Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

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Keith James
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Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2010 3:23 am

Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by Keith James »

I have several repeating appointments on monthly, 3 monthly, 6 monthly and annual, which Lightening under Thunderbird has correctly displaying times. On the HTC HD2 with Win Mobile 6.5 those appointments which recur over changes in daylight saving time are displayed at an hour later time. I have the timezone Australia Hobart in the Thunderbird/Lightening and in the HTC HD2. Those that are single entries synchronise with the correct times on the HTC HD2. So far, if I correct the times for the days they are wrong it keeps them after synchronising, but they cannot be recurring in the HTC HD2. I have a lot of these to change if there is no way of fixing this issue.

Birdy
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Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by Birdy »

Hello Keith James,

I'll do some tests with recurring events to try to reproduce the problem.
Birdy

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Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by Birdy »

I tried to reproduce the problem but did not succeed. Here is what I did:
- Windows Mobile 6.5, time zone: Australia Hobart on the mobile device and in Lightning
- Create a monthly recurring event with a start time and end time in Lightning (I tried every month and every 6 months)
- Synchronize this event on the mobile device
- Check the times every 6 months: they didn't change even with the DST.

But if not already done, you may try to install Microsoft patch for Windows Mobile time zones on your mobile device. That may fix some issues with DST.
Birdy

Keith James
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Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2010 3:23 am

Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by Keith James »

I tried your suggestions but I still have the times an hour out on some calendar entries. There is a characteristic which might make it diffcult to fix. All of the ones that are an hour out are recurrent appointments that were first setup in a previous year such as 2007, 2008, 2009, but in a non daylight saving month such as July 2009. If I terminate the old recurrent appointment and then create a new appointment commencing in the 2011-2012 daylight saving year such as October 2011, then it gets it right for the future months. There are still quite a few of them and it would be nice to have a general fix. However, it looks to me that I will have to terminate the old recurrent appointments and reinstate them starting in a current daylight saving month.

Birdy
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Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by Birdy »

Contrary to Lightning, time zones have a fixed definitions on Windows Mobile: they don't evolve with years. It means that they only have the 2 DST changes and no history for each year where there was a change in DST definition. So if there were changes in the DST along the years, events may not be displayed at the correct time. But these problems should appear for short period of times (around the DST dates).

You told me that you had a problem with an event created in July 2009. Do you have a problem with an event created in July 2011 ? (no DST)
If you don't, the question is to know with which time zone this event was created in July 2009. It it was with a time zone whose definition had no DST changes, then it could lead to a 1 hour shift for instance.
Birdy

Keith James
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Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2010 3:23 am

Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by Keith James »

I have been through about 4 months worth of these events. All the ones first defined to repeat on a 3 monthly or 6 monthly basis inside the dayight saving period at the time have retained the correct time. All the ones with an hour shift forward were defined in May 2009, July 2009, June 2011, and July 2010. So, it seems that if it has been defined in a daylight saving period it gets the right time in this daylight saving period. If it was defined in the non-daylight saving period, then it shifts the time forward one hour for this daylight saving period!

So far there are 8 of them and some of them are repeats of earlier ones. Unless you have a better idea, I suppose I will have to redefine the one hour in advance ones inside this daylight saving period and it should then get it right going forward.

racuirhh
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Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by racuirhh »

I have the same problem here every 12 months in march. (Win mobile 6.5, Birdiesync 2.3.11.1, Germany)
When my mobile device is changed to daylight saving time all repeating (weekly) events are shifted +1 hour (8 p.m. > 9 p.m.).

This is the case for all repeating events saved in non daylight saving time. One time events are displayed correctly.

Birdy
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Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by Birdy »

Hello racuirhh,

Which time zone is set on your mobile device ?
Thanks.
Birdy

racuirhh
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Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by racuirhh »

Hello Birdy,

on my mobile device time zone is: "GMT+1 Berlin, Rom", daylight saving time: active.
In birdiesync (addon options in thunderbird) the time zone is: "Europe - Berlin".

Thanks for taking care!

Birdy
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Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by Birdy »

I made a test again: I created a weekly event in Thunderbird and synchronized it. The time was properly kept across the daylight time saving change. So the weekly event was properly synchronized.
What I suspect is that when you synchronized your event from Thunderbird, the time zone selected on your mobile device hadn't any DST and was not GMT+1. So your event was created with a specific time zone without DST and different from your current time zone (Berlin, GMT+1 with DST). That could explain why this event has a -1/+1 hour shift with the DST change.
Do you have this problem with all recurring events or only some of them ?
If you create a new recurring event (which crosses the DST change date) and now synchronize it. Do you still have this problem ?
Birdy

racuirhh
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Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by racuirhh »

My time zone always stays the same (and was always GMT+1, Berlin). The problem appears with ALL recurring events created in non-daylight savings period.

If you test it today, nothing strange will happen.
When I create a new repeating event today, everything is fine. The bug will emerge again when switching back to winter time (in october) all recurring events created during daylight savings time will be shifted incorrect( 9 p.m. > 8 p.m.).

This is what I get every 6 months. I never changed the time zone! Very strange...

Birdy
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Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by Birdy »

If I change the date to November on the mobile device, the weekly event remains at the correct hour although there is a DST change.
So you can make the test to see if the time of your events change when you change the date. If it's the case. Try to change the time zone to a completely different time zone (GMT +4 for instance). Save this change. Then revert back to the Berlin time zone and reboot your mobile device. Then make tests again creating new events and change the date to cross the DST. You may try that because I think I've seen the case that if for instance a time zone GMT+1 without DST is selected and then GMT+1 with DST is chosen, Windows Mobile device doesn't take into account the DST in the new time zone. It would be as if it would remain with the old time zone. So changing to a completely different time zone and reverting to the correct time zone may fix the problem (at least for new events). Anyway, nothing to loose by trying that.
Birdy

racuirhh
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Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by racuirhh »

OK, I did as you daid:
- changed time zone to GMT +4, daylight savings time off > rebootet
- then i changed to November 2012, GMT +1, daylight savings time off > rebootet

Single events still were OK, repeating events were shifted -1 hour (11 a.m. > 10 p.m.)

So it didn't solve the problem. Sorry... ;-)
(In your theory: shouldn't single events also be affected?)

Birdy
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Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by Birdy »

Did you do your tests with newly recurring events that you created after you did the time zone change ? (old events may not be affected if they still have the old time zone)
There might be a difference between single and recurrent events because the recurrence has its specific time zone reference stored with it in the event (which might not be the case for single events).
Birdy

racuirhh
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Re: Events 1 hour out if schedules cover changes

Post by racuirhh »

Yes I created all recurring events yesterday (with daylight savings time on) when the time shifting appeared again: they are all new.
You mentioned
the recurrence has its specific time zone reference stored with it in the event

Could this be the cause for confusion in my case?

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