My iPad's clock is wrong. Very wrong.

[gwynne]

I'm pretty sure it syncs with apples time servers if you leave wifi on...kind of like how cell phones do the same thing. I always have wifi on so if there is a problem with the hardware clock I wouldn't know about it...

Not sure if you noticed the post above yours, but my wifi was on. 🙂 I can't be more plain than that. I have no reason to turn it off.

I'm not sure if it's only happening to some of us, or needs very specific conditions to happen, but I'm sure more people will start to notice and Apple will deal with it. It's not a huge worry for me.

 

[WilliamG]

When I had the 7hr loss, wifi was definitely on. I was able to web surf and whatnot the next morning, but the time would not fix till I sync'd with my macbook.

Well then that's strange. Almost a week of daily use here with wifi always left on, and the time is always correct.

 

[seanatki]

Well then that's strange. Almost a week of daily use here with wifi always left on, and the time is always correct.

Those of you with clock problems...do you Bluetooth turned on? I didn't start having issues until I tried to pair a keyboard and left Bluetooth on. Now that it's off, I haven't had any issues with losing time.

 

[WilliamG]

I only tested BT with an Apple keyboard for a second, and then turned off BT again... But my clock works perfectly. 🙂

 

[gwynne]

Haven't been able to reproduce.

 

[ImperialX]

This has never occured to me. Just set your regions right and I think it won't have a problem.

 

[iDavePhotog]

Me is off too...

I have noticed this a few times on mine too. I am sitting here now (in an area where there is no wi-fi available) reading a book in the iBook app and notice that the time is off by about 14 hours. I stop to look up this problem and found this forum and read that others are also having this issue. When I go back to the iPad after reading these posts and the time is now correct! Must be a flaw in when the clock on the screen is updated as again, it was not connected to a wi-fi connection, but still updated after a bit. This should be a simple fix that hopefully will be addressed soon.

 

[master-ceo]

Last night was the first time I didn't plug it in to charge overnight, and that is when I first noticed the problem. So it may have something to do with being plugged-in/not plugged-in. There is a thread in the apple.com forum about this as well.

http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2392277&tstart=0

Yes, this is when mine started the nonsense also

 

[gwynne]

Dammit, nothing for weeks and then lost 20 minutes overnight.

 

[aperry]

Just as another data point, this has started to happen to me, and it's probably not coincidental that I also haven't been charging overnight regularly (starting recently). This morning I woke up and noticed my iPad's clock is about 2 hours slow.

 

[FraZant]

Same problem

I have my iPad 24 hours now. Has been on WiFi all the time, is 25 minutes behind.

 

[4DThinker]

I wonder how often netbook clocks don't work. My Archos 9 and ASUS EEE have never skipped a beat. It's a shame such a little thing was missed in the iPad factory QC checks.

 

[leesweet]

Cell phones sync to the cell system, not the Internet, per se.

These are really the first WiFi-only devices (if you have 3G off on the 3G...), and I don't remember anything about time sync anywhere. My WiFi seems to creep somewhat, but nothing like what we've seen in this thread. You would hope that Apple would update the clock if you are connected to the Internet (which most of these are, most of the time)....

I'm watching the clock on my MBP (synced more or less perfectly to time.apple.com, I hope), and my 3G iPad (with 3G off) and it's not perfect. Off by about 10 seconds. It was iTunes-synced Friday night, and not rebooted/turned off since. (Sleep, of course.)

So, don't know where the pattern is or what is causing the issue with the ones that aren't keeping good time.

Adding... how do/how are iPod touches in keeping time?

Also, there is a 'Set Automatically' switch in Settings. Does this mean anything like it should (to time.apple.com), or just when you iTunes sync?

 

[leesweet]

If 'Set Automatically' is turned on, you can't set the time. And this doesn't appear in WiFi iPads, from what I can gather from google and the iPad manual.

I wonder if the 3G has it (auto-set) because it has 3G, and it even works when you have 3G off, using the WiFi connection.

Can someone with a WiFi unit at hand confirm that you don't have the 'Set Automatically' switch?

 

[HengenJL]

Just checked the Date & Time settings on my WiFi iPad and there is no "Set Automatically" switch. Though I have never seen my iPad clock be off from the actual time...

 

[leesweet]

Just checked the Date & Time settings on my WiFi iPad and there is no "Set Automatically" switch. Though I have never seen my iPad clock be off from the actual time...

This might be something for 4.1, since people do depend on the time, whether WiFi only or not. My 3G (radio) has been off for over a day, and the time is off by a few seconds, so it may or may not be updating the time over WiFi.

 

[FraZant]

No set automatically switch on my WiFi only iPad and the clock is way off.

 

[FraZant]

To the Techies out there. Is this a hard- or a Software problem? Can it be solved by a software update? The set automatically option is not an option. I may be traveling without access to a WiFi. I have my iPhone for email access. That's why I bought the WiFi iPad and saved the over 150$.

 

[ct2k7]

To the Techies out there. Is this a hard- or a Software problem? Can it be solved by a software update? The set automatically option is not an option. I may be traveling without access to a WiFi. I have my iPhone for email access. That's why I bought the WiFi iPad and saved the over 150$.

Most likely software, though, the timestep chip on the main board might play a part.

 

[bdmsb]

My iPad keeps time fine most of the time, but on two mornings it woke up late by several hours and 30 minutes. I called tech support and she had never heard of it. She suggested a system Restore.

 

[alex2792]

Same thing started happening today, rebooting seemed to have fixed it. Keeping fingers crossed!

 

[DreamLand]

Same thing started happening today, rebooting seemed to have fixed it. Keeping fingers crossed!

Rebooting worked with me as well. Thanks for the tip

 

[St. Germain]

Same thing is happening to my wife's 64GB 3G. Turning on the 3G or rebooting temporarily fixes it. Has this been determined to be hardware or software yet?

 

[xgman]

Between here and the Apple forums, this seems to be a fairly widespread issue. It also started happening to my 32gb wifi yesterday and I think it does have to do with the clock going to sleep in sleep mode and forgetting to come back. I can't believe Apple has not issued some sort of fix or acknowledgment of this, then again, yes I can. 🙄

 

[ArmCortexA8]

Between here and the Apple forums, this seems to be a fairly widespread issue. It also started happening to my 32gb wifi yesterday and I think it does have to do with the clock going to sleep in sleep mode and forgetting to come back. I can't believe Apple has not issued some sort of fix or acknowledgment of this, then again, yes I can. 🙄

This could be related to a timezone issue in the OS software, where its jumping ahead or backwards. As long as the timezone / country is set correctly it should be fine. Also, note the iPad has no separate internal lithium clock battery so this is obviously updated via wireless / 3G connection.