'GMT Bug' in iOS 8 Calendar Syncing Causing Time Zone Confusion for Users

[MacRumors]

A growing number of users on Apple's support forums are reporting an issue with iOS 8 and the time zones of synced calendar events, reports Forbes. Known by users as the "GMT bug," the issue is causing confusion as calendar events sometimes see a secondary time zone (frequently GMT) added on.

The issue is documented in a lengthy thread on Apple's support forums that was started shortly after iOS 8 was released, and it has continued to gain significant attention since that time. According to user reports, calendar events created in one time zone are converted to another timezone possibly when they sync across a server.

Most of the affected appointments originate from either Google or Microsoft Exchange calendars that are linked to the default iOS calendar app. While the appointment remains at the correct time for the user, the actual time setting becomes defined in GMT rather than the user's local time zone, which can cause issues if the user edits the entry without realizing the different time zone.

There are conflicting reports, however, over whether this behavior is indeed a bug or not. Apple support representatives reportedly have confirmed to at least one user that the company is aware of the issue and working on a fix, while others have been told this is expected behavior.

The issue may in fact be related to a "Time Zone Override" setting in iOS 8 that allows users to maintain a consistent time zone for their calendars even while traveling to different time zones, but even if the GMT addition is intended behavior the implementation is clearly causing confusion for many users.

Apple last updated iOS to version 8.1.2 in December with a fix for disappearing ringtones. A minor iOS 8.1.3 update is in testing with Apple engineers and retail staff, with a public launch expected soon. Developers are now also using iOS 8.2 betas, the fourth of which was released in last week. None of the public or beta versions of iOS are yet confirmed to contain a provision to address this issue.

Article Link: 'GMT Bug' in iOS 8 Calendar Syncing Causing Time Zone Confusion for Users

 

[Nor*Cal]

Glad to know I wasn't going crazy. Event times seemed to be okay until I invited someone else to my event, then they changed to GMT.

 

[Zxxv]

Light blues in calendar. I didn't think I had that?

 

[DaveTheRave]

I've seen this bug. Very annoying! I though I was doing something wrong.

 

[RhythmGuru]

My mom has been blowing up my phone about this issue. I couldn't recreate it on my phone, but I don't use GMAIL anymore. I do use Exchange for work, but don't have the issue. It just came up after the last IOS update she thinks. She does use Gmail, and only Gmail. Bet that's it.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

Not sure if it's related, but when I was travelling to Los Angeles in November, I noticed that my DOB had moved -1 day inside Medical ID, and then went back to normal when I returned to the UK.

I was able to replicate it by changing the time zone between GMT and PST and closing/opening the Health app.

 

[leon44]

A small victory for those of us who live under GMT anyway

 

[Hayakuro]

I've definitely experienced this, but only when syncing with Google Calendar. I haven't traveled between time zones, nor have I ever enabled Time zone override. Quite annoying.

Light blues in calendar. I didn't think I had that?

I think you can only get the lighter colors by using iCloud calendar sync. Gcal only uses darker blue/green/etc.

 

[tbayrgs]

Yeah, my wife's been having this problem with her iPhone 5S using her Gmail account. There's no way it's the intended behavior because I'm also using Gmail and she's actually using calendars shared from my account and I'm not having the issue at all. We both have identically configured settings (time zone override is off as well) yet appointments she schedules on the calendars will revert to GMT.

I scanned through a thread over on the Apple forums and it seem to be pretty much isolated to user using Gmail accounts. Seriously hope it's resolved quickly because it's incredibly annoying.

 

[LunarFalcon]

Seems like this would be a great time for the new Google Calendar for iOS app to come out.

 

[Patriot24]

Ironically, I experience this on OS X, yet my calendar on iOS is correct. I only experience it on my Exchange account. Gmail IMAP appears unaffected for me.

I sent an e-mail to Apple about a year ago and was put in touch with the product manager for calendars. He passed along a lot of great information to me about standards and how Apple tries to address these issues. The gist of it all is that the proprietary nature of Exchange leads to a lot of issues that are not present in the IMAP world. Not that Apple is completely excused, but I understand the technical challenges associated with getting a calendaring app to work with many protocols.

 

[Razeus]

Well it's iOS 8 so even the simplest of things are riddled with bugs.

 

[rvinny]

Seems like this would be a great time for the new Google Calendar for iOS app to come out.

You should be able to use native apps for this stuff. If I wanted to run two email apps and two calendar apps all the time, I would just switch to Android.

Thats the biggest thing that drives me crazy on Android. Two apps for everything. (camera+2, gallery v. photos, message v. hangouts, dialer v. hangouts dialer, email v. Gmail, etc. ....)

 

[NMBob]

How long has time been around again? Time bugs just make me laugh. It's funny how something so old is still gotten wrong by so many [programmers].

 

[Westside guy]

It's weird. I don't see this bug at all, but my wife does. Trying to solve it has been driving me nuts.

Time Zone Override doesn't seem to have anything to do with it, at least in her case. But she is using a Google calendar (as am I - but, like I said, I'm not experiencing the problem).

 

[zaphon]

It's weird. I don't see this bug at all, but my wife does. Trying to solve it has been driving me nuts.

Time Zone Override doesn't seem to have anything to do with it, at least in her case. But she is using a Google calendar (as am I - but, like I said, I'm not experiencing the problem).

Depends on where you create the calendar event. To see the issue do the following.

1. Create event on your phone on a Google Calendar
2. Edit event, notice it's in GMT (just viewing the event shows it in Local Time and GMT time)
3. Login to Google Calendar and edit the event. You'll see that there is no time zone associated with it. Click the field for Time Zone and change it to appropriate time zone.
4. Wait for it to sync back to phone.
5. Now edit it on Phone and notice it's fine.

So if you create your events some where other than the phone, then yeah they probably sync over fine and you won't see the issue. But if you create the events on the phone, you'll see it. My wife was having this and it was majorly pissing her off, so I moved her calendars over to iCloud which doesn't have this issue.

 

[Westside guy]

Seems like this would be a great time for the new Google Calendar for iOS app to come out.

I'm not as enamored of Google's productivity tools as I used to be.

We've been using Google Apps for Education in my department for a number of years. Based on that experience (and user feedback)... I suspect the Google Calendar app will handle some tasks quite nicely while other functions will be badly managed or completely omitted.

 

[mms13]

How long has time been around again? Time bugs just make me laugh. It's funny how something so old is still gotten wrong by so many [programmers].

As a programmer, I can tell you that time zones cause some of the biggest headaches across all types of development. It's really not that surprising.

 

[indros]

One solution that worked

I followed a tip from the Apple support forums to log in to iCloud on a computer, choose settings, and click the Time Zone option. It wasn't displaying GMT (Eastern instead of Central) but when I updated it the GMT issue went away.

It specifically says in iCloud that it's for iWork only, but it fixed this issue!

 

[Westside guy]

So if you create your events some where other than the phone, then yeah they probably sync over fine and you won't see the issue. But if you create the events on the phone, you'll see it. My wife was having this and it was majorly pissing her off, so I moved her calendars over to iCloud which doesn't have this issue.

I had suggested we move our calendars to iCloud, but my wife nixed that.

I will try what you suggest, when I get a chance. I believe she is mostly creating events on her iPad, while I generally am using the Mac calendar app (and, occasionally, directly in the Google Calendar web interface).

 

[appleofmy"i"]

This bug has been driving me nuts.

 

[TsunamiTheClown]

I thought i was the only person who colored their hair thrice daily...

 

[iSimx]

Let's hope Apple fixes all the time bugs before the iWatch comes out

 

[baryon]

This is nothing compared to the bug (it's actually a feature but I refuse to call it that) in OS X's calendar which changes the TIME of ALL events (in the past, present and future) if you simply move your computer into a different country. I mean holy hell, you just VISIT Paris and suddenly your flight is 5 hours earlier than it should be just because you didn't specify that at the time when you will be looking at the screen, you will be in the GMT+01 time zone.

And no turning on Time Zone Support doesn't solve this.

Paper calendars are still far more reliable than ones made by Apple.

Calendars should not know about the existence of time zones at all. It's a calendar, not a world clock. A meeting at 5pm is a meeting at 5pm, period. I don't care where it is, surely I know what the current time is in the current location I happen to be in.

 

[kolax]

I guess I should feel fortunate I'm in GMT at the moment anyway.