Computer/event time zone mismatch after going to DST

[Karen Stein]

This problem is a bug, not a user problem. Either Microsoft or Apple
needs to step up to the plate and fix it, depending on the source of
the problem. New calendar entries have the same issue. Re-typing all
old entries is not an acceptable "fix".

 

[Dave Minerath]

Agreed--fortunately it doesn't seem to affect the entries. I haven't felt
brave enough to try changing the computer time zone to see how things shift
and then shift back (i.e. Simulate a trip into and back from a different
time zone).

If I had to bet money on a bug location, I'd bet that it's in Entourage--OS
X seems to make a distinction between DST and standard time when selecting
the time zone, as the name of the time zone itself changes (CST to CDT) but
in Entourage, I haven't found such a distinction--central time is central
time, regardless of standard or DST.

 

[David Mackler]

Ah, but it does affect the entries. The free/busy information that others
see is shifted. I have one meeting today at 1230 that shows as 1400 when
Outlook users look at my schedule. OWA shows the same wacky version of the
times.

So while viewing in Entourage is "safe", others have the wrong time and I
see an unreliable view of my calendar with OWA.

I have verified the time zone settings. FWIW, I have the sync services stuff
turned on. I wonder if that is a complicating factorŠ

David

 

[Eric Tiffany]

Yup, seeing exactly the same thing. Updating to 10.4.6 makes no difference.
All calendar events now display the mismatched timezone banner despite the
fact that the computer timezone and entourage timezone appear to be the
same.

ET

 

[Pete]

darlene - you work for microsoft and this is the best they can do -
tell me about a multistep process to hand reset every appointment after
moving to daylight savings time. that's not bad it's embarassing.
sounds like an article for every tech column in maerica this week.
surely MS can come up with a patch for this one. really truly can you
help? thanks - peter

 

[Eric Tiffany]

In any case, darlene's suggestion doesn't work.

My Entourage and MacOS timezones are set to US Eastern. I create a new
event in the future, and I immediately get the mismatched timezone banner,
despite the fact that the Options->Timezone setting in the event is the
correct (US Eastern) timezone.

So there is some fundamental bug with Entourage, which should be fixed.

I might add that I'm not sure what (if any) deleterious effect this bug has
on the operation of Entourage. These events synced to iCal seem to have the
correct info, but I suppose there may be hidden problems about which I am
unaware.

ET

 

[billybud]

Has anyone heard anything about a fix being released by MS?

 

[ntrweb]

Here's a fix for you: If you don't mind losing the spotlight and sync
functions with ical that were introduced in the last rev:

Re-intalled Office and upgraded to the version 1 before the latest rev.
which was Office 2004 for Mac 11.2.1 Update

Process:

from CLI using top, killing all Microsoft Processes
duplicating Main Identity onto desktop (just in case)
Deleting MS Office (using Additional tools/Remove Office) and all prefs
but leaving Office 2004 Identities in Documents folder

Reinstalled office
used all manual patches downloaded from microsoft/mac
applied 11.1.0
applied 11.1.1
applied 11.2.0
applied 11.2.1
(I didn't bother installing the auto update...)

Now it's fine. For a second i was really worried that we'd be having a
huge problem with all of our executives. It's nice to know you can go
back.

Cheers,

Simon

 

[ntrweb]

Here's a fix for you: If you don't mind losing the spotlight and sync
functions with ical that were introduced in the last rev:

Re-intalled Office and upgraded to the version 1 before the latest rev.
which was Office 2004 for Mac 11.2.1 Update

Process:

from CLI using top, killing all Microsoft Processes
duplicating Main Identity onto desktop (just in case)
Deleting MS Office (using Additional tools/Remove Office) and all prefs
but leaving Office 2004 Identities in Documents folder

Reinstalled office
used all manual patches downloaded from microsoft/mac
applied 11.1.0
applied 11.1.1
applied 11.2.0
applied 11.2.1
(I didn't bother installing the auto update...)

Now it's fine. For a second i was really worried that we'd be having a
huge problem with all of our executives. It's nice to know you can go
back.

Cheers,

Simon

 

[Dave Minerath]

Ahh, but it's the Sync Services interoperability that was the final straw
the moved me back to Entourage from a Thunderbird/Oracle Calendar
environment. With Oracle Calendar, the only way to properly sync with a
Tungsten E2 was to use the Palm conduit for Windows, necessitating Virtual
PC with a Win2K guest OS. It was a workaround, but it did work.

I could go back, but I like having my contact, calendar, and email in one
nice package.

 

[heath]

I always assumed that in a case like this where a clear bug is
discovered that the forum moderates are able to make a report to
Microsoft. There has been a complete absence on this thread so far
which surprises me, they usually seem to just in fairly quickly.

I haven't noticed this being anything other than a visual annoyance
though: there is the message about the timezone being different, but
the appointments are at the correct time, inviting others to meetings
and being invited creates the right data. In other words, it looks like
a problem but as far as I have seen so far is just a case of a warning
where there shouldn't be one.

 

[jokeefe]

I have this problem too and I agree that everything seems to work ok.
Events are at the right times, even on the free busy server. However,
it is anoying to see the warning and it should be fixed. this is a
fairly significant bug. It would sure be nice to have a bug free
release once in a while.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Actually, it's about as insignificant bug as is possible to imagine. Nothing
is actually wrong - except for the banner itself. It is annoying, so I
imagine there will be an update in due course that will fix it.

There will never be a bug-free release of any application or suite as
enormous and complex as Microsoft Office. They are pretty good about fixing
things in updates, though.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[ChipKowalski]

Paul,

It's NOT insignificant. Creating appointments in Entourage 2004 on an
Exchange account causes all-day appointments to be off one hour,
spanning two days, when opening the same Exchange account using Outlook
2003.

Chip

 

[heath]

I'm not seeing that behavior: all day events created in Entourage are
fine in Outlook for me. The time zone of events that I create are
correct, it's just the spurious warning that is the problem, at least
for me.

 

[Miata/Mac Fan]

We have a user for whom this issue has become very problematic. We are
on an Exchange 2003 Server. The bulk of our staff work in the Pacific
Northwest, but this user works on the east coast. All of his calendar
events display the banner mentioned in previous posts. Even worse,
events in the group calendar he uses are three hours off. They reflect
PDT (he is accessing an Outlook 2003-created group calendar).

Virtually all of us who have installed 11.2.3 have the silly time
doesn't match banner. Is Microsoft working on patch? Would they tell us
if they were?

 

[Edward A. Oates]

Actually, it's about as insignificant bug as is possible to imagine. Nothing
is actually wrong - except for the banner itself. It is annoying, so I
imagine there will be an update in due course that will fix it.

There will never be a bug-free release of any application or suite as
enormous and complex as Microsoft Office. They are pretty good about fixing
things in updates, though.

Bzzzt: wrong. Calendar events imported from iCal are shifted in the
Entourage calendar display. So, accepting meeting invitations, etc. result
in an incorrect calendar, though the event details show up if you double
click the event itself. But your calendar is wrong and you will be an hour
late for everything until November.

If it were just a banner warning, but the events were placed correctly, that
would be a minor cosmetic problem; placing events incorrectly break what the
calendar is all about: planning your day!

This problem has been reported for some time, but MS failed to repair it in
11.2.4 which is the latest.

All was working in 11.2.1 which my spouse uses with OS X 10.4.6; I'm on
11.2.4 on the same OS and the times are wrong.

ED