Understanding Time Zone support in iCal

I'm travelling overseas soon and I want to enter my various appointments so they're correctly displayed in the locations where they'll take place. How do I do this? At the moment the appointments I've entered are displayed as if they're taking place here at home, so a flight that arrives at 9pm in London is shown as arriving 10 hours after that. I suppose the calendar will display correctly when I move to the relevant time zone, but the shifting times are disconcerting. Is it possible to have the appointments actually display all the time at the times I've set regardless of the time zone? In other words, for iCal to leave a 9pm flight arrival at 9pm regardless of the local time? I wonder whether my problem is that I've entered the time before entering the time zone. Maybe if I now re-enter all the various appointments while leaving the time zone correct all will be well. I'm in a conceptual black hole here.

Hello Peter Best1,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
To learn more about time zone support with Calendar, please take a look at the article linked to below.
iCloud: Change your calendar’s time zone
Cheers,
Alex H.

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Not sure I understand time zone support

Let's say I live in Paris, but I have appointments next week in Washington DC. Can someone walk me through the settings I should use to make this work? I will want to enter the correct time dor the Washington appointment even though I'm currently in Paris I had time zone support "off," but when I made all my Paris appointments (while I was in DC), they're now 6 hours off.
Thank you!

The Blue Chunks wrote:
Symptoms: Airport shows up, but cannot be selected.
Andrew,
you might be suffering from _*wireless interference*_.
perhaps one of your neighbor's wireless networks is interfering with yours. download iStumbler (free) or AirRadar (it has a trial period) and note the channels other networks in your vicinity are broadcasting on. *change the channel(s) of your network as far away as possible from those*.
note there may be hidden (closed) networks around that these apps won't pick up. however, KisMac will be able to. be aware, though, that in some countries the use of KisMac may not be legal !
JGG

I cal time zone support

I use time zone support within ical, however, I don't travel to one of the time zones anymore. Now when I change the time zone the one I don't use still shows up in the drop down list. Is there a way to delete this time zone so the ones I do use are the only ones that appear?

Hello. I have the same problem and question. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Why is iCal Time Zone Support hidden?

Last week my wife sent me an iCal appointment for 2pm but I received it as 11am. On checking her iPhone she found the same time, 11am. We had both been overseas recently. On our return we had reset our time zones on our iPhone's and laptops to Auto so no problem there. Obviously we were very puzzled.
I then checked the Apple support page and found a lot of people had the same problem with Mountain Lion although I'm running Mavericks.
What I did discover was that in iCal > Preferences> Advanced is hidden a button called Time Zone Support.
Why put it there? And why is it off by default?
We turned it on on my Mac Book and hers then switched it off then on again on our iPhones and low and behold the appointment times changed to 2pm on all our devices.
I don't understand why changing time and date settings or having them on Auto shouldn't adjust all native apps and hiding the setting in advanced preferences just seems ridiculous.
Maybe that's just me?

I'm not sure how putting something in the user Preferences for an app hides it, but...
And why is it off by default?
I got into an argument with someone about using time zones in Calendar. He only wanted the times to show up as local times regardless of which time zone was selected and what time zone had created the event. I think he actuall missed some appointments when travelling overseas. His assistant had set up the appointments, and when he looked at them before he left, they were listed as late in the day because he was looking at his current time zone.
So, I guess that is why it is off by default.

ICal time zone support problem

my problem is not that it goes out of sync, but according to the iCal help, there is supposed to be a "pop-up menu in the upper right corner of the iCal window." I have no idea what that means, because i don't see a thing.
I am still on tiger, btw.
thanx!

caitanya,
In order for you to display that selection open iCal>Preferences...>Advanced and choose [✓] Turn on time zone support.
;~)

ICal time zone support

Forgive me if this is repetitive. I do not regularly read these discussion groups. I've just noticed a little problem with iCal. We recently moved to another state and another time zone, specifically, from the Central to the Eastern time zone. Time Zone Support has always been clicked "on" in our iCal. Our iMac clock and time zone are set properly, to the Eastern time zone. I just noticed today that the iCal time zone on all my "events" is selected as "Central U.S." But they show up at all the correct times (i.e., Eastern U.S.) on iCal. Is this what Time Zone Support is supposed to do? Convert all the events to the time zone in which you are located? To add to my confusion, I just got an iPhone 3G, it's set to Eastern Time, and all the events synced from my at-home iCal show up one hour earlier than they should on the iPhone iCal. Any suggestions? Thank you!

suz..
I just did the following and it seemed to correct the issue:
- made sure my .me and iCal apps were set to the same timezone
- turned off timezone support, closed iCal, turned timezone support back on
- made sure i was not using 'floating timezone'
that seemed to clear things up.

Time Zone support

I understand the basic gist of time zone support as it is pretty straight forward, but I'm constantly finding myself confused when I use time zone support when I travel. For instance, I use EDT and sometimes put events in my calendar that I know I'll have while I'm traveling. If I put an event in my calendar for 2:00 pm because that is when the event is supposed to start, but the event is taking place in California, the event shows up in my calendar at 11:00 am and I get all confused as to when my events are actually supposed to start.
Is the best policy to figure out what the adjusted time is supposed to be and make the adjustment beforehand, or is it best to turn off time zone support? It gets really confusing when trying to add events to your calendar when the events take place in different time zones.
Any thoughts on this subject would be greatly appreciated
Mac

Simple answer is that the events should not be moving if the setting has stuck, so it's probably a preference file that has been corrupted.
Do you see the time zone at the top right of the iCal window?
If it's there even though you have unchecked the option in preferences, it might be worth going into preferences and rechecking, quitting preferences, going back in and unchecking.
If that fails to get rid of the zone in the window (or it wasn't there in the first place), you probably need to trash the preferences file for iCal:
Quit iCal.
Look for this file ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.plist [That's in the Preferences folder of the Library folder of your home folder in case you don't understand the notation.] Drag it to the desktop - or somewhere convenient (so that you know where it is and can put it back if iCal gets screwed-up).
Restart iCal.
This should start iCal in the default mode - which is with Time Zone support off. You will notice that the position and size of windows, default view (month, week, day), etc have also been reset - so you will need to arrange them to your liking and check that the preferences that you need are set correctly.
You should now be able to change time zone without everything moving. If it works, you can trash the file you moved to the desktop.
If this doesn't fix your problem, you can at least get back to where you started by:
Quitting iCal.
Dragging the original .plist back over the new one.
Restarting iCal.
* Make sure you back-up your data before doing anything. However, I just tried this with my own iCal and it all worked 'as advertised' *

HT4576 "Time Zone Support" in Calendars should be renamed to "Override Time Zone Support"

So, I live on the East coast and notice, while on a trip just outside Cupertino, that my iPhone Calendar wasn't updating to the the local time, even though my iPhone had correctly updated to PST.
Finally, at the end of my trip, oh so nigh to Cupertino, I find out that my Calendar's erroneous display of time was due to the "Time Zone Support" configuration option.
This is a GROSS misnomer.
iOS requires the specification of a timezone - else the time would be set arbitrarily and would waste the time (NTP) service provided by the cellular provider.
Thus, the "Time Zone Support" option under "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" should be relabeled to "Override Time Zone Support" AND the ability to assign an event to a time zone should always be available (though defaulting to the current time zone - unless a 'Default Time Zone' configuration option is added).

The behavior you are seeing is actually inherent in most calendar apps -- the deal is that you are telling your calendar when something happens, not what time. Our company writes a calendaring+task management app for iPhone called Pocket Informant - we get this same question on occassion, so I wrote up a Knowledge Base article discussing some details (keep in mind - this article discusses some features specific to our app that you won't find in iCal/Calendar on MacOS X):
http://webis.kayako.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/123/0/why-do-the-times-change -on-my-appointments-when-i-travel-to-a-different-time-zone
In iCal/Calendar on MacOS X, when you turn on Time Zone support, you then get to choose the time zone that you are entering your appointment for. This helps you not have to do the "time zone math" in your head. Thus, if you are in CST and want to set up an appointment for 6pm PST, you can choose PST in the event editor as you enter 6pm. Note that while you are in CST, your event will display in your calendar at "CST time" (8pm), but when you fly out to PST, it will show the "correct" PST time.
While iCal/Calendar supports "floating time zones", I personally would caution against using them for everything (I mentioned a few reasons why in the above kbase article). Use those for events that truly are "time driven" rather than "point in time" driven (such as "I want to go jogging every morning at 5am no matter what time zone I'm in).
Hope that helps some!

Time Zone support - checked or unchecked?

I export my iCal claendar to Entourage (for the better printouts) and noticed that some appointments were showing up in the Entourage calendar 1 hour earlier than they should. When I oen up the individual event in Entourage it has the correct time, but in Entourage's daily, weekly or monthly display, it's an hour off.
So I went back to iCal, and checked Time Zone support and made sure that every event had the correct time zone. Then I exported again, and this time Entourage had EVERY event showing at the wrong time. I've looked everywhere, and I cannot find any preference or setting with the wrong time zone checked.
I've posted a note on an Entourage forum, but my question for this forum is as far as this issue is concerned, do you think I'd be better off with iCal's Time Zone Support checked or unchecked?

There's a patch you need to run for Entourage 2004. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930402/en-us?spid=1720
This requires download and install of Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.3 Update. A link to that download is contained on the page above. Be sure you get 11.3.3, because there are other versions referenced.
G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Getting the time zone support right

When I take an international trip I can never seem to get this right, and calendar events go slip-sliding all over the place.
I have tried by time zone support on and off, but still previous events seem to get displayed wrong no matter what I do.
Currently I'm in Tokyo. Next Friday I'm going to St. Louis for a couple of months. I have a customer call on June 6th at 10 am central time. I just added it to my calendar by entering "Call with Coaches on June 6 at 10 am CDT" (see screenshot) and it created this event which correctly shows it taking place on June 7th Japan time. And I added a note about the actual time just in case.
So how should I have it set so when I am in St. Louis it shows up as June 6 at 10 am?
And what will happen with all my other events where I typically don't specify a time zone?
Thanks,
Doug

Hey Doug Lerner2,
Thanks for the question and superb details. I can understand how confusing Time Zone support can sometimes be. In my experience, everything is going to relate back to the main Time Zone Support drop down menu at the top left of the Calendar. This is the easiest way to quickly switch the Time Zone you are viewing.
Once you travel to St. Louis, simply switch the time zone of your calendar (if it had not automatically switched) to see all of your events in the local time zone (including events that don’t specify a time zone). So if you had your event set for June 6th at 10am CST, once you switch the Time Zone to central time you’ll see that that event is displayed correctly. All of your events that were created in Japan will move to their respective times, and you can also have “Floating” events that will ignore the time zone, and always be at that set time.
For more information, see these resources:
Calendar: View all your events in a different time zone
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11534
Calendar: Change an event’s time zone
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11531
Thanks,
Matt M.

Time Zone issues with iCal 2.0.3?

I've been using iCal for a while now, and haven't had any problems until just recently. For some reason, meeting notices sent to me from Outlook (Windows XP) now appear in iCal with times for Africa (I am based in Arizona, and the people sending me the invitations are also based in the same office in Arizona). I have Time Zone Support turned ON in iCal, and the times on the PCs are set for the proper time zone as well.
The other problem is that when I reply to the invitation, Mail sends the acceptance like before. The sender receives this acceptance as an email (with my time zone being in Africa instead of Arizona), but Outlook no longer registers/updates the response.
Is anyone else out there having these issues? I have all of my Apple software up-to-date. Thanks.
G5 dual 2.3GHz Mac OS X (10.4.5) 1.5GB RAM, 2nd 250GB SATA internal HD

I don't know if this helps anyone, but I went ahead and turned time zone support OFF. I still get the meeting invitations which are off by 7 hours, but when I accept the invitation, it shows the correct time for Arizona but still has Africa in parentheses after it. It is only a workaround, but at least I know what the correct time of the meeting should be. Does Apple know that this latest release of iCal is seriously flawed, and are they going to do anything to fix this problem?
It is frustrating because iCal used to work flawlessly with Outlook up until recently, and nothing has changed on my end.
G5 dual 2.3GHz Mac OS X (10.4.5) 1.5GB RAM, 2nd 250GB SATA internal HD

Turning off Time Zone Support

Hi,
I have recently moved countries which are 8 hours apart.
I have had Time Zone Support turned on in iCal and my iOS devices. I also use Google Calendars.
If I try to switch time zones, all my appointments move by 8 hours. I don't need to know what the time is in other zones, I suppose what I want is the "floating" time zone.
I have tried to export and reimport my calendars but the time does not change correctly. Do I need to edit the .ics file in some way?
Thanks!

Hi,
If you need it I have a script to move all events in a calendar by a number of hours. See the script Offset iCal Events here.
Best wishes
John M
<hr />As I sell software on my site and ask for donations, the Apple Discussions Use Agreement requires that I state that I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Disable time zone support

Hello!
I have switched on support for time zones in iCal ages ago, or it switched on itself. However, i would like todisable it.
The problem is that i moved house and i am now in a different time zone, so all my old events are displayed an hour wrong.
I triedto play around with changing my time zone back where i used to be, then disable it, then changing back, etc. But it will always show up an hour wrong for whatever events i created in the old time zone.
Please help me to sort this out!
Thanks,
Bernhard

Do you use iCloud? If so, go to http://www.icloud.com and log in.
Then open the Calendars app from there, and click the cogwheel in the upper right. Go to Preferences > Advanced and turn off "Enable Time Zone Support".
Hopefully that will end your tie to the time zone support for your reminders.

Why is the Time Zone incorrect in iCal?

I live in Hawaii and when I trun on the Time Zone Support (in Mail, Contacts,Calendars) and select Honolulu, it puts the time 1 hour earlier than the current time. (iCal shows 6:30 when the actual appointment is for 7:30). However, when I select Anchorage, Alaska, iCal is set to the correct time. If I turn off the Time Zone Support it sets the time 1 hour earlier - just like setting it to the Honolulu time. Can someone explain why this is happening. It start when I switched to Lion and iCloud.

Are you normally in Hawaii? What is your "home" area?

Time zone support help: how do I enter an event and have it keep that time regardless of time zone?

I consistently enter events in one time zone, because that is just easier. I would prefer it KEEP them as entered, not revise them as I travel. IE, I live overseas and constantly travel. It is very difficult to keep track of my schedule if I must always calculate the time zones when entering or viewing events. How do I set it up to leave them as entered, even as I travel, without changing the ipAd clock to stay in one time zone?

Hi karlsf!
It sounds like you may need to adjust your time zone support settings. An article about doing this can be found here:
iOS: How to adjust Time Zone Support for calendars
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4576
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Have a good one!
-Braden

Understanding Time Zone support in iCal

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