OS X consistently jumps 30s into the future

[kona314]

So I typed out a long version of this, but then accidently hit Cmd+Q, so now I'm doing a short version.

My Mac mini, running the latest OS X 10.9.1, insists that it belongs in the future by about roughly 30s. This time discrepency manifests itself primarily when watching tweets stream in on Tweetbot, with freshly posted ones come in with a timestamp of 20-40s earlier (varies with each resync). Opening Date & Time Preferences forces the computer to resync with Apple's time server (I tried the NIST server as well with no luck on this issue, as well as disabling server sync entirely), which fixes the issues for a few hours before it changes again.

I have NO idea what could cause this, and it's been going on long enough for me not to be able to deal with it anymore. What gives?

 

[xraydoc]

Do you have any software installed that has an option to sync the Mac's clock?

 

[kona314]

Do you have any software installed that has an option to sync the Mac's clock?

None that I'm aware of, no.

I've also been able to watch this a little more closely since I posted this, and it seems the time jumping is gradual.

 

[xraydoc]

None that I'm aware of, no.

I've also been able to watch this a little more closely since I posted this, and it seems the time jumping is gradual.

How about something like Parallels? I believe there's an option that lets the Windows VM adjust the Mac's clock (you can disable this in either the app's preferences or in the VM config options). Other VM software could have a similar option.

To what server is your Mac's time preferences set to sync to?

 

[kona314]

How about something like Parallels? I believe there's an option that lets the Windows VM adjust the Mac's clock (you can disable this in either the app's preferences or in the VM config options). Other VM software could have a similar option.

To what server is your Mac's time preferences set to sync to?

I do not have any VM applications. I do, however, have Boot Camp set up, but I don't think that's what it is, especially since the last time I booted into it was probably six months ago.

I'm syncing to the Apple Americas servier—time.apple.com.

 

[xraydoc]

I'm stumped then. I know Parallels 9 will cross-sync the Mac's clock (if you want it to), but if you're not running it and you've got no other software that you're aware of with permissions to reset the clock, then I'm out of ideas. It's possible there's a hardware defect or it's time for a system software reinstall.

 

[kona314]

I'm stumped then. I know Parallels 9 will cross-sync the Mac's clock (if you want it to), but if you're not running it and you've got no other software that you're aware of with permissions to reset the clock, then I'm out of ideas. It's possible there's a hardware defect or it's time for a system software reinstall.

Wonderful. I'll run a reinstall as soon as I can, but things are really busy, and with finals in a couple of weeks, this might be a while... Although, I think I'm going to be near the Apple Store soon, so I could pop in there...

I'll update this thread when I do something. Thank you!

 

[HenryAZ]

I've also been able to watch this a little more closely since I posted this, and it seems the time jumping is gradual.

The same thing is happening here. Apple has introduced a new element into the timekeeping equation with Mavericks. It is called pacemaker, and it is supposed to work in conjunction with ntpd, but it appears not to be doing a very good job. The version of nptd reports itself to be the same as 10.8.5's ntpd, but they are not the same. It has obviously been recompiled for Mavericks, to work with pacemaker.

What I have done to restore decent timekeeping under Mavericks is
1. make a backup copy of /usr/sbin/ntpd
2. copy ntpd from a 10.8.5 installation
3. unload pacemaker and restart ntpd

This is what I now see, when syncing to a fairly accurate ntp server on my local network:

$ ntpq -pn
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
*10.10.66.3      .GPS.            1 u  833 1024  377    0.588    0.233   0.084