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Timezones and WM

Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 10:07 pm
by Dvvarf
Hello,
I've got a problem with my events synching: every event is one hour later on PC then on device.
What I have: device with WM6 with timezone set to GMT+3 - Moscow (really old device, so no patch/fix for that).
PC (and Lightning) with timezone GMT+4.
I tried setting my timezone on device to GMT+4 Abu Dhabi and nothing changed. I tried changing it to Baku (also +4) and setting my timezone on PC to Baku and it didn't do the trick. At last I set my timezone on PC to Athens (+3), but this time BirdieSync reported that timezones on PC and device are different (+240 on device and +180 on PC). Each and every event is affected.
Is there any way to fix that?
P.S. Also most of these events are old, I haven't tried creating new events yet.

Re: Timezones and WM

Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 1:36 pm
by Birdy
Hello Dvvarf,

When selecting a time zone, you must also take into account the "Daylight Saving Time" which can add 1 hour in summer (end of March - end of October).

You can find the DST for each time zone on this site for instance:
http://www.timeanddate.com/
For each town, in the "Daylight Saving Time" section, there is a link which gives you the history of the DST evolutions over the years.
for instance: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=166

Several years ago, there was a DST for Moscow but it's no longer the case now. So if you choose GMT + 3 Moscow on this old device, it's very likely GMT +3 +1 (DST).
And maybe if you select Moscow in Lightning, it's simply GMT + 3.
In which town (or near which major town)/country do you live presently ?
Thanks.

Re: Timezones and WM

Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 2:07 pm
by Dvvarf
Thank you for your reply, Birdy.
I live in Moscow right now. Unfortunately, I don't know, does the device have DST or not. When there still was DST for my area, I still had to manually change the time, so, I presume, it's either set to permanent DST or permanent standard time.
In device log (last sync) it says "Time shift = -4". Values from previous tries in no particular order (don't know which is which): -2, -1 and -5. With all these different values the time was still somehow exactly one hour off.
Right now I tried to change the timezone for one event in Lightning. I clicked additional timezones and there was an option "UTC/GMT", I selected that and it showed me this event's time with -4 offset.

Still, BirdieSync is the only software that managed to sync all of my appointments with all the exceptions to recurrence, comments and stuff like that. That's really cool.

Re: Timezones and WM

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 10:12 am
by Birdy
From what I saw in Thunderbird timezone database (Thunderbird 17.0), Moscow timezone is defined as GMT+4 with no DST which is correct:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=166

So it will be necessary to have GMT+4 on the Windows Mobile device with no DST change.
Selecting "GMT+4 Abu Dhabi" on Windows Mobile seems to be the good way to go because there hasn't been any DST change since 1990:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/t ... syear=1990
This way, the timezones should be identical on the device and in Lightning (ensure also to have GMT+4 Moscow selected in Windows).

(GMT+4 Baku is not recommended because it's actually GMT+4 with DST)
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/t ... syear=2000

This way all NEW events created on the device should have the correct time when synchronized with BirdieSync.
But OLD events created with the old time zone (GMT+3 with DST) may have an incorrect hour because of the DST shift.
You mentioned that you've already tried "GMT+4 Abu Dhabi" on Windows Mobile. Can you try again and check that with this timezone, times are the same on Windows and Windows Mobile and if NEW events are created with the same time ?
Thanks.

Re: Timezones and WM

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 10:53 am
by Dvvarf
And the problem solved!
Steps I performed (hope it helps someone):
1) Set timezone to +4 Abu-Dhabi on device. Timezone on PC and in Lightning set to +4 Moscow.
2) Tried to sync - still 1 hour off. Tried to create new event - the time was right!
3) Created a backup of all of my appointments (with 3rd party app), then restored the backup in place of old appointments.
4) Synced again and... everything is right!

I did all of this and now I've got all the appointments with all the right times in Lightning.
I appreciate all of your help, Birdy. Thank you.