Confluence Team Calendars - Time Zone Offsets Bugs

[Jiri Pik]

I have selected in my Team Calendar the timezone to be Europe / Zurich.

1. Offset Definition Wrong

For some reason, it's defined as Europe/Zurich(+0200) - not sure what offset it's considering but it should be +0100 and then summer time +0100.

2. Import of the calendar into Outlook

More fundamentally, when I import the calendar into Outlook, all the times are PLUS 2 hours, so if the Team Calendar shows 0900, Outlook shows 1100. 

This is actually bug in the calendar exposed -> since when I export the calendar to an ICS file, i can see the wrong times.

DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20190901T110000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20190901T120000

[Diego · Accepted solution]

Hello there Jiri!
I was checking the current GMT Offset for Zurich, and I found the information here in TimeZoneDB:

• Time Zone - Europe/Zurich

Currently, it shows us that the GMT Offset is indeed +0200. The Daylight Saving started March 31, according to Greenwich Mean Time:

• Greenwich Mean Time - Zurich

What is happening with the events in your calendar is that they are created based on Your Current User timezone. For example:

1. I login with a user locate at GMT-3
2. I create an event at 9AM in a calendar located in GMT+2
3. It will show as 9AM for me and 2PM for users in GMT+2 and the Calendar itself
4. An user in GMT+3 will see the event at 3PM

The result will be an even that, for me a GMT-3 user, will be placed at 9AM. For other users at GMT+2, this will be shown at 2PM.
Since the calendar shows event timing based on the user location, we need to take in consideration the offset when creating events.

Outlook is actually showing the correct date for the event. For the calendar itself, the timezone is GMT+2. If you need to schedule events based on Zurich (GMT+2), we need to change the user location to the compatible one, which is GMT+1, the same as Amsterdam and Berlin.

Short explanation:

• The event displays and is created in Team Calendars taking in consideration the user Timezone.
• The calendar stores the event based on its own internal timezone.

If we need to set something for 9AM GMT+2 and we can not change the user from GMT-3 we need to create an event 5 hours before 9AM, at 4AM.

Let us know if this helps you out Jiri! Looking forward to your reply.

[Jiri Pik]

The entire concept of calendar timezones where you show Europe/Zurich +2 hour is misleading since the label +2 hours is including the summer time. You should include the label that summer time is inclusive.

I understand there multiple timezones values in play but do believe they are not processed intuitively.

Diego:

could you please advise how to set up the calendar and an event as follows:

1. An event takes place every week at 0900 Zurich time regardless of summer time

2. I want the event to propagate to Outlook at 0900 Zurich time via the shared ics calendar

[Diego]

Hello Jiri!

I surely can. I will explain the procedure assuming that your GMT is actually GMT-1:

1. Create a calendar that has Zurich Time zone (The same as Berlin), which is currently GMT+2
2. Create the event with your user (who is GMT-1)
3. Set the event to start at 6AM for the user (the one who is GMT-1 and is interacting with the calendar
4. Internally, Team Calendars will set this event as 9AM for GMT+2

Here is a screenshot of what it actually looks like in World Time Buddy:

You can change GMT-1 for you actual time zone in World Time buddy and you should be able to sync both your time zone and Zurich's.

Let us know your thoughts Jiri!

[Jiri Pik]

Diego:

thank you for your kind help.

Let's proceed a step by step.

For the start, I am creating a recurring task for myself. How to set up the Confluence's calendar and the event so that?

1. An event takes place every week at 0900 Zurich time regardless of summer time

2. I want the event to propagate to Outlook at 0900 Zurich time via the shared ics calendar

In other words, let me repeat a simple example. I live in Zurich. My browser's timezone is Zurich, Switzerland. My Confluence's Calendar's time zone is Zurich, +2 hours. I created a recurring event which started in June 2019 and is happening every week on Sunday at 0900. For unknown reasons, this event is scheduled in December 2019 (no summer time!) to start at 10:00 in my own Calendar!!!

[Jiri Pik]

I actually think the correct logic is not to associate the calendar with a timezone, but rather an event with a timezone - i.e. the way this works in Outlook.

The calendar's timezone is always local. 

[Diego]

Hey Jiri!

I would start by checking your Confluence User Profile settings. Since the calendar takes in consideration both the calendar internal timezone and your user timezone to create the events. If your user time zone is incorrectly set as something other than your actual time zone, inconsistencies like this one are likely to pop up when dealing with daylight savings.

To check the user time zone you can:

1. Login to Confluence
2. Click your profile picture at the top right corner
3. Select Settings
4. Click Edit
5. Under the Time zone section, select your time zone
6. Click Submit

If your user time zone was not set to the correct one, you will need to re-adjust your events to fit your schedule. This is due to the fact that they were created based on your previous, and incorrect, time zone.

Let us gear from you Jiri!

[Jiri Pik]

Diego:

please allow a week or so for response.

[Diego]

Sure thing Jiri.

Let us know about your findings.

[Jiri Pik]

OK Diego, my time zone was

> Time zone: Site Default (Zulu)

which is apparently UTC. I have changed the timezone to Zurich, i.e. UTC+1 but still no change. 

I have an event running every 2nd week on Tuesday between 7 and 9 a clock and in the summer it's from 7 to 9 and in the winter from 8 to 10 am.

This is what is shown to me on the calendar Zurich +0200. 

1. Do I need to rebuild the calendar after I changed the Profile's timezone? 
2. Why is the Profile Timezone for Zurich UTC+1 but the Confluence's Calendar UTC+2?

What to do?

[Jiri Pik]

Diego:

there was a Calendar cache of 10 minutes and now all works as it should!

THANK YOU.

So the problem was wrong setting of the timezone in the Confluence's user profile. 

It would be actually nice if the Confluence read the current timezone from the Browser and offered to change it automatically.

Anyway, the problem is solved. 

THANK YOU AGAIN.

[Diego]

Hey Jiri! Great to know that your issue has been solved when the user time zone was changed.

If you ever need something again, come share with us!

[Jiri Pik]

THANK YOU

[Johan Eckerstrom - {Eficode}]

Hi , it would be very good if Atlassian can answer Jiris question please:

"Why is the Profile Timezone for Zurich UTC+1 but the Confluence's Calendar UTC+2?"

It is very confusing.

Also how is the calendar timezone setting affecting the visualization of the events.

I only have jira issues visualized in the Team calendar in Confluence and I experience the same problem with 1 hour time diff in Outlook.