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iPhone Clock Sync?

qubex

qubex

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 12, 2004
373
17
045°042'21.99"N, 009°005'056.57"E
Hello.

I have an iPhone 3G running 2.2.1 (5H11) and a PowerMacG5 running 10.5.6 and iTunes 8.1. Basically the latest official versions of everything.

Problem: my iPhone's clock is drifting from my Mac's NTP-synced clock, and it's annoying me. Syncing the iPhone against iTunes does not correct the clock, nor does Restoring. Fiddling around in the Settings -> General -> Date & Time control panel is hit-and-miss (mostly miss).

Does anybody know how to force the clock to sync? I have the excellent Atomic Clock application installed but that's limited to checking the NTP time reference.

(Note to those of you who intend to respond for the sole purpose of stating I'm being fussy and/or suffer from OCD: I have perfectly valid reasons to desire a synchronised clock. Please respect that.)

Thanks for any help proffered.
 
I think your second post is asking if you can sync the time to the cell phone network. That you can do. Settings > General > Date & Time > Set Automatically > On.

I don't know a way to sync with your desktop computer, though.
 
Settings > General > Date & Time only has "24-Hour Time" (on), "Time Zone" (Rome) and "Set Date & Time". There's no option to set network time. I seem to remember from my first iPhone that they removed that when they released 2.0.
 
Yours is different from mine then. In Date & Time there are only two settings. One is for 24-Hour Time. The other is Set Automatically. If it's on, it takes time from the cellular network. I don't see any option for time zone. I'm in the US.

I'm on firmware version 2.2.1.
 
iFerd said:
Yours is different from mine then. In Date & Time there are only two settings. One is for 24-Hour Time. The other is Set Automatically. If it's on, it takes time from the cellular network.

I'm on firmware version 2.2.1.
Click to expand...

How weird.

iPhoneScreenShot1.PNG

iPhoneScreenShot2.PNG
 
Here is mine. I have the same About page as you do, except for a difference in carriers and size. I have an 8GB phone.

What is in the menu to Set Date and Time on your phone?
 
What options do you have when you tap the item to Set Date & Time? Is your automatic option there by some chance?
 
My clock seems to sync up fine, but sometimes it's off by an hour because it switches itself to a different time zone. It's happened a couple of times. But when it does happen, my other roommates' iPhones do the same.....so I'm thinking it's more of a carrier thing.
 
I had this same problem when I was near my home city the time would synchronize from the cell tower up to 2 minutes off from NTP standards. Whenever I would travel to another major city it would be accurate. I reported the issue to AT&T and after several calls, and a call back from someone fairly knowledgeable, it was determined this deviation was acceptable to AT&T. This continued in my home city until DST when it magically became accurate. My guess is someone finally fixed my local cell towers clock when they updated the DST. The time on my iPhone is now +/- 2 seconds of NTP.
 
I don't know exactly why this has made me curious. I guess it just seems really weird that the menus are different in different countries, if the versions are the same and the language is the same. So, I turned the option to set time automatically to Off. This screen is the result. Behind the Set Date & Time option is a click wheel to set these manually.

Maybe Vodaphone Italy doesn't provide time syncing services to its customers?
 

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iFerd said:
What options do you have when you tap the item to Set Date & Time? Is your automatic option there by some chance?
Click to expand...
Just the scroll-wheels to set Date and Time. Hardly instruments of precise synchronisation.

I've reached the conclusion this is probably controlled by Carrier configuration. If a carrier's settings file includes parameters that indicate time information is available, the iPhone allows you to automatically set the time. If not, it doesn't.

That's a pure guesstimate. I'm using Vodafone in Italy.
 

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iFerd said:
I don't know exactly why this has made me curious. I guess it just seems really weird that the menus are different in different countries, if the versions are the same and the language is the same. So, I turned the option to set time automatically to Off. This screen is the result. Behind the Set Date & Time option is a click wheel to set these manually.

Maybe Vodaphone Italy doesn't provide time syncing services to its customers?
Click to expand...

Hi iFred,

Could you attach your Date & Time.plist file from /Applications/Preferences.app?

I'd like to check if it differs from mine.

Regards,
Marecki
 
I know that this is an old thread, but the following steps are effective even now, with iOS 7 and no internet connection.

The seconds always is defined to the same current number when you enter "Set date & time" option. So you must wait a minute change in iPhone, and click Set Date & Time immediately after that. Wait until next minute change (in an accurate clock), and quickly change minute to correct number and click ok (or back).

I always can set time with an error +/- 0.3 with some tries.
 
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