Why do I have Incorrect Phone Time today?

Did you wake up today confused by an Incorrect Phone Time? Let me explain what the problem might be.

Is today the first Sunday of October?

This is my first question because the first Sunday of October is when daylight savings time begins in the states of Australia which observe it.

If your phone time has jumped forward by an hour on the first Sunday of October, it’s probably changed to daylight savings time.

If you’re in a state that doesn’t observe daylight savings time (like me, I’m currently in Queensland), this will be a problem!

Let’s fix it.

How to correct phone time from DST to non-DST (Australian Eastern Standard Time)

*The following advice applies to android phones.

I’m with Vodafone and if my date and time settings are set to “Automatic date and time”, it will change my phone time to Australian Eastern Daylight Time (with daylight savings).

Even though my phone knows perfectly well that I’m in Brisbane where daylight saving time is not observed. I don’t know if this is a problem with other carriers.

To fix this, turn off “Automatic date and time”.

Now you might be wondering (as I did) how can I get the correct time on my phone now?

Well, you don’t have to adjust it manually. Simply click on “Select time zone” and select your city. This will automagically adjust the time to your location and keep the time set correctly from now on.

Effectively, what we’ve done is stopped the network assigning our time zone, but let it continue to provide the accurate current time for our time zone.

Success!

Problem solved.

So long as we keep our current handset, we won’t have to worry about this next year!

If this time change might ever be a serious problem for you, I would recommend adding a reminder to your calendar on the first Saturday of October each year (you can do this simply in Google calendar).

That way you can be reminded to check your phone time will be correct the following day incase you have any important appointments to be on time for!

Let me know in the comments below if this was helpful or if you have any tips of your own!

More Info

If you want to read more about Australian time zones and daylight saving time, head to the Australian government webpage that covers everything here:

https://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/facts-and-figures/time-zones-and-daylight-saving