My Galaxy S3 won't keep the time.

Galaxy Tab2 47 · Mar 5, 2014

No matter how it's set in the setup,it keep showing the wrong time. This just started happening.

Rukbat · Mar 5, 2014

First make sure you have the time zone set properly (or to automatic).

The time, if it's set to automatic, is the time on the tower it's connected to - which is usually no more than a few seconds off (it's technically possible for it to be a lot closer than that, but there's no law, so ...). Check with the carrier - the tower could be messed up, and trust me, they'd want to know. If not, a factory reset might help. (You'll lose ALL your data, so back EVERYTHING, including your apps, stuff you think you'll never want again, EVERYTHING, up.)

If that doesn't fix it, either use a watch to tell the time or the phone has to go in for repair. (There's a little circuit in the phone that's just about the same as the circuit in a watch. If it goes bad, the timekeeping is going to be off.)

Oh, the phone IS getting phone service, right? If it's not, since the internal clock usually gets reset pretty often by a pretty accurate source, it's not designed to be as accurate as a $2 watch, so it can be quite a bit off after a few hours.

Galaxy Tab2 47 · Mar 5, 2014

Rukbat said:
First make sure you have the time zone set properly (or to automatic).

The time, if it's set to automatic, is the time on the tower it's connected to - which is usually no more than a few seconds off (it's technically possible for it to be a lot closer than that, but there's no law, so ...). Check with the carrier - the tower could be messed up, and trust me, they'd want to know. If not, a factory reset might help. (You'll lose ALL your data, so back EVERYTHING, including your apps, stuff you think you'll never want again, EVERYTHING, up.)

If that doesn't fix it, either use a watch to tell the time or the phone has to go in for repair. (There's a little circuit in the phone that's just about the same as the circuit in a watch. If it goes bad, the timekeeping is going to be off.)

Oh, the phone IS getting phone service, right? If it's not, since the internal clock usually gets reset pretty often by a pretty accurate source, it's not designed to be as accurate as a $2 watch, so it can be quite a bit off after a few hours.

Thanks for your reply. It's off hours when it gets wrong. I will keep an eye on it.
Speaking of less costly watchs, i bought a $10 battery powered watch at Wal Mart the movement made in Japan. It keeps really good time, and has been working for a year without a new battery.

Galaxy Tab2 47 · Mar 6, 2014

I reset my phones time and un-checked all the Auto. time boxs,and so far the time has remained correct.

Galaxy Tab2 47 · Mar 7, 2014

This morning at 8:40AM Phone had 6:22AM shown. Just can't get it correct i guess. Maybe the new S5 will keep better time. :rolleyes:

FxsX24 · Mar 7, 2014

i have never seen a phone do this. ever

Galaxy Tab2 47 · Mar 8, 2014

I am leaning toward the problem is with the cell towers not the Samsung S3 phone. :rolleyes:

Galaxy Tab2 47 · Mar 9, 2014

Time was correct this morning. So i think it was the cell tower causing the wrong time on my phone.

LieselMorgann · Mar 11, 2014

Same issue here, but mine is even weirder... Had my alarm set for 7am this morning (eastern, gmt -5), it went off at 7. Checked the cable box, yep, 7 am. Laid in bed for a few minutes, then got up to get ready for work... in the bathroom at notice my phone now says 6:15 and my alarm is set again... Um, what? It IS set to Automatic time, I have T-Mobile, but so does my boyfriend, so I checked his phone (which is set to Auto), and his said 7:15! I'm worried it's a phone issue. Tried restarting, changing time zones back and forth, etc. Going to attempt to contact T-Mo now.

WAWood8 · Mar 14, 2014

Didn't notice this earlier, but we have two S3s, on Verizon, and BOTH show the wrong time. In both cases, they have ignored the Daylight Savings Time switch. This is the first time I have ever seen one of our cell phones with the wrong time.

UPDATE: Good thing I was able to figure out how to fix this -- as this garnered no response at all.

Jeran2 · Jun 4, 2014

WAWood8 said:
Didn't notice this earlier, but we have two S3s, on Verizon, and BOTH show the wrong time. In both cases, they have ignored the Daylight Savings Time switch. This is the first time I have ever seen one of our cell phones with the wrong time.

UPDATE: Good thing I was able to figure out how to fix this -- as this garnered no response at all.

Has anyone actually come up with a permanent fix for this?

As far as I can tell, you just have to count on it not being reliable.

I mean, come on, it is 2014, and this new technology can't even keep accurate time?

My old Nokia from 2004 kept accurate time all the time. It was never off by even a minute.

My new phones are off by hours.

I can easily and quickly "fix" by going into the settings, unchecking things and then rechecking them, and it works for awhile, but then a few days later or maybe a few weeks later, it happens again.

There doesn't seem to be a permanent fix for it.

Another app I would like to see would be one where I could manually set the time, and then it would just act like an old fashioned watch, and keep the time from that point on. I can understand needing to manually adjust it from time to time for a few minutes off, but not hours off, for no reason.

My Galaxy S3 won't keep the time.

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