When you travel to another time zone, the calendar automatically shifts the time of all your events to reflect the change (...just on the phone, not on Google Calendar itself; thank God). For example, if you're now in a place where it's 1 hour later, and you had a lunch down for 12pm, that same lunch is now shown at 1pm.
This may fit with how some use the calendar (and think about scheduling), but it creates issues for me. (Stock Android calendar doesn't behave this way, right? I know B'berry doesn't.)
Let's say you're planning a trip, and you enter a bunch of appts. into Gcal for while you're there. You can't put down a noon lunch as 12pm, b/c when you get to your destination, your phone's calendar will show that lunch at 1pm. You can't put down your flight home as 3pm, b/c it'll show up as 4pm on your phone that day (and you'll miss it!).
Same thing in reverse -- if you're on your trip, and you create an event in the phone for when you're back home next week ("12pm lunch"), the phone will sync it into Gcal as an 11:00am lunch -- it knows you're a time zone away, and converts your entry into your "home" time.
Workaround #1 (clunky): do the math in your head when you're scheduling events that take place out of town -- put down your 12pm lunch as "11am," so it will show up as 12pm once you're there. (Same thing for creating events which take place at home while you're out of town).
Workaround #2: (preferred): once you're out of town, turn off the phone's "Use System Time" option, and keep it set to your home time zone; then manually bump the actual time up by an hour (or two, or three...) so it's accurate for where you are. The phone will think you're still at "home," and will keep your event times as they look in Gcal. (Then just go back onto system time when you're home again.)
Would be nice if the calendar had an option to check/uncheck - "Adjust Event Times When Time Zone Changes." (One of many things that would be "nice" if this calendar did...!)
Funny.. I just encountered this problem today. I just changed all my appts to the correct time and left it at that. This is fine for people who rarely travel, but I could see how it becomes a problem lol
This is totally a problem. The idea is that you are supposed to enter the time of the event as it occurs in your CURRENT timezone. So, if you are in New York, and you have a noon lunch scheduled in London tomorrow, you enter the time as 7 AM. Then, when you get to London, it shows up as noon. This can be useful, but it is also really error-prone.
The solution is that there should be a drop-down box in which you get to choose the time-zone of the event. So, you can either enter it as eastern time (put it in at 7 AM), or choose GMT, and then put it in as noon. My Outlook calendar does this, so it is technically possible. People have been asking about this since the day google calendar came out, so who knows if we'll ever get it, either online or in Android.
cparekh - thanks - you said what I was trying to say, though you did it with 200% fewer words and 200% more clarity...!
You offered two workarounds, which are useful. The fact of the matter is that for people who frequently change time zones, Gcal is very difficult to use. I use it, because it integrates well with things like TripIt and, of course, my Vibrant, but I spend a lot of time being very careful.
The only workaround I have found to be reliable are to write the actual time of the event in the notes. For example, if the flight leaves at 6pm eastern time, I write Leave: 6 PM Eastern in the notes. That way, not matter what time the appointment says in the calendar, I can double check what it was meant to say, just to be sure. Usually, I am correct in the math, but every now and then, this saves me from missing a flight.
Related
I sync my wizard (O2 XDA mini s) with my work PC. I work a lot with people in the US. When they set up a meeting and I accept their meeting request, my work outlook works out the time difference and puts it in my calendar at the correct UK time.
However, when I then sync, Outlook on the device shows it at the US time. Any ideas how I can resolve this?
So any ideas on this?
It's seriously annoying.
I do not have this problem. I am in US and accept meetings from Europe (Germany, UK). Can sync to my T-Mobile MDA with correct local time.
Outlook Time Zone
In the Day or work week view in Outlook Calendar, right click on the time pane. Select Change Time Zone. Make sure that your time zone setting is accurate there. Outlook uses GMT as a basis for its UCT or Universal coordinated time. You can check the box for show additional time zones. Add EST or PST or whatever you want and you will see the time difference. You will also be able to quickly swap time zones if you travel to meet with those people.
Next check the time zone on your device. I know it's a stupid question, but there have been a lot of problems with time zones on the wizard. Make sure the device is using your appropriate time zone setting.
For the record, I frequently make and accept appointments on my 8125 for different US time zones and have no issue with the correct time being resolved.
apologies if this has already been answered somewhere.. if so could you please direct me to the answer.
i recently upgraded and got wm 2005. i'm running pocketbreeze on the today screen and i'm having a problem with appointments being one hour out. if i go to the calendar and make the appointment 8-9, it comes up as 9-10 in pocketbreeze.
however its not quite as simple as that.. there are SOME appointments (i *think* they're the ones i've made in outlook) that appear at the CORRECT time. although, they happen to have moved back one hour. IE, one appointment i had went from 7-8.30, it moved back to 6-7.30, but said 6-7.30 in BOTH pocketbreeze AND the calendar.
to confuse matters more, i *think* (i'm at work right now so i'm not 100% sure) that the times that are showing in pocketbreeze are the same times that are showing in outlook.
SO - this is basically it: any appointments i make in the calendar on the phone appear in pocketbreeze and outlook one hour early. appointments i make in outlook appear correct in all 3.
i've double checked the regional settings and both my phone and computer are set to the same place. can anyone shed any light on this odd issue?
You are certainly not alone. I've seen this reported on this board a few times. I do not recall the solution but perhaps you can try a few searches perhaps using advanced options on things like synchronisation time etc.
I do remember various theories about this but not one that came to a definitive conclusion. One for example was that the phone company was sending auto sync info of the wrong time zone for the area (ie not wrong time just zone). This seemed to be most reported in parts of Australia it might help to search on some of the time zone abbreviations.
Mike
hi mike - thanks for your help. i ended up finding something on whirlpool.net.au
for anyone else with this problem (i think its specific to my phone, jasjam, and my carrier, telstra) the solution was:
Go to Start, Settings, Phone.
Scroll right until you get to the time zone tab on the bottom.
Uncheck the “Automatic change time zone and clock.” Option
Then go to the today screen and select the time.
Change the time up a couple of hours and press ok and Yes to save the time.
Go back and fix the Time and Time Zone to correct setting,
Again press ok and yes to save the time, this will commit this to the ROM and fix the time settings.
post is here:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/619962.html
Thank you benzothegreat for providing this feedback and summarising the conclusion, cheers.
Mike
This works!!!
I have a T-Wing, WM6 and I was having the same problem, the reminders for bdays showing up one day earlier..and noticed that the issue was only for dates were the DST applied . I'm not that concerned about outlook showing duplicate bday reminders , but I do care about showing them on the wrong date..... long story short.. here is the fix:
1. Goto http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E343A233-B9C8-4652-9DD8-AE0F1AF62568&displaylang=en and download the Microsoft Office Outlook Tool: Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook
2. Follow instructions and install.
3. After instalation completed, goto start -> all programs -> Microsoft office outlook tools -> Time Zone Data Update Tool -> Time Zone Daylight Savings Update Mode
4. It will update your appointments/ reminders (including bday reminders) and show them on the right date!
I have a an intermittent problem on my Tytn. Every so often I put a Monday calendar entry in, then when I look later at the Today screen I find that although the appointment time is correct the day is showing as Tuesday. When I look in the calendar it is entered correctly as Monday.
Anyone any idea why this happens?
Thanks,
Al
Alabama978 said:
I have a an intermittent problem on my Tytn. Every so often I put a Monday calendar entry in, then when I look later at the Today screen I find that although the appointment time is correct the day is showing as Tuesday. When I look in the calendar it is entered correctly as Monday.
Anyone any idea why this happens?
Thanks,
Al
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a well reported problem and may have something to do with time zones. You will need to search here and on google. Possible searches to include 1 day and 1 hour outllook wm5 calendar etc.
Mike
If the meeting is after 3 or 4 days (for example) my tytn will always show MEETING TOMORROW. why is it so?
Try the google search on sticky above. When I just tried there were a few. For example:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=271325
Oh, and this is a general WM5 issue so don't limit search to Hermes or even just this forum.
Oh and!!, also check the "1 hour" out error because one hour out takes an all day appt into the next day - so the two things can be related.
Mike
I was very disappointed to see that the android calendar has the same behaviour as the one on windows mobile in that if you change timezones then all your calendar appointments change by the difference between your previous and current timezone. I think this is an insane implementation and can't see any use to it.
It has been raised as an issue on the google android project so if you hate it as much as I do please vote for the issue by starring it and/or leave a comment asking for it to be high priority
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=5892
I don't understand the problem. The current implementation is exactly right. If the appointment times wouldn't change, your appointment would actually be shifted.
Are you having some special use case for your request?
krheinwald said:
I don't understand the problem. The current implementation is exactly right. If the appointment times wouldn't change, your appointment would actually be shifted.
Are you having some special use case for your request?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Say I am sitting here at home in Zurich and I am making entries for a trip to the US in multiple timezones, for each entry I put in my appointment times in local time, say a meeting at 3pm in NY.
I land in NY, take out the phone and it automatically switches to the NY timezone but the calendar is displaying the meeting now as 9am, thats useless, I want it to stick as 3pm, nor do I want to have to check the timezone for NY before I put the appointment in. When I travel I live in local time regardless of what timezone it is.
Same issues
I really have no idea why Google would do this. I mean you are exactly right, I input all meetnig time as timezone specific. Anyone that has any ideas on a solution would be appreciated? Thanks.
What you are supposed to do is create a calendar called "AMerican meetings" and one called "chinese meetings" lets say. the former will be set to former's time zone and the latter as whatever time zone china uses. IN this case when u create an event, it will use whatever is set on the web site/settings as the default for that calendar. BUT, the calendar itself will display whatever is set as the global "local time zone" on both the phone as well as the website (you can use the multiple time zone add on via labs for help with this too)...
Craziest thing
I have the same problem, except it took me an hour to find out what was going on, since I thought it was because of the Daylight Saving Time which just happened yesterday.
So - to reproduce the problem:
1) Set the timezone to TZ1
2) Create calendar event at time HH:MM
3) Set timezone to TZ2
Result - calendar event is shifted.
Whoever implemented this should quit his job and hide in the most forgotten place on earth. I mean - WTF?
I understand SOME use of this - I create a calendar event that I want to share with someone from another TZ, then it should be translated to that TZ, but again - WTF??
Most of the users need just this: I create an event - a flight schedule for coming back from vacation. I create it before going on vacation, then I go on vacation and change the TZ. On the return day my alarm will ring x hours after the intended time (if vacation place is eastwards) or x hours before if vacation place is westwards. INSANE
What's even more insane is how people suggest solutions like creating two separate calendars and so on.
Come on, as one guy was saying here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Calendar/thread?tid=7ee74ad36e5b62fa&hl=en
"How hard could it be to just have the option to allow my 3pm appointment stay 3pm on my calendar no matter where I am? Come on Google!"
Here's someone who almost missed his flight
http://www.androidguys.com/2010/01/21/fixit-google-calendar-time-zones/
hey,
not sure how others are dealing with this and htc are little help.
every phone i've had so far changes appointment times with timezones. so in the past i've never bothered and just put in appointments in local time and changed only the clock when travelling.
The hd2, however, insists on changing time zones for me from the mobile network, and all my appointments shift as well.
i've tried setting timezones in my pim, but this is not supported by the hd2. so how do i stop shifting timezones, or shifting appointment times? is there a nicely integrated calendar app for the hd2 that would use timezones and syncs with intellisync? any suggestions welcome.
cheers
ps:i could set my appointments in with the timezone offset, but i like planning trips in local time, i remember times better that way...
I have not faced your problem - I am not sure that I understood however. I have my HD2 syncing with Outlook via Exchange. I set up my appointments mainly in desktop Outlook in the correct time zone and they get nicely synced in my HTC when I change countries. E.g. suppose I am in GMT +2. Say I have an appoinment at 10:00 (at GMT +1). I set it as such in outlook.( naturaly when I am still in GMT+2 my appointment shows as 09:00) When I visit the country with GMT+1, the phone changes the time zone and my appointment shows nicely at 10:00.
not using outlook
we use Groupwise in my work, and if you set your appointment for 10.00 GMT +1 and are in GMT +2 it still shows at 10.00, and as HTC doesn't support timezones it syncs it as 10.00.
i could do what you describe manually, no problems, but as I said, if I'm planning a trip (in this case I'm sitting in GMT +2) and the calendar shows 9.00, my brain thinks 9, slow as it is, when I get to GMT +1. I like to see the local times in front of me, so i would like the phone to ignore timezone shifts in appointments as well. I don't like all this automatic 'help'.
so your outlook setup would confuse the hell out of me, but that might just be me
will have to go that way though, relearn my habits...