[jg70124]

I am a long-time Treo user now trialing a Pearl. I do not have access to an an Exchange Server, and am using T-Mo's BIS. I am based in New York (EDT).

My Treo automatically adjusts it's time zone when I travel. So lets say I create an appointment in Outlook for 3pm tomorrow to "Meet Jim, Copenhagen". When I get off the plane in CPH, my Treo automatically adjusts and displays the correct time for the new location. My 3pm meeting shows up at 3pm, and I meet Jim at the correct time.

Now the Pearl. As I've learned, it does not adjust the time automatically, so when I get off the plane in CPH, it still shows NY time. The appointment still shows up at 3pm, but 3pm in NY is 5 hours later than 3pm in Copenhagen, and so I miss the appointment.

If I manually change the time zone of the Pearl to be on the correct local time, the BB calendar automatically adjusts the time of my 3pm appointment by 5 hours, so it now shows up at 8pm local time (3pm in New York), and I miss the appointment.

If I manually change the time zone of the Pearl *and* the time zone of the appointment to local time, then it shows up correctly, and I meet Jim at the correct time (3pm in Copenhagen).

But I have hundreds of appointments in dozens of time zones, so it is impractical to manually change them all. Plus, if I do make the change, when I sync back to Outlook, the appointments show up 5 hours earlier in Outlook, which is confusing to me and to the people who look at my calendar.

So calendar function in the Blackberry is more or less useless for me.

If I switch to BES, does this problem go away? If not, how do other people get around this?

Thanks.

[JerryD]

Yes. Go to (Settings / Tools -->) Options --> Date / Time. By default the Date/Time Source is set to BlackBerry. Scroll down to the entry and hit the space bar until it says Network. Then hit the Menu button and select Update Time. Also, you have to have a decent signal to change it to Network.

The device's time should now change automatically when you travel.

Also, make sure you have the latest firmware (4.2.0.64) or the 2007 DST Patch applied!

Applying the patch to 4.2.0.64 doesn't hurt either. Then you have the added assurance that the device is set for the new DST periods!
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I apologize for the mis-information above. Please see my subsequent post below.

[jg70124]

Originally Posted by JerryD

Yes. Go to (Settings / Tools -->) Options --> Date / Time. By default the Date/Time Source is set to BlackBerry. Scroll down to the entry and hit the space bar until it says Network. Then hit the Menu button and select Update Time.

The device's time should now change automatically when you travel.

Also, make sure you have the latest firmware (4.2.0.64) or the 2007 DST Patch applied!

Applying the patch to 4.2.0.64 doesn't hurt either. Then you have the added assurance that the device is set for the new DST periods!

Date/Time Source is already set to be "network". But the Time Zone is set to be "Eastern [-5]" and so it always adds that offset to the network time. Is there some way to get it to *not* add the time zone offset?

(I have the latest firmware and the DST patch.)

[Bulkhead]

I have long had the same problem and am looking now, finally, for a solution.

I can't describe the frustration I feel that the damn BB won't update its time and adjust my meetings accordingly when I travel.

There has got to be a fix... I mean how many people travel with these things and have meetings to keep?

Someone - help!

thx

[N36736]

I travel from Connecticut (EDT or EST) to Phoenix (MST) and find my appointments, which I set from the other time, zone are off by 2 or 3 hours. Spoke to a rim tech today, who said he never heard of the problem and didn't have a fix. I'm looking into switching to a Palm.

[CanuckBB]

Originally Posted by N36736

I travel from Connecticut (EDT or EST) to Phoenix (MST) and find my appointments, which I set from the other time, zone are off by 2 or 3 hours. Spoke to a rim tech today, who said he never heard of the problem and didn't have a fix. I'm looking into switching to a Palm.

When you get to Phoenix, change the TZ.

This has been debated to death. There are enough compelling argiments on both sides to compell RIM to stay with the status quo.

[N36736]

I may not have been clear. I don't mind resetting the time on my BB twice a year. But, when I do, all of my appointments change also. Than is, an appointment I set for noon while I'm in CT, will change to 9 am when I get to Phoenix and reset the time zone. I can not imagine Rim, or anyone who travels, could possibly find unintentional appointment time changing useful.

In addition, when syncing to iCal, all the appointments made in one time zone are duplicated, as they all have a different time after the time zone change and the computer sees them all as new appointments.

[JSanders]

It works for me, I travel across time zones a good bit. I don't have a problem.

The KEY is when you set your calendar appointments, make sure you set the CORRECT Time Zone at the same time. In other words, If you are in NYC, but setting a new appointment for the next day in LA, make sure you note the Time Zone as Pacific on the new calendar entry in the BB, etc etc etc... They they all are correct wherever you are and wherever the meeting is.

[JerryD]

Sorry about the post above. I don't travel much (and haven't been out of the Eastern time zone for YEARS!), and was misinformed by someone who I thought was a reliable source that setting the time source to Network would change the BlackBerry's time automatically.

Well, as all of those that have subsequently posted here and/or tried it knows, it does NOT work. I went to the source and found KB KB11675 on BlackBerry's public support site which says:

The time zone on the BlackBerry device will not update automatically when travelling from one time zone to another. To manually change the time zone on the BlackBerry device, see KB04943.

[Chris1573]

I'm a brand new blackberry user and came within a minute of missing my flight on Friday thanks to blackberry automatically changing my appointments when I changed the time zone - hence my 18:45 flight appeared as 19:45 on the calendar...lucky traffic in Rome was strangely light!!!

I can't understand how a device made specifically for international travellers can have a fault like this, that no-one has fixed????

If I understand all the posts so far, basically unless I (or the multiple other people who put appointments in my calendar) correctly set the timezone of the meeting blackberry will always change the times when I change the time zone when travelling?

Any further help on this would be great
Thanks.

[CanuckBB]

Originally Posted by Chris1573

I'm a brand new blackberry user and came within a minute of missing my flight on Friday thanks to blackberry automatically changing my appointments when I changed the time zone - hence my 18:45 flight appeared as 19:45 on the calendar...lucky traffic in Rome was strangely light!!!

I can't understand how a device made specifically for international travellers can have a fault like this, that no-one has fixed????

If I understand all the posts so far, basically unless I (or the multiple other people who put appointments in my calendar) correctly set the timezone of the meeting blackberry will always change the times when I change the time zone when travelling?

Any further help on this would be great
Thanks.

It's really simple. The BB is a business class tool. It assumes that you will be syncing to a corporate calendaring system. All such systems keep date/time info in UTC and apply TZ offset to display.

There are 2 solutions. 1) create the appt using the correct TZ. 2) when you get off the plane, don't change the TZ, change the time.

[JSanders]

Chris1573, it really is quite simple as another poster and myself have stated: Put your calendar appointments in your BB with the correct time zone in which it will occur.

For instance, if you live in NYC (ET) and are about to fly to Rome and you are setting the flight schedules. For the return flight you set a flight time in Rome (CET, +1) for 7:45 AM, you ALSO set the timezone on the Blackberry. When you get to Rome, you set the time zone correctly on the BB for Rome (+1 hour). Your flight home will be set correctly, and you make your flight in time.

[N36736]

Originally Posted by CanuckBB

It's really simple. The BB is a business class tool. It assumes that you will be syncing to a corporate calendaring system. All such systems keep date/time info in UTC and apply TZ offset to display.

There are 2 solutions. 1) create the appt using the correct TZ. 2) when you get off the plane, don't change the TZ, change the time.

Thanks CanuckBB. Solution 2 seems to solve the problem.