Set time zone using current location - stopped working

OK, I have tried both of the above.

Tried unchecking set time automatically, and unchecked set time zone using current location. Then quit System Preferences.

Then relaunched System Preferences, and Date/Time. Left set time automatically unchecked, but turned on set time zone using current location.

It correctly announces my current location, drops a red pin, and the red pin is outside of the time zone that it believes I am in. Even though I am within 20 miles of Chicago, and west of Chicago at that, and it knows the name of my town, and there is not a town with that name in Indiana, it says the nearest city is Indianapolis, IN, and I am in Eastern Time.

Also tried Date/Time Incorrect in Applications.

All my setting were the system defaults, so Restore Defaults was grayed out on every Tab. I tried making a minor change, and then Restore Defaults was no longer grayed out, so I clicked it..

Went back into Date and Time, left set time automatically unchecked. Tried to have it figure out my Time Zone. Still knows I am in a western suburb of Chicago, but still thinks that is very close to Indianapolis.

So, I am still batting 0.000.

I certainly appreciate your quick response. It would appear to me that Location Services are for some reason unable to talk to Date/Time PrefPane for me, or actually they send the correct information, I briefly see correct current location, but Time Zone refuses to acknowledge and budge on its insisting on me being somewhere in southern rural Indiana. It's as if some sort of file is locked, and Location Services is not allowed to mess with it.

I have trying to do some searching on how and where your Mac decides where it is located, without much luck. I suspect something is corrupt or locked.

I decided to check to see what I could see in Console, system.log immediately after asking my Mac to figure out its Time Zone:

It appears that a function called TimeZoneAdminTool tried approximately 3 times, and then gave up:

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh com.apple.systemadministration.writeconfig[104]: ### Restricted client at path /System/Library/PreferencePanes/DateAndTime.prefPane/Contents/Resources/TimeZon e.prefPane/Contents/Resources/TimeZoneAdminTool

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh com.apple.systemadministration.writeconfig[104]: Warning: Exception caught during decoding of received message, dropping incoming message.

Exception: <NSXPCDecoder: 0x7f8fde008600> received a message that is not in the interface of the local object (setMachineDictionary:forKey:inDomain:authorization:result:), dropping.

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh TimeZoneAdminTool[431]: ### syncProxyWithSemaphore error:Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application."

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh com.apple.systemadministration.writeconfig[104]: ### Restricted client at path /System/Library/PreferencePanes/DateAndTime.prefPane/Contents/Resources/TimeZon e.prefPane/Contents/Resources/TimeZoneAdminTool

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh com.apple.systemadministration.writeconfig[104]: Warning: Exception caught during decoding of received message, dropping incoming message.

Exception: <NSXPCDecoder: 0x7f8fdf800e00> received a message that is not in the interface of the local object (setMachineArray:forKey:inDomain:authorization:result:), dropping.

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh TimeZoneAdminTool[431]: ### syncProxyWithSemaphore error:Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application."

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh com.apple.systemadministration.writeconfig[104]: ### Restricted client at path /System/Library/PreferencePanes/DateAndTime.prefPane/Contents/Resources/TimeZon e.prefPane/Contents/Resources/TimeZoneAdminTool

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh com.apple.systemadministration.writeconfig[104]: Warning: Exception caught during decoding of received message, dropping incoming message.

Exception: <NSXPCDecoder: 0x7f8fde008600> received a message that is not in the interface of the local object (setTimeZone:_withAuthorization:), dropping.

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh com.apple.preference.datetime.remoteservice[423]: !!! ASSERT FAILURE: Selected city on the map is different than what we expect to be selected !!!

I tried to search for some of this with Google, but didn't come up with much

Eric:

Should have replied with this to you, managed to reply to myself. Sorry

I decided to look in Console, system.log, and found the following:

First, it reported this sequence twice:

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh com.apple.systemadministration.writeconfig[104]: ### Restricted client at path /System/Library/PreferencePanes/DateAndTime.prefPane/Contents/Resources/TimeZon e.prefPane/Contents/Resources/TimeZoneAdminTool

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh com.apple.systemadministration.writeconfig[104]: Warning: Exception caught during decoding of received message, dropping incoming message.

Exception: <NSXPCDecoder: 0x7f8fde008600> received a message that is not in the interface of the local object (setMachineDictionary:forKey:inDomain:authorization:result, dropping.

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh TimeZoneAdminTool[431]: ### syncProxyWithSemaphore error:Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application.

On the third attempt, it dropped the entry ending in "Couldn't communicate with a helper application", but added the following:

Jul 13 22:50:14 macintosh com.apple.preference.datetime.remoteservice[423]: !!! ASSERT FAILURE: Selected city on the map is different than what we expect to be selected !!!

I've done a lot of searching for anything about TimeZoneAdminTool, and NSXPCDecoder. Haven't really seen much.

OK, tried rebooting. Same problem.

Tried creating a brand new administrator, logged in as them, same problem.

Tried Safe Boot, and used an App called Etrecheck to verify that in Safe Boot, NO non-Apple daemons, kexts, or any other processes were running. This was confirmed (no surprise).

Tried the Time Zone check. Same problem, same messages in Console.

Then tried my wife's MacBook Air (2013, 13-inch), running 10.9.5, and same history of Apple updates. Tried to have it set its time zone, and it failed, and system.log was a carbon copy of mine.

She was recently in Atlanta, and complained of its inability to switch. Her hardware and 3rd-party software environment is completely different than mine.

Incidentally, while Googling XPCDecoder, found that Security Update 2015-005 contained a fix for a security issue in XPCDecoder.

I have fixed my issue, I did the following:

1. Backed up my hard drive using two methods
2. Zeroed out my hard drive using Disk Utility and reinstalled Mavericks 10.9.1. The problem was fixed.
3. Installed all Mavericks software updates in the App Store except for Security Update 2015-005. The Mac was still able to correctly set the time zone. Backed up the computer.
4. Installed Security Update 2015-005 (Mavericks). The problem returned. Unfortunately, it's a cumulative update, so I had to isolate the problem.
5. Restored the computer from the backup, and then added each Mavericks Security update since Mac OS X 10.9.5 was released. All updates through Security Update 2015-004 caused no problem with my Mac’s ability to set its time zone based upon the current location.
6. Backed up the computer and then installed Security Update 2015-005 for Mavericks. The problem returned.
7. I restored my computer to its state before installing 2015-005, and then restored my home folder and applications from my backup. The problem has not returned.