Calendar Time Zone Support

If you travel between time zones and want to make sure your calendar event times reflect exactly the time you want them to, then turn on Time Zone Support in Calendar preferences. This will insure that times don't shift as you move around. Plus, you can set times with specific time zones and see those time zones reflected in the start and end times for the events.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Now here's a problem you may see in Calendar if you schedule an event and you also travel a lot between time zones. 
So let's say I schedule an event. It's going to be a meeting and I want this meeting to be at 9 a.m. Here's the thing. I'm going to be in another time zone. I'm not going to be in the Mountain Time Zone but I'm going to be in the Pacific Time Zone on that day. I know that meeting is actually supposed to be at 9 a.m. on that day. 
But when my MacBook shifts because I've gone to a new time zone because I have it set automatically this is what's going to happen. I've actually changed it to manual shifting now. Now I've shifted so I'm going to be Pacific. I look back at the calendar and I see now it's set for 8 a.m. So it's going to tell me the meeting is at 8 a.m. because it's exactly the same time. That is 9 a.m. in the location where I set the calendar event. 
So how do you deal with this? If you already know what time things are really supposed to happen you can tell the Calendar to not make those corrections for you. Go to Calendar Preferences and under Advanced you can turn on Time Zone Support.
So let's try scheduling that event now. I'm going to set the time zone correctly again and I'm going to say that I want the meeting to be at 9 a.m. and I know I want it to be at 9 a.m. even though I'm not going to be in this current time zone. So now I'll change the time zone here and when I look at the meeting you can see it stays 9 a.m.
But better than that because if you're doing this kind of thing you really want to make sure you're precise, you've got everything right. When I set the time it actually asks me for the time zone. So I can set it to say the Pacific time.  It will only show you the time zones that you've used before. So you have to use Other and look up the city to add one for instance.
So I'm going to set it for Pacific time just so I know that this meeting is schedule for 9 a.m. Pacific time. Now notice here when I look at it, it says 9 a.m. But when I change my time zone back to normal as my MacBook may do automatically then I can get something a little different if I double click on it. It will say 9 a.m. but you can see it says PDT. So it's telling me that 9 a.m. and it really means 9 a.m. in the location where the meeting is going to be.
So not only can I set it precise but it's telling me precisely. So it's a lot better to use this Preference if you travel between time zones and you need to schedule meetings and you want to make sure you get the time's right.

Comments: 6 Responses to “Calendar Time Zone Support”

Dennis Craig

7 years ago

If I follow your instructions, will the time zone parenthetical info show as I review my calendar on my iPhone?
Thanks

Additionally, as a traveler, is there a way to set a takeoff time in one time zone, and the landing time in another time zone?
Thanks

Gary Rosenzweig

Dennis: Look for the "Time Zone Override" setting for calendars to do this on your iPhone. To figure out how it works between devices, just create some sample throw-away events and see for yourself. Experiment. As far as different zones per event, it looks like you can only set one zone. So perhaps use separate events for take off and landing if that is important.

Rainer Brockerhoff

AFAIK you can set separate start and end timezones on iOS but not on macOS, so I usually set up plane trips on my Mac and later fix the landing timezone on the iPad.

Roger Mann

I want my calendar to maintain the time as I enter it. So if I enter that the flight leaves at 8 AM and arrives at 9 PM in another time zone, I don't want to have to fiddle around to figure out the different time zones. Is there a way for the calendar to just keep what I write down? Airlines don't dick around like this. Why should Apple?

Roger: That's exactly what I'm describing here. If you set the time and time zone, then the time is the time, it won't change.

Comments Closed.

Calendar Time Zone Support

Comments: 6 Responses to “Calendar Time Zone Support”

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