iPhone 8 shows incorrect time

[frank44]

Yesterday November 15 I noticed my iPhone 8 was showing incorrect time, 1 hour ahead. For example it shows 10am when it is actually 9am.  It was previously showing correct time, even during the switchover from Pacific Daylight Savings Time to Pacific Standard Time a couple of weeks ago (November 1).  Problem still happening now (noon November 16)

I had the phone set to automatically get the proper time (Settings / General / Date & Time / Set Automatically). Since Automatically now does not work I set manually Time Zone to Vancouver (my nearest big city), and that gives me correct time.

So I am wondering, does Public Mobile (or Telus), supply the time that my phone uses with Set Automatically, and is that supplied time incorrect???  Maybe someone accidentally set the supplied automatic time back to Pacific Daylight Saving Time?

Same problem is happening with my phone on iOS 13.7 and latest iOS 14.2.

Minor problem, but the 1 hour error messed up my schedule yesterday.

[LurganIeUk]

Although I have not been moving about, my time remains correct too. I will just leave my phone on LTE as I have no idea why it went to 3G...not from me. Would that last iOS change it? 

Does Telus watch here for solutions?

[whyveeare]

I can also confirm the same as @techrider .  No issues since yesterday afternoon.  Phone is still set to 3G.  I even drove around North Langley in an effort to connect to as many different cell towers as possible 🙂   I tried turning Airplane mode on/off, Cellular Data off/on, Auto time zone off/on.  Anything to try and "break" it 🙂

So far so good.  Let's hope that's the end of it.  Thanks to all for contributions.

[techrider]

Since yesterday afternoon my timezone has remained correctly detected (I didn't have to make any changes - still have cellular data set to 3G).  I suspect there was an issue with the network that Telus eventually became aware of and resolved (fingers crossed - a few days of stability will increase confidence in this)

[frank44]

Thanks to LurganieUk for noting that setting iPhone to LTE seems to fix the time error problem.

btw it seems that the 3G time error has been fixed in the last hour or so, by Telus or PM.  My phone no longer has the problem when set to 3G.  

I had my iPhone set to 3G for the last year as I read that battery life might be better, also 3G signal is a little higher. Both 3G and LTE are on the same tower for me (next to Marks store in Chilliwack mall area).  Probably either LTE or 3G setting would be OK for me as I rarely turn cellular data on.  This time problem may have gone unnoticed by most people since almost everyone is on LTE setting, so that might be a reason to use the more popular LTE setting.

[frank44]

I had my iPhone 8 on 3G and got the 1 hour ahead error.  Switched it to LTE and the error is gone. iPhone on LTE with automatic time instantly detects my Vancouver area (I’m in Chilliwack so Vancouver time zone). On 3G my phone takes about 15 seconds to figure out my zone incorrectly. 

so it looks like a Telus 3G problem. 

[LurganIeUk]

My LTE switch is On and my cellular switch is OFF and time is still correct. 

[sheytoon]

Time doesn't come from the tower. It comes from the core network, which relays the message to the phone via the tower.

For LTE, the message comes from the MME, and it's the same settings for each Tracking Area Code (TAC). TAC is a collection of LTE cells in the same geographical area. These messages do not use data. They are part of the network signaling during normal attach procedures.

For 3G, I'm not sure, but it should be a similar process.

[LurganIeUk]

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@techrider wrote:

@LurganIeUk I never thought to change this setting since I thought PM only offers 3G data services.  In my case Cellular data is turned off so 3G or LTE shouldn't make a difference (cell data is used sparingly, so Off until needed, and time setting should come from the network without requiring data).  Still I'll try setting it to LTE and monitoring for a day.  As I write this, I have the phone in North Surrey and the time is correct.  It's when I'm in South Surrey (where the phone is 99.9% of the time) that the time goes Etc/GMT+7.  I'm trying to work with a Moderator on this today.

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@VicLuci 

I repeat.......my wife has never had any issues with the time being correct and she has LTE turned ON. Mine was on 3g with the issues and went away when I turned on LTE and is still correct. My 24 hour switch is OFF, set automatically switch is ON, and Time Zone Says Vancouver which is what I need. 

@techrider 

We are like you...data is only on to use it for email and iMessage and right back off. And from the old days and today as well I believe the time comes from the towers and has nothing to do with data being on or off to be able to receive the time from the carrier. I have had a smart phone for years with the correct time and NO Data plan. 

But after talking with @whyveeare he mentioned his switch was on 3G. So looking at mine on 3G with the +1 hour difference same as @whyveeare then looking at my wife's phone on LTE with no time issues...I switched LTE back on and all is ok. 

May some other guru can tell us where the time comes from...I say the tower...and it has nothing to do with cellular on or off. And the issue might be an Apple issue...that is as long as no android user is experiencing the same thing. 

So if @techrider and @whyveeare keeps posting here....we may see a solution to make it work...but not a reason why it doesn't while an iPhone is on 3G. 

I think I read somewhere that it did not matter if while being on  3G that it made any difference if your phone was "switched" to LTE. 

[VicLuci]

Make sure you are not on manual time 

[techrider]

@LurganIeUk I never thought to change this setting since I thought PM only offers 3G data services.  In my case Cellular data is turned off so 3G or LTE shouldn't make a difference (cell data is used sparingly, so Off until needed, and time setting should come from the network without requiring data).  Still I'll try setting it to LTE and monitoring for a day.  As I write this, I have the phone in North Surrey and the time is correct.  It's when I'm in South Surrey (where the phone is 99.9% of the time) that the time goes Etc/GMT+7.  I'm trying to work with a Moderator on this today.

[LurganIeUk · Accepted solution]

Boy......my memory is fooling me. I am sure I put mine on LTE but is on 3G. Can they just change?. Just checked my wife’s and is on LTE and I always duplicate phones other than APPS. 

BINGO BINGO BINGO !!!!!!!!

I put mine back to LTE and automatic time is correct and says Vancouver. 

Try that and let me know if it works. Is that an Apple problem or Telus?

[whyveeare]

@LurganIeUk 

I'm near the red X.  So more likely to connect to the multiple towers in Walnut Grove.  But still theoretically possible to connect to towers across the river, depending on network congestion and other factors.  My phone is usually set to 3G only (I seem to get a stronger signal that way and thus better battery life) and from what I understand 3G "travels" further than LTE.  So quite possible I'm picking up towers that are further away.

[LurganIeUk]

@whyveeare 

See map. Red arrow is close to me. Also it appears we have 2 new towers...but my guess small ones on a multi use telephone pole. You might have to overlay to see where you are vs me. Definitely the Albion tower serves Langley too. 

[whyveeare]

I agree, it's totally weird.  And very intermittent.

Where in Maple Ridge are you?  Being across the river from Langley, it's quite possible we are sharing the same cell phone towers.

I will ask my wife to temporarily turn on Auto time zone and see if she can replicate it on her SE again.

[LurganIeUk]

@whyveeare   Absolutely....you need it to work. My wife just got back home. Her SE is on Automatic and working perfectly for time. This is weird. 

[whyveeare]

@LurganIeUk , yes that is what I have been doing to get around this.  Turning off Auto time zone and manually setting Vancouver as the time zone.  But as I mentioned earlier, I travel a lot (during normal times 🙂  )  and it would not be very practical to have to remember to manually set the time zone every time I arrive in a new time zone.  But for now it's not that important as I am mostly staying home these days.  I'm just curious why it's an issue now and hopefully have it resolved by the time I start traveling again.

[LurganIeUk]

@whyveeare I am on 14.2 as well. I did the update a couple of weeks ago too....but another last night. I had the red dot 🔴 on settings but my wife did not. We both have same phones. So I did the new software check on hers and updated it too. I just do the updates....and am lax on reading the reason why it is an update. 

Try this though. 

Settings

General

scroll down to Date & Time

turn OFF     Set Automatically 

tap time zone and type Vancouver 

BUT my SE remains with Etc/GMT+7

[whyveeare]

@LurganIeUk , what iOS update are you referring to?  I'm currently on 14.2 which came out a couple of weeks ago.  I checked for new updates but there weren't any.  Or do you mean new carrier profile update?  I'm still on 44.0

@JK8 , yes I did.  That's why I tried moving my PM SIM to my spare Android phone.  But it will be more meaningful if I move it over at the same time when my iPhone is showing the wrong time zone again.

[JK8]

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@whyveeare wrote:

Well, it happened again.  I went out grocery shopping yesterday afternoon (still in North Langley, BC) and I noticed that the clock on my iPhone XR was ahead by 1 hour again.  Time zone again showing as Etc/GMT+7.  Switched off Auto time zone until this morning and now it is working again.

I tried switching my PM SIM to a spare Android phone (Xiaomi Mi A1) to see if I could replicate the issue there.  But it showed the correct time zone.  Maybe not a fair test as it is currently working on my iPhone now too.  If and when the issue pops up again, I will move my SIM right away to the Android phone and see if it the same issues shows there too.  That should definitively prove that it is a Telus/PM network issue.

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See post from @sheytoon just above yours.

[LurganIeUk]

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@whyveeare wrote:

Well, it happened again.  I went out grocery shopping yesterday afternoon (still in North Langley, BC) and I noticed that the clock on my iPhone XR was ahead by 1 hour again.  Time zone again showing as Etc/GMT+7.  Switched off Auto time zone until this morning and now it is working again.

I tried switching my PM SIM to a spare Android phone (Xiaomi Mi A1) to see if I could replicate the issue there.  But it showed the correct time zone.  Maybe not a fair test as it is currently working on my iPhone now too.  If and when the issue pops up again, I will move my SIM right away to the Android phone and see if it the same issues shows there too.  That should definitively prove that it is a Telus/PM network issue.

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I am in Maple Ridge. And I fixed in “settings” and has not changed back. Also did you do the new iOS update yesterday?

[whyveeare]

Well, it happened again.  I went out grocery shopping yesterday afternoon (still in North Langley, BC) and I noticed that the clock on my iPhone XR was ahead by 1 hour again.  Time zone again showing as Etc/GMT+7.  Switched off Auto time zone until this morning and now it is working again.

I tried switching my PM SIM to a spare Android phone (Xiaomi Mi A1) to see if I could replicate the issue there.  But it showed the correct time zone.  Maybe not a fair test as it is currently working on my iPhone now too.  If and when the issue pops up again, I will move my SIM right away to the Android phone and see if it the same issues shows there too.  That should definitively prove that it is a Telus/PM network issue.

[sheytoon]

@techrider @frank44 is this only happening on iPhones or Android too?

Can you send me your TAC? This is easiest done if you can get a Samsung phone by dialing *#0011#.

If this is happening on phones in a certain area, it would be a Telus MME issue and I can let Telus team know.

[kb_mv]

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@techrider wrote:

Unfortunately I can't even get a hold of a Moderator to get PM's attention on this.  Has anyone else spoken to a Moderator?

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@techrider What do you mean you can't get a hold of a moderator? Have you sent them a private message or contacted them through the chat bubble? How have you tried to get a hold of them?

Edit: As sent to you in PM, for others here is link to direct message Moderators if the chat bubble doesn't work:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

[techrider]

@whyveeare thanks for sharing the details. Multiple subscribers on different models having the same issue... continues to suggest PM (Telus) have made a change that is triggering the issue.

Unfortunately I can't even get a hold of a Moderator to get PM's attention on this.  Has anyone else spoken to a Moderator?

Since my child's iPhone is using the Screen Time feature (parental control), turning off "Set Automatically" isn't an option without disabling Screen Time (not practical).

My wish is that more reports result in PM taking some action to resolve this.

[whyveeare]

Hi all,

I can confirm that my wife and I have both been experiencing the same issue since Nov. 16.  Both on my iPhone XR and her iPhone SE (older version).

In my case, it started when I was setting up my new XR.  I noticed the time was ahead by 1 hour.  Time zone (set to auto) was Etc/GMT+7.  I shut off Auto time zone and changed it manually to Vancouver.  Then when I tried Auto again, it seemed to search for a few seconds, then resulted to Etc/GMT+7 again.  Very strange.

I was able to "trick" it by switching to Airplane mode and then turning on only Wifi.  Then it detected Vancouver as the time zone, I assume via my ISP or the router settings, not sure.  When I switched off Airplane mode and connected to the cellular network, it retained Vancouver as the time zone.  This worked fine until last Thurs. when I noticed it was off by 1 hour again and the time zone was Etc/GMT+7.  So I disabled Auto time zone again.

In my wife's case, it resulted in her alarm going off 1 hour early last Thu. morning.  Believe me, she was not happy about that 🙂  Her phone was also showing Etc/GMT+7 as the time zone.  For now we have turned off Auto time zone on her phone.

This morning I tried Auto time zone again with my XR and this time it showed Vancouver correctly.

Very odd behaviour.  I've never experienced this before and I have been using iPhones for many years now.  I also wonder if it is some kind of Public Mobile network issue.  Perhaps a network component replaced in a local cell tower (I'm in North Langley, BC) and not properly configured with the correct local time zone.  We are both on carrier profile Public Mobile 44.0.   Anyone else on a newer version?

Sorry for the long story.  Just wanted to share my similar experiences.  Normally I wouldn't care about using the Auto time zone function, but as I travel a lot I don't want to have to remember to manually set the correct time zone every time I arrive somewhere new.  It's worked perfectly for many years, so just curious why there are issues now.

PS:  My wife and I have been with Public Mobile for about 4 months now (before that with Fido) and we are both very satisfied with the service so far.  Definitely great value for the money for us.  And great community too.  I've learned a lot so far.

[LurganIeUk]

Have you tried:

settings

general

      Scroll down a bit to 

date & time

time zone.    Make an update here

It fixed mine. 

[Gigi2019]

Try on yours to turn off wifi and cellular data and then turn off and turn on your phone again. Start wifi, put automatic and it should work like your wife's phone.

If still not working, check location settings and match as corresponding.

Good luck 

[techrider]

@CalgaryBen 

Thanks for your suggestions.

• Etc/GMT+7 is bizarre - I have disabled Screen Time to try to turn off Set Automatically and of course that works, but I need Screen Time to be enabled so this isn't a solution.
• Because I've experienced a similar issue before on another network that took months for that carrier to investigate and resolve, I do think something in the cell site in my area may be misconfigured.
• I can confirm Location Services is enabled for TZ, thanks for pointing that out as I hadn't checked before
• I will try to get my hands on another iPhone that I can leave the SIM in for an hour or two as this will be a good test for sure.

I'm new to PM and using Community.  I tried to start a chat and turn it into a Moderator ticket, but when taken to a new browser tab and asked to sign in with my Community credentials, they didn't work ("Error signing in").  Going to try to call PM to arrange a call back to solve the issue with the time and my access to a Moderator.

[techrider]

@Korth 

Thanks for the suggestions.

• the article applies to people who have jailbroken their phone, or have travelled - neither apply in my case (phone goes from home to nearby school and back)
• tried connecting the iPhone to my Mac (trusted it, it's visible in Finder), but that didn't make a difference
• haven't tried your factory restore suggestion yet, because I just did a factory restore before joining PM in September (factory restore, not just factory reset) - I'm skeptical about needing to do this, but will consider trying it

[CalgaryBen]

Forgive my not having read through this thread; hopefully I'm not covering stuff already contemplated/tried.

@techrider while I've never personally observed/experienced this issue, a few things come to mind:

• The cellular network broadcasts the current time (in the local time) plus the UTC/GMT offset (which should be negative, i.e. GMT-8 hours for most of BC right now), so seeing GMT+7 is bizarre; are you able to test/toggle the "Set Automatically" setting somewhere else (so you're on a different cell tower)?  While rare/unlikely, perhaps something in the cell site is misconfigured.
• Ensure location services is enabled for the auto TZ setting: Settings --> Privacy --> Location Services --> System Services (at the very bottom) --> Setting Time Zone --> Enable, and then toggle the "Set Automatically" setting.
• If you have access to another iPhone, I'd be very interested in seeing if it's a reproducible issue with the same Time/Date settings (automatic/location services enabled).