Help How do I prevent calendar from adjusting times to new time zone?

[jeffdlb]

I entered some appointments prior to a business trip in another time zone. When I arrived in the new TZ, the calendar shifted all my appointments by 6 hours, so a 9am meeting was shown at 3am.

How can I set an appointment at what will be the local time for that event and not allow the calendar to adjust it?

 

[johnbaron]

I just experienced this. It was super frustrating as I loaded a 4 day conference event into my calendar. About 10 events each day. When I got to the new time zone they all shifted and I had to edit each one to the correct time. Really hard to believe this is an issue, but it is!

If you would, please leave a comment on the google page. I gave them my thoughts for sure! The more the better!

FixIt!: Google Calendar and time zones | AndroidGuys

Issue 5892 - android - Calendar: Don't change times when moving across time zones - Project Hosting on Google Code

 

[NicksGarage]

I think they need everyone who works on the calendar functions of Google and Android to be forced to use an Android phone to manage their schedules. Once they all start missing meetings maybe they'll get a clue. Calendars and scheduling are such basic core functions of a PIM that they've really messed up here.

 

[nahpungnome]

Maybe set your time manually and use multiple clock widgets? That's all I can think of... although I could see how the issue would be frustrating.

 

[EarlyMon]

I think the issue is that the unlike other calendar programs, this one is missing a TZ specifier for events to make things easier for you.

When you create an event at 1 PM in your time zone, the calendar app - whether on-line or on your phone - is able to then send out a vCalendar invitation - and if you mail to someone in another TZ, their copy will be updated so that it synchronizes their TZ to yours.

Otherwise, both of your calendars will say the meeting is at 1 PM - but you'll meet, because 1 PM PDT is not 1 PM EDT.

I might advise a few things:

First, go to your GMail account on the web, and select the Calendar tool. Then go to settings and set not only your home TZ, but also, give it a label - and then also click to show any other TZs you normally travel to - and label them as well.

I have mine set to display all of my TZs of interest, they form left-hand columns behind my home TZ column.

Before traveling, you might then go online and check to see if all your planned meetings and event match to that time zone.

I think you'll find if you use the online calendar for the workhorse, your phone will do just fine.

You really, really do NOT want Google to remove the functionality you're suggesting.

Also - they're not going to - it's not right for them to do so.

Instead - what you really want is an Android calendar app that allows you to specify the intended TZ of any new event - it's not the Google calendar that's broken, it's how your widget accesses it.

I looked for a better one for you, couldn't find one offhand. You might try searching or pleading your case to app developers.

~~~~~~

I've not tried this - but you might also consider resetting your default TZ on the web Calendar to your destination web, sync, create your events using that TZ, sync, then reset your default TZ, sync again.

It's a lot of steps, but I'm suggesting the same thing you might do on your desktop calendar when you specify what TZ you're creating new events in.

Best luck.

 

[nahpungnome]

I think the issue is that the unlike other calendar programs, this one is missing a TZ specifier for events to make things easier for you.

When you create an event at 1 PM in your time zone, the calendar app - whether on-line or on your phone - is able to then send out a vCalendar invitation - and if you mail to someone in another TZ, their copy will be updated so that it synchronizes their TZ to yours.

Otherwise, both of your calendars will say the meeting is at 1 PM - but you'll meet, because 1 PM PDT is not 1 PM EDT.

I might advise a few things:

First, go to your GMail account on the web, and select the Calendar tool. Then go to settings and set not only your home TZ, but also, give it a label - and then also click to show any other TZs you normally travel to - and label them as well.

I have mine set to display all of my TZs of interest, they form left-hand columns behind my home TZ column.

Before traveling, you might then go online and check to see if all your planned meetings and event match to that time zone.

I think you'll find if you use the online calendar for the workhorse, your phone will do just fine.

You really, really do NOT want Google to remove the functionality you're suggesting.

Also - they're not going to - it's not right for them to do so.

Instead - what you really want is an Android calendar app that allows you to specify the intended TZ of any new event - it's not the Google calendar that's broken, it's how your widget accesses it.

I looked for a better one for you, couldn't find one offhand. You might try searching or pleading your case to app developers.

~~~~~~

I've not tried this - but you might also consider resetting your default TZ on the web Calendar to your destination web, sync, create your events using that TZ, sync, then reset your default TZ, sync again.

It's a lot of steps, but I'm suggesting the same thing you might do on your desktop calendar when you specify what TZ you're creating new events in.

Best luck.

Sux that there's no option for the calendar to ignore Time Zones... maybe someone should suggest it

 

[EarlyMon]

Sux that there's no option for the calendar to ignore Time Zones... maybe someone should suggest it

That would BREAK vCalendar exchange and group calendar syncing.

Right now, one of my coworkers can go our group Google calendar, set an appointment in his time zone, and it shows up on my Evo with my time zone set correctly. He can do that from his phone, with his desktop calendar, or on the web.

I think the right option is to include TZ setting - or use my suggestion on the web as a workaround in the meantime.

One of the primary functions of a calendar is syncing across time zones.

If I got the request to ignore that as a dev, I'd be mighty confused, because it would seem to me to break a LOT of the calendar syncing functionality.

And if they implement that, I rue the day, because I fear side-effects for the rest of us.

So - go ahead and ask google, maybe I'm all wrong - I often am - and they'll honor the request.

But - expect to be frustrated if they write you off as PEBKAC.

Not being sarcastic at all - just giving my view on how they might see this request.

PS - all that said - Google's whole vCalendar system is lacking anyway.

 

[jeffdlb]

Thanks for the replies. I agree that the calendar widget should allow you to specify the time zone of an appointment, and ideally to let you choose whether to display appointments in their local time or a particular TZ. I will test whether judicious use of the settings available on the web version would help.

 

[Go Blue]

Jeff -- great input. My google calendar only lets me add one additional time zone, so I'll have to keep looking to find out how to add more.

Just an interesting observation -- having used Blackberry (and still do) for years, the complaints about the way Blackberry calendar handles time zones are amazing -- but the thing people complain about (because they don't understand it) is exactly why it works so well across time zones.

Now we have a calendar app that doesn't implement times zones very well (android / google), and the requests are to make it even less robust.

People just don't seem to get the time zone issues with calendaring.

 

[EarlyMon]

Also try adding a calendar and individually setting it to the target TZ.

Specify that calendar when adding events on the Evo.

Don't know if that will work but I'll report back on that after my next trip, although that could be tomorrow or next month.

 

[jeffdlb]

People just don't seem to get the time zone issues with calendaring.

Well, Palm OS had it right 15 years ago: Every individual event could be tagged as being in a particular time zone or as having no time zone at all. If you chose No TZ, then the event time would not change when you modified the TZ of your device clock. If the event was in a specific TZ, then the time shown would reflect your device's TZ. This is the only acceptable solution.

It is horrible that 15 years later Google and Android do not have per-event time zones and a no-TZ choice. I don't know whether iPhone, Blackberry or Palm WebOS are better or not. Even the web-based version of Google Calendar only has per-calendar TZs, so relying on that as the "workshorse" is not really enough.

It might be that the work-around for GCal is to create a new, TZ-specific calendar for events that are not in your usual location.

 

[EarlyMon]

Just found out about this in another thread - ICS Bot - free, Market.

Takes .ics email attachments and adds them to google calendar.

 

[Gunnar Dalseth]

Hi,
I have an associated problem. I have used Palms for years, and have been happy with the Palm OS Calendar. Now I have upgraded (?) to an Android smartphone, with a calendar that syncs with Outlook. My problem is how to register all-day events or tags, like birthdays, holidays, a conference going across several days etc. With Palm OS, I just registered the event on the appropriate day WITHOUT a set time. When I flew between Asia and Europe as I sometimes do, I noticed that such events sometimes jumped to the next or preceeding day but basically it was okay.

Now I realise that Outlook and the Android calendar defines such records as "all-day events", that is from midnight to midnight. So I may record my wife's birthday while I am in Europe - and when going to Thailand and setting the new time zone, it has changed to be from 5 AM on the correct date to 5 AM the following day!!! Ouch! The same with all holidays etc. It clutters the display and reduces the ability to clearly see the daily schedule.

I have searched the MS website for any hint of light over the issue, and they acknowledge the problem (after all US is spread out over many time zones) but they do not seem to even consider defining a new record/object type in the calendar which only has a date property, with no time. Is there any way to get around this? Another Android calendar app???

Gunnar