Yes, iPhone Changes Automatically for Daylight Savings Time
We’ve received quite a few questions about the iPhone’s clock and if it will update automatically for Daylight Savings Time, the answer is: Yes, the iPhone automatically changes time to be correct with your time zone. So does the iPad, iPod touch, and Mac OS X. You do not need to change the time manually, it will “fall back” on it’s own.
Most of the questions about daylight savings relate to past problems and bugs with iOS that caused improper clock adjustments for both the Spring and Fall time changes. The most recent bug occurred with the iPhone earlier in the year, when the clock went the wrong way or didn’t change at all. This was after the year prior had a different issue, where the alarm clock went off an hour later than it was set, and that carried further several days until the clock was manually reset.
These issues were resolved with past iOS updates and will not impact iOS 5 users, and there were no reports of issues with time changing in the UK last week. If you’re paranoid you can always set another alarm clock just to be safe, but it’s probably not necessary.
Note: If your iPhone (or iPad and iPod) didn’t switch to the proper time for DST, you may have have one of the following issues:
- Disabled a Time Zone setting for the iPhone 4S battery issue
- AirPlane mode may be enabled
- Not be running iOS 5
Check to make sure automatic time adjustment is enabled (Settings > Location Services > System Services > Setting Time Zone ON), that Airplane mode is turned off, and then a simple reboot of your device is usually enough to fix the problem. You can update to iOS 5 through iTunes or by downloading it directly here.
I don’t care what location I’m at. I just want to turn off daylight savings year round and have to not pay attention to this mass insanity.
My iPhone has iOS 6 and the time didn’t change on my display but it changed in my world clock. So I had two different times. To fix this I shit phone off and turned back on. Hopefully next time I won’t have to do this but I’m glad I didn’t have to be anywhere today and didn’t need an alarm.
Problem persists into 2012. My 4S refused to update for European’spring foward’ even though my ipad2 and 3GS managed it. Auto update and location services all checked and how they should be. Simple re boot resolved the issue but still irritating that I had to take that step..
I’m in Arizona. iPhone 4, iOS5. DST bug woke me an hour early in March, so I set it to “Set Manually.” That put the click back to normal.
Sometime between then and now (iOS upgrade?), it got set back to “Set Automatically” because the $#&%ing thing woke me an hour late today. Awesome.
The problem is still there. I put it to “Set manually,” it sees Phoenix. Put it to “Set Automatically,” it switches to Denver. Still does it right this second. First real disappointment in Apple since the PB 5300.
I live in AZ and my time went to Pacific time and didn’t stay as the same time as we don’t change time.
My time updated correctly on Sunday. Something happened early Monday morning that made my phone go forward an hour, though. My guess is that it has to do with the alarm. I had to reboot for it to show the correct time.
[…] – thanks to this comment thread at OSXDaily.com – I just realized that my Calendar App is […]
So glad I came across this thread.
My iPhone 4S adjusted to daylight savings time – and it shows the correct time.
But my calendar app is a different story. It is still showing one hour later.
I paid a visit to iCloud.com and that is showing the correct time.
Anybody have a fix?
My iPhone 3G had the correct time this morning after the time change, but now is 1-hr ahead. I had to switch back to manual mode (Pacific Std Time).
East Coast here. Just NOW noticed the time was wrong on my iphone 4s – did not update for DST. rebooted, and still showed wrong time. i sent a text message, and it updated at that moment. SO happy its sunday here and didn’t mess up any plans. way to go Apple!
mhendu12: question: I woke at the “new” 10:00am. The “old” time would have been 11:00am. My phone displayed 9:00am.
How could that be correct by any stretch of the imagination?
Overnight the phone fell back by 2 hours. Not one. Then it corrected itself when I turned it to airplane mode and back again (it jumped forward an hour from 9 to 10am).
Robert, Noted… Thanks! Got it. Sorry.
Did you determine if the same thing that happened to my iPhone happen to yours? My iPhone switched time zones completely. I awoke to New York time when it should have been central. There was an issue with me not having “location services” turned on, even though I had “automatically set” selected. Both must be engaged for the accurate change, I guess. Hope that helps.
Went to sleep in Toronto and woke up in Halifax, according to my 4S.
Apple fail.
husbands 4 changed automatically but my 4s did not, very weird.
yup, thanks changed my airplane mode back and forth and the time adjusted. wouldnt have known what to do had i not read this blog…dumb apple.
I recently upgraded to 5.0 on my Verizon iPhone. I go from the west coast to the east coast every week and haven’t had any problems so I know my phone normally updates the time based on my location.
My home time zone is Denver and I’m in Kansas City right now and my phone updated incorrectly for the switchover last night. The real time here in Kansas City is 10:19 right now and my iPhone and my MacBook Pro are both showing 9:19. Good thing I’ve got a 20 year old wind-up watch to keep me squared away AND I didn’t have to wake up early this morning or I would have been hosed!
my 4S switched me to halifax time zone which is one hour later. i am in toronto. so time stay at old time, very strange, just switched it back to toronto time, ok now
My computer and ipod have not updated. And it’s now 10:30 am
My iPhone 4S changed automatically but my alarm didn’t go off this morning!
Even if you have your iPhone 4S to “set automatically” in the date & time settings, you must also have the “location services” option selected. I realized that this morning when I awoke an hour earlier. The phone did set automatically set the time for me, except that it changed me from Chicago time to New York time. As soon as I realized “location services” option was deselected, I selected it. It immediately adjusted my phone location to reflect the correct time zone, thus displaying the correct time.
My calendar time is an hour off…what’s the fix for this?
Funny thing is (not really) is that my phone DID change time, just not correctly. If it hadn’t changed, when I got up at 10am it should have shown 11:00am. Instead it showed 9:00am. So it changed by 2 hours back instead of one.
What are those guys smoking over there at apple? And they think I should just go and change it manaully? I wonder what else they’re not getting right.
Robert, you said you awoke at 10. You said the clock should have read 11, but it read 9. That IS what the clock should have read. Clocks fall back an hour, not spring forward this time of year.
My 3g iphone did not change, though set to automatic. If I switch to manual it shows the correct time, so I think it just didn’t check in with the network for an update (maybe a weak signal?). So I set it to automatic and rebooted and it got the correct time. I imagine a reboot has it check the network again.
Kind of sucks for those of us who use it as an alarm because there will be 2 nights of the year it will be unreliable. . .
I woke up this morning and my time had not changed. my phone said it was 9:00am when it was actually 10:00am.
It change after I went into airplane mode and then back out.
Joy. Fewer and fewer reasons to have an iPhone. After at least 3 consecutive failures, I’m convinced Apple just doesn’t know what to do with time zones.
It’s 10AM EST and the time on my 4S still hasn’t changed.
@Robert, turning airplane mode off, waiting 30 sec, turning airplane mode back on worked for me. Thanks for the suggestion.
Seems like a human needs to cause the phone to re-sync with AT&T to get the updated time. Toggling airplane mode or rebooting will both force that to happen.
1059 am, and still no change on my 4S!! This is soo annoying. My world clock has updated NYC to dst, but my clock is still one hour forward in time.
Atlanta, GA here. Woke up at 10am this morning and headed to my vets appointment. Got there at 1030 and they told me they didn’t open till 10. I laughed and told them you guys are 30 mins late it’s 1030! They laughed back and said its DST, it’s 930. Felt like a big dumbass. Thanks again apple, for screwing me twice with just a simple time change!
I’m on the west coast and my iphone 4 phone did not automatically update.
My 3G fell back two hours instead of one. Rebooting didn’t fix it so I went to settings to turn off the automatic adjust setting. While in Settings I noticed the phone has the correct time at the top of the page. It’s only on the home screen and screen saver that the time is wrong. Anyway, turning off automatic update fixed the time on the home screen.
My 4S was set to auto for time zone. After the time change, the city listed next to time zone had changed from Chicago to Denver. So clock was set back 2 hours instead of 1. My wife’s iPhone 4 running ios5, also set to automatic, correctly kept Chicago and went back one hour. Don’t think it makes a difference, my my phone was plugged in, hers was not.
My 4S changed time zones on me overnight and woke me up an hour early!!
My 4s changed properly. Then once I started using the phone, it changed the time zone from New York to Chicago. Same with my wife’s 4 with iOS5. Reboot fixed it. I don’t know how such a simple thing has plagued apple for years.
My 4s went back two hours. I even tried rebooting a few time but that didn’t help. I switched the automatic time zone on and off a bunch of time but that didn’t fix it either. The only thing that worked for me was turning it off and leaving it off.
Not true, marek. I have a 3G & I’ve tried everything. My phone didn’t update automatically… I’ve had to go in & manually do it. Even my crappy Blackberry automatically changed time with no problems.
The same issue as Kristin and the same solution. To make things more interesting. iPhone 4 and 3GS + iPad did change the time, only 4S had issues.
Interesting..I just did a reboot and it came up the same..then after a few minutes the time changed to the correct time.
Los Angeles here at 4:08 am. iPhone 4s still has not changed time. Maybe AT&T’s network?
Google how to change time on iPhone and found this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25028?viewlocale=en_US
My iPhone 4S did not change. I had to turn auto adjust off, reboot, then returned it to auto set. It’s now working.
Went out last night, woke up an hour early for work. iPhone clock still unchanged. after location services change and reboot
just toggled set automatically a few times and it’s OK now
6:20am in NY and the IP4S has NOT changed, still shows 7:20am. Automatically adjust is ‘on’, phone rebooted, not change. Will only show 6:20am if I turn off auto.
Rebooted and it still hasn’t changed…showing 5:55 when it’s 4:55
Grrr! I’d also set my location services DST setting to “off” because of the battery depletion reports. Turning it back on had no affect until I rebooted this morning – NOW my time is correct. Thank God I didn’t actually NEED my alarm to get me up this morning.
I stayed up to till 2AM to see if my clock time would change, and nothing. It is now 2:25 Pacific Time, and there is still no change, despite the fact that I turned off set automatically and rebooted. What now?
[…] OSXDaily εδΊ«θΏη―ζη« : […]
#Iphonedstfail here as well. Had the time zone location service OFF, and time did not change even after turning it on. Reboot iPhone: nothing until a few minutes later.
Either way, I blame the folks who said to turn the Time Zone location service off as a way to save battery life: my TZ service wasn’t showing GPS usage more than every 24 hours.
I’m on PST with iPhone 4 iOS 5 both my husband and I. Our phones changed right at 2:05am going back correctly one hour to 1:05am. So all is well here no problems. :)
Yep. Had to do the same fix as before…turn off automatic, reboot, turn it back on. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I’m up fighting bigger IT challenges…
If your time didnt reflect daylight saving time, You may want to turn off set automatically.
Still displaying 3:19 am here est….
Ps. I should say that I am in the eastern time zone.
Mine a 4S went back 2 hours! My wife’s 4 went back 1. Had to reboot it, then it was fixed.
Mine too! It freaked me out when my phone went from 5:59 to 7:00 without rebooting. My shift was supposed to start at 7.
My iPod touch 4g just changed. I’m in the central time zone, though. Running iOS 5, too. Just upgraded last weekend.
Had no problems last weekend, Germany.
I have an iPhone 4 Hopefully it will update correctly at 2am without a reboot. I have set an extra alarm just in case.
Its 1:48am on my iphone 4 n it the time has not changed yet! Im kinda concerned! Im hoping it changes @ 2
iPhone 4 went automatic without the need for reboot. Ireland.
So does that mean I need to wake up at 2am in California and reboot my phone or else it won’t display the correct time?
How about now? Has the time felled back an hour on EST iPhones yet?
I’m on the West Coast in PST so it’s just 11:35pm here but it’s after 2am on the East Coast. If yours has or hasn’t changed and your on the East Coast it would be nice to hear from you. Thanks
WOW, didnt change until i rebooted the phone. Thanks Apple.
It’s 2:31 AM EST and mine hasn’t changed back yet.
My iPhone did not change the time like it was supose 2 why?it was to change wants it was 2:00am back 1 hour and it never did
Mine hasn’t changed back yet. 21 mins past the fall back time…
It’s not 2 AM yet, it goes back at 2 AM
This is quite a few years old… And mine didn’t change. Thanks apple
This really puts me in cormfortable position to not worry about the time changing error…awesome news though! :D
I overslept in March from the DST bug last time :P