Help Problem with the clock! / Time Keeps Changing Despite Settings

[SteveCampsOut]

How low was your battery when it happened? I can't remember how low mine was both times it happened but it if it happens again, I'll make a note of it.

I haven't had any issues since installing ClockSync. Nothing seems to stop the 5/6 hour roll back but ClockSync, for me, has fixed the issue before I see it ever since I installed it. There has only been one time I noticed the time changed back and all I had to do was tell ClockSync to update more often and I haven't seen the wrong time since then.

 

[jmcook79]

If I was rooted I'd try it out but I have a 2 year replacement plan and my luck something would happen and I wouldn't be able to un-root it before I sent it back. For now I'm going to continue to wipe my system cache once a week and update on whether or not it happens again. For some people it prevents it for 2-3 weeks but others clear the cache every day and still experience it. I guess I'll find out. In the meantime, it doesn't even bother my wife lol. She just leaves it alone and eventually it corrects itself.

 

[SteveCampsOut]

How low was your battery when it happened? I can't remember how low mine was both times it happened but it if it happens again, I'll make a note of it.

If I was rooted I'd try it out but I have a 2 year replacement plan and my luck something would happen and I wouldn't be able to un-root it before I sent it back. For now I'm going to continue to wipe my system cache once a week and update on whether or not it happens again. For some people it prevents it for 2-3 weeks but others clear the cache every day and still experience it. I guess I'll find out. In the meantime, it doesn't even bother my wife lol. She just leaves it alone and eventually it corrects itself.

LOL! I have the same 2 year warranty and I figure if mine get's bricked I'll just accidentally wash it in the laundry. They won't be able to tell it was rooted then.

 

[Jeran2]

I've been having the same problem where my Samsung Galaxy Centura will suddenly lurch back 5, 6 or more hours in time.

And yes, some of the tricks like going into the system settings menu and unselecting the automatic time and date things works fine to correct it, but that still makes this cell phone worthless and unreliable for an alarm clock. And it makes it an inconvenient replacement for a wristwatch.

The clocksync app does not work on my phone. I had high hopes for it, but it does not work for me.

And reading some of the posts here where people only paid $29 for their Centuras lets me know I got really ripped off. I bought mine at Radio Shack and they charged me $114. I wish I had known they were so much cheaper elsewhere. If I had only paid $29 for the phone, I would figure, eh, who cares about the time issue? But at $114 I'm mad about it.

I know this, I will saving up money for the next phone I buy, and this next time around it will be the latest version of the iphone. I'm done with androids.

Until then, I am stuck with two cell phones. The old Nokia 1100 that I bought way back in 2004 on Net10, with the old fashioned grey liquid crystal display. That phone is nearly indestructible and it is the one I use for my alarm clock and wristwatch replacement, and for most of my phone calls because I am new to smartphones and I just don't like dialing on the new touch screens. It's just not as easy for me to use as the old fashioned kind of cell phone.

And of course, I have the Centura for surfing the web at wifi locations. It is on Tracfone. I figure I am just starting out, getting used to smartphones and getting my feet in the water for the first time with them. In a few months, maybe more, once I get more used to using them for phone calls, etc., I will make the jump to an iphone.

 

[jmcook79]

I paid $99 for it before I knew about the sale and felt ripped off too. I moved on from the Centura to the Verizon prepaid Moto G. It was the same price but a world of difference. It completely changed how I view Android and smartphones in general. I've came to the conclusion that you at least need a mid-range phone to have a good Android phone and the Moto G has made that possible for me.

Oh well I do have the Centura to thank for introducing me to android even if it was painful lol. I helped a friend with his ZTE Valet yesterday and after using my new phone for a week I was ready to throw it through the window!

P.S. I came into the world of smartphones thinking along the lines of computers...low end laptops (not a $199 Walmart special low end but more like a $300 model) have always served my needs and I've never needed more. Phones turned out to be a whole different animal.

 

[Jeran2]

I paid $99 for it before I knew about the sale and felt ripped off too. I moved on from the Centura to the Verizon prepaid Moto G. It was the same price but a world of difference. It completely changed how I view Android and smartphones in general. I've came to the conclusion that you at least need a mid-range phone to have a good Android phone and the Moto G has made that possible for me.

Oh well I do have the Centura to thank for introducing me to android even if it was painful lol. I helped a friend with his ZTE Valet yesterday and after using my new phone for a week I was ready to throw it through the window!

Which one do you like better, the moto g or the zte valet?

When I was at Radio Shack buying this centura, I was there because I had intended to buy a zte since it had great reviews and it worked on the Tracfone pay as you go network, but the saleswoman talked me into buying the centura instead.

If the zte is good, I might jump ship for it and give it a try before moving on to an iphone.

oops! I think I misread that.

After looking at the reviews for the moto g, I can see where people do really like it.

And, it does look reasonable in terms of price. I think I might get one of the unlocked ones and give it a try.

 

[jmcook79]

Well let's just say the ZTE valet (actually 2 of them because he brought his wife's) made the Centura seem like a $300 phone so I don't recommend it. The Moto G, however, has mid range specs at a low price.

The only negative thing is the storage. The CDMA Verizon model as well as the Boost mobile one only have 8GB of storage with 5 available to user and no microSD slot. The 16GB version is only available as unlocked GSM which I can't use in my area. It's no big deal to me because I'm a light app user and I transfer photos to my laptop frequently. I also switch out music frequently.

As far as specs go if you want to stay with Boost I believe they have it for $129 and it blows away anything else in their lineup if you consider price/specs ratio. If you can deal with the storage (it does come with 50GB of google drive free for 2 years) I would definitely reccomend it. I've enjoyed every minute of it since I picked it up on Saturday.

I didn't mean to hijack the thread if you want to know anything else we should probably move to the Moto G forum.

P.S. take a look at this comparison and keep in mind the Moto G has a quad core processor!

 

[Jeran2]

Coming from a Nokia 1100, which was nothing but a basic cell phone, with no other abilities, this is a HUGE leap for me anyways. The storage will not be an issue for me at all.

I found a moto g on verizon prepaid that works in my area (Phoenix, Arizona) for $99. I'm going to give it a try before moving on to an iphone. If it works well for me, I may just stick with androids for now.

Thanks for all the information!

 

[jmcook79]

No problem and let me know if you like it. One more thing:If you are a light data user Walmart has Verizon cards for smartphones with 1GB of data for a month. As long as you pay your bill on time every month you get to keep the price but the special cards are limited time only. After they stop selling them you would just have to buy a multi value card and add $50 or just add the money with your debit card. Take a look here for details.

I picked one up at the local Walmart the same day I bought the phone.

 

[freakshow85]

I got a new phone myself. Was really getting fed up with how my Centura was acting. I couldn't easily use my smart watch because the apps for it ran on my phone using 20mb of RAM a piece... so with my phone only registering 396mb of RAM for use, I was getting poor performance and locking up.

I now have the Galaxy S3, still through Straight Talk. 4G LTE, Snapdragon 1.5ghz dual core, Adreno 225, and 2GB of RAM. Zero issues yet but will still be checking my clock.. and these forums

 

[jmcook79]

I know I keep waiting for bugs to pop up on my new Moto G but so far it runs like a dream

 

[freakshow85]

Good to hear. Don't wanna dis or derail the thread but many times I wondered how it was legal to release a phone with specs not up to par for the OS lol.

 

[freakshow85]

Hey guys, noticed something interesting. I put my Centura in airplane mode to test battery life since I have a Galaxy S3 now... and even in airplane mode... my time went back 5 hours... two times... in the same day. Happened about two days later. Very odd... again, it was in airplane mode. The Galaxy S3 hasn't had it happen at all, btw. Both straight talk.. centura on Verizon as we all know.. and the s3 runs on Sprint. It even gets 4G LTE.

 

[kpearsonxyz]

My 3g Slide hasn't done it again. But I lost trust and now use a Nexus 7 as my alarm...

I wonder if the NTP server settings have anything to do with this bug. There are several formats an NTP server can return and I'd be willing to bet the wrong return code is messing with your phone's innards.

 

[freakshow85]

Note I said I left my Centura in Airplane mode and it still happened around 48 hours later... twice within five hours. I didn't correct it the first time.. so a few hours later it went.back 5 hours again. It made it show 10 hours early.

Why would it do it in airplane mode, too?

I have had no problems with the kick ass Galaxy S3 I have now. I w anted a phone to do what I needed and thw 2GB RAM and Snapdragon dual 1.5ghz never studders.
Talk about pow er. I thought it would be real good but it far exceeded my expectations

 

[kpearsonxyz]

I wonder if your phone has a glitch in the actual clock chip...

Has anyone filtering this thread thought to count the variety of phones and os versions afflicted? Since members of this forum are probably a vast minority of Android users, such a tally will be statistically invalid so may not be worth the effort...

 

[freakshow85]

Most in here have or have had the Straight Talk Centura. Some of us have different phones now. My Straight Talk Galaxy S3 hasn't had any time problems... but knowing the Centura does it even In airplane mode does seem to make you wonder about some new causes doing that.

 

[scary alien]

I've been following this thread for a while now...

There are at least two ways to gather information on this that might help (especially if you have a rooted device):

1. Does not require root:

adb logcat​

This might show system messages related to why / when the time is getting changed.

2. Requires root:

adb shell
su
cat /proc/kmsg​

This might show what the kernel (which is the most likely reporter of anything interesting) is doing and/or why when the time is getting changed.

~ ~ ~

I don't have any of the devices mentioned or have been having this issue, but though I might provide the above suggestion.

Cheers and best of luck!

 

[freakshow85]

Thanks for the input. It does happen on other phones from what I've read here and on other forums. Since it happened to my Centura while in airplane mode, that opens a new can of worms imo. Is it a software glitch? Is it a hardware programming glitch that all these phones have in common? Did my phone still have some kind of radio running that I can't turn off? That I'm pretty sure is plausible.

 

[ehendershot]

When I try to use ClockSync, it only will work when I am on WiFi. While using data it gives me an error saying "Can't find NTP Offset. Network Problem?". It seems that for some reason it can't access the NTP while on regular data but is fine as soon as I turn on WiFi. I've tried updating my time zone file via the ClockSync app as well with no changes. Oddly enough, it doesn't matter if you have "automatically get network time" enabled or not. Anyone find an actual fix for this yet? I think it may have to do with the APN settings, but since they aren't accessable via the standard menus. Has anyone flashed a different ROM on these to see if that option becomes available?

 

[freakshow85]

I hate that I got a new phone. Love the Galaxy S3, miss the intelligence here.

 

[freakshow85]

My old Centura still has time issues.. in airplane mode... and even after being turned off for days in a row. Oddly, just to test something for my curiosity, when I turned my phone on and saw the time had changed (7 hours back instead of the common 5 hours back I had been seeing), I turned airplane mode off and within the same split-second, the time corrected itself.

What is everyone's overall opinion on this? I'm leaning towards it being a hardware or software problem, but nothing to do with networks. Just a guess, and a very broad guess at that.

 

[KateF123]

I have had the centura for tracfone for two weeks. It also has a time problem but mine is not off by 5 or 6 hours. It is off by an entire day. After reading over these posts and knowing I had tried everything already mentioned I started going through everything I have installed on the phone and anything that has something to do with time and date.

What I found was: The calendar that comes with the phone had Australian time set and the app I downloaded to show the amount of minutes, text and data available also had a different time zone set.

I just made changes to these apps a few minutes ago. Now that everything is coordinated maybe I wont have any more problems. I'll let you know if this makes any difference.

 

[KateF123]

Ensuring the time zone is correct in all apps and calendars seems to have worked for my phone. It's been 3 days and the time, date and alarms are all working as they should.

I hope this works for everyone else too.

 

[scary alien]

Ensuring the time zone is correct in all apps and calendars seems to have worked for my phone. It's been 3 days and the time, date and alarms are all working as they should.

I hope this works for everyone else too.

Awesome info, Kate!

I, too, hope it helps-out other folks...I don't think the calendar thing has been mentioned here before.

Thank you for that and welcome to our AndroidForums!