Time zones on iPhone

[badshoehabit]

It's important that I correctly identify the time of incoming and outgoing phone calls when I was in Italy two weeks ago. Italy is GMT+1. Now that I'm back, I think the times are being shown in GMT rather than local time. Is this how it always happens when you travel? (The tour company abandoned me, a lone female, in Milan airport when my plane was four hours late!)

Screenshot shows photo of baggage delivery screen at 02.31 - but the time of the photo is 01.31 which can't be right as the flight arrival time is shown as 01.47.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Sue, under Settings->General->Date & Time, there is an option to set time zone automatically. If that option is selected, based on your current location, the right timezone is chosen for you. So while the pictures have the right time set on them, they are being translated to your local time zone when being displayed it looks like.

I just checked on my phone and found a few pictures when I was in India, Paris and Switzerland in 2016 and all the dates were correct, but the time was completely off. One of the pictures was taken around around 12:30 PM or so and it is being reported as 3:03 AM.

 

[badshoehabit]

I do have it set to auto. So does that apply to the phone calls as well? Were these calls were made an hour later than now displayed?



View attachment 30313

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I unfortunately don't have any other things on my phone from different time zones, so I can't say for sure.

I would expect that things made at a particular point in time always stay at that point in time regardless of what the current timezone is. But they might be giving you the relative time and not the exact time.

That is, the phone call made a month ago when it was GMT+5 when you are not GMT+6, will be adjusted accordingly to show you what the call would've looked like if you had made it from GMT+6. Very confusing I know.

I wish they would put a timezone marker or something to indicate what is going on.

I'm just guessing as to what is happening at this point, perhaps others who have more data from different TZ's can chime in and help clear things up.

 

[Ratsima]

The time zone thing has always been confusing to me. In the attached screenshot the calendar graphic shows departure from Bangkok at 1305 and arrival in Hong Kong at 1600. But the text for that graphic shows the same departure time but arrival an hour later. The graphic is all ICT (Indochina Time) But the text shows the time of the event in the time zone where it happens.

 

[MacInWin]

What I have seen is that any event, at least in Calendar, that you have set for a time in a different time zone shows in the current time zone as the time in the current zone. Then, when you are in the time zone of the event, it shows at the time in the event timezone. So, for example, if I schedule a flight from the Eastern Time Zone overnight to London, taking off at 6:00 PM and landing at 6:30 AM in London the following day, it shows on my Calendar as an event from 6:00 PM to 1:30 AM while I am in the Eastern Time zone, and as 11:00 PM to 6:30 AM when I am in the UK time zone. That makes sense if you are holding a meeting by teleconference, so whatever time zone you are in, it shows when in that time zone you need to be in the conference. In my flight booking, for example, the booking itself clearly shows a 6:00 PM departure and a 6:30 AM arrival in the details of the flight event on my iPhone. When I arrive in London and the iPhone reconnects and sets the correct time, the event will shift to a takeoff at 11M and arrival at 6:30 AM.

So the iPhone knows the time and timezone and will adjust times accordingly. I suspect it will do that with phone records as well. And if any kind of Daylight or Summer time is involved, the iPhone knows about them, too, and adjusts, so that might be adding to the confusion.

 

[badshoehabit]

Jake - think I follow. Reads like a description of cricket for foreigners!

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game

 

[MacInWin]

That's perfectly clear to me, Sue. But then, I've actually played cricket, admittedly only once, but nevertheless I scored two runs, not out for a duck. Not bad for a colonist!

 

[badshoehabit]

...a duck. You've got the lingo!

 

[MacInWin]

Sue, I lived in England, near Bury St. Edmunds, for 2 1/2 years. Learnt cricket because I didn't understand the scoring. How is Australia 386 all out, England 253 for 4 a draw? None of the numbers matched! Played once, just an afternoon lark. I do like it, even if it's a bit, shall we say, sedate?

 

[IWT]

sedate

Soporific, more like!

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

Ah, but there's naught better than waking up from a nap to the applause for a well-struck six, have a sip of shandy and back to the nap!

 

[chscag]

Ah, but there's naught better than waking up from a nap to the applause for a well-struck six, have a sip of shandy and back to the nap!

I'd like to remind the participants of these forums that the language we use is English. Translation please.

 

[Ratsima]

For me the conceptual problem arises when trying to schedule an event that will occur in the arrival time zone while I'm still in the departure time zone. In my example above, Calendar shows arrival in Hong Kong at 4:00 PM. I need to schedule an onward flight and leave enough time to get from the arrival gate to the departure gate. But, I need to remember that the real arrival time is 5:00 PM in Hong Kong, not the 4:00 PM shown in the Calendar graphic.

This gets much worse when your travel involves crossing the International Date Line.

I once ended up with an entire extra day in California because I wasn't smart enough to realize that Calendar was showing me my arrival time in LA as if it were in the Indochina Time zone. As a result I scheduled an Amtrak trip from LA to Portland a day later than necessary.

Turning Time Zone Support on and off simply makes it more confusing.

 

[ferrarr]

If you turn “Set Automatically” off, then it will always display your default time zone, and may be easier to comprehend?


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[Ratsima]

You still have the problem where you can't tell Calendar to display an event's time in the time zone where it actually happens.

You need to be able to have an event (like a flight) that has different time zones for the departure and arrival. Tripit does this and it exports the correct time zones, but Calendar doesn't know how to deal with it.

From Tripit:

Tue, Nov 26
13:05 +07
[Flight] BKK to HKG
Confirmation # RKZ5M7
Cathay Pacific 614
17:00 HKT
Arrive Hong Kong (HKG)
Terminal 1

It shows the departure as 13:05 +07 (GMT plus 7 hours) and the arrival at 17:00 HKT (Hong Kong Time)

 

[Rod]

I agree 100% with Jake. It took me a while to get it myself. In actual fact Set Automatically does not do what I thought. It only sets the time automatically (to the correct time) once you set the correct time zone.
I am in Bali Indonesesia GMT+8 But Java is GMT+7 to get the right time on my devices correct I have to set them to Makassar time.
Here a handy online reference with search. World Time Zones

 

[ferrarr]

but Calendar doesn't know how to deal with it.

I wouldn’t expect Calendar to work that way. It can only work one time zone at a time. It does not know what your “schedule” means.


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[MacInWin]

Calendar can handle it. When you enter an event, in the date/time setting dialog there is a box for the time zone. If you click on the time zone it shows, a drop down menu appears with a few options and then "Other" which further opens a dialog where you can enter any city in any timezone anywhere. The event then shows on your calendar for the local time where you are that is converted from the time of the meeting where you will be. So, for example look at this:

I entered this test event, set the time for 9:00 GMT and it now shows on my calendar at 5 AM because I am in the US Eastern Time Zone and right now it is -4.



So Calendar does handle appointments in other time zones.

One of the items in the dropdown is "floating" but I'm not sure how that works.

You can also change the time zone of the calendar to make the appointment, then change it back and the time will adjust. Here is Apple's article on that: Use different time zones in Calendar on Mac - Apple Support

 

[ferrarr]

Jake, but not an airplane trip to a different time zone. That was what "I thought" was being discussed anyway.