug is only relevant to the the company (Apple) as to who is responsible for the error.