Setting Date and Time on a Mac

September 22, 2009 2:01 PM

My Mac refuses to keep the right time. I have to re-set it every day.

I'm in Cairo right now, where they changed the clocks early b/c of Ramadan. (The time difference between Cairo and NY is now only six hours as opposed to seven.) Clearly, my computer didn't get the memo b/c every time I re-set the time it just reverts back.

Is there a way to do this manually? I tried locking it but that didn't work.

posted by anonymous78 to Technology (4 answers total)

do you have "set date and time automatically" set in the time options? It sets your time automatically over the internet to whatever time zone you have set. If they recently changed the clocks around and apple hasn't updated their time files, you'd be re-synced to whatever it would have been before.
posted by hylaride at 2:03 PM on September 22, 2009

Response by poster: no, it's not set to automatic.
posted by anonymous78 at 2:15 PM on September 22, 2009

Delete /etc/localtime, open control panel and set the timezone and it should save the change.
posted by foodgeek at 2:20 PM on September 22, 2009

Uncheck "Set date and time automatically" in the "Date & Time" preference panel. You should then be able to set the time manually. For a neat trick you can even grab the hands of the analog clock (click with mouse and hold down while you drag) and move them to the proper time!
posted by bengarland at 4:16 PM on September 22, 2009