If you’ve ever been in a meeting or on a first date and your phone has betrayed you by randomly showing the wrong time. Or perhaps it’s stayed stuck on the last timezone you visited, regardless of the time of year. Perhaps you’ve even woken up one morning to find your phone has set itself back an hour overnight. If you have ever found yourself asking “Why is my phone showing me the wrong time?” – this article is for you! Read on to discover why that might be and how to fix it.
Why Is My Phone Showing The Wrong Time?
If you notice that your phone shows the wrong time, this could be because it is not connected to the internet. To check if your phone is connected to the internet, go to Settings > General > About. If you do not see a Wi-Fi or cellular connection status, check if it is plugged into a power source and if you have charged it recently. If your phone has a SIM card, ensure that you have correctly inserted it into the correct slot.
Daylight Savings Time (DST)
- If your phone shows the wrong time, it could be because it is not connected to the internet.
- To check if your phone is connected to the internet, go to Settings > General > About and make sure that you see a Wi-Fi or cellular connection status. If you do not see a Wi-Fi or cellular connection status, check if it is plugged into a power source and if you have charged it recently. If your phone has a SIM card, ensure that you have correctly inserted it into the correct slot.
- If your phone still shows the wrong time and cannot connect to any internet service provider, try updating its software using its manufacturer’s software update tool (if available).
- To check if there is an update available for your device’s software, go to Settings > System > About and look for an update notification in the Notifications section of the settings menu. As an alternative, download and install one of these third-party apps: iMyFone TunesMate (iOS), iMyFone Antidote (iOS), iMyFone UIMotor (Android), iMyFone UIMotor Pro (Android). These apps will allow you to manually check for updates on your phone from within their respective app stores.
- If your phone does not have a software update available, you can manually check for updates by going to Settings > General > About on your device and checking for a notification in the Notifications section of the settings menu.
- If none of these solutions work, try restarting your device by holding down the Power button until it restarts.
- If none of these solutions work, contact your device’s manufacturer for further assistance.
- If none of these solutions work, try updating your device’s software using its manufacturer’s software update tool (if available).
Location Services
Location services
If you are experiencing problems with your phone showing the wrong time and location services are turned on, check that you have a strong signal. If you have a strong signal, try to place your phone in different places and check if it shows the correct time/location. If this does not work, turn off location services.
Battery life
If your phone is showing the wrong time because of poor battery life, first make sure that you have charged it fully overnight since this can affect battery life drastically. Also, ensure that your device is fully charged before going to bed so that it does not run out of charge during the night which will then cause it to show the wrong time for daylight savings changes.
Other apps
Some other apps (such as games) can also cause problems with your phone showing the wrong time due to their need for constant internet access; therefore, if you experience problems with these apps causing your device to show the wrong time when they are running, try turning these off or restarting them before going to bed so that they do not drain all of your battery life before morning and therefore prevent them from working correctly for DST changes.
Update
If you have already updated your phone to the latest version and have been experiencing problems with it showing the wrong time, try uninstalling the latest update and see if this fixes your issue. If it does, then there is no need to upgrade as this will not resolve any issues with your device showing the wrong time or location services.
Language
If your phone is showing the wrong time due to having a different language installed, you can go to Settings > Language & input > Show all languages and select the language you wish to use. If this does not fix your issue, contact your network provider for help as they may be able to correct this for you.
Software Update Issues
- If you are still experiencing issues with your phone not updating, you may need to reinstall the latest software update. To do this, go to Settings > About > Software updates and then select ‘Check for updates. If an update is available, you will be prompted to download and install it.
- You can check that the software update is installed without restarting your phone by going to Settings > About > Software update and ensuring that the latest software version is shown on the screen.
- If you have already updated your phone to the latest version but have still been experiencing issues with it not being able to accept new updates, contact your network provider for assistance as they may be able to correct this for you.
- If you are still experiencing issues with your software update, you may need to wipe your phone and start over. This will reset the phone and allow you to install a new software update. To do this, go to Settings > Backup & reset > Factory data reset and select ‘Reset phone.
- If you are still unable to install the latest software update even after wiping your phone and starting over, contact your network provider for assistance as they may be able to correct this for you.
Conclusion
If you ever find yourself wondering why your phone is showing the wrong time, then this article will help you work out what the problem is. There are a few reasons why your phone might be incorrectly showing the time. Luckily, this is fairly easy to fix once you know what to look for. All you need to do is change your settings, add an hour to your device, or perform a factory reset. Now that you know why your phone is showing the wrong time, you can easily fix the issue once and for all. Happy device timekeeping!
