Outdated timezone database on E4

[vimmer]

I bought this smartphone a few days ago, but can't get correct time on it. The problems are:

1. All 8 time zones in Russia have incorrect UTC shift. For example Europe/Moscow has UTC+4 instead of UTC+3. It caused by tomezone changes in 2011-2013 and tz database is outdated in firmware.

2. As result if time autosync is enabled in setting i always have +1 hour.

3. If i disable autosync the clock is very inaccurate (20 min a day).  So it isn't options for me.

4. I tried to choose another timezone with correct UTC shift and there is dedicated option to don't sync timezone, but after few hours autosync was disabled. It reproduced few times.

Any ideas how to fix it? We have a lot of different phones in our family and all have correct timezones. Looks strange that Sony ignores this it makes phone unusable. There is an option to use program like TimeZoneFixer, but it require root access and looks like there is no simple way for root and probable it causes warranty problems.

[Uliwooly]

@vimmer

Something to pass on to Sony Local support

[vimmer]

I already have chat and just sent an email. In case of chat i just have feeling that support engineer have to always thay that there is no problem on firmware level. Just recommended to choise foreign timezone and disable autosync and go to service. So all solutions that can't work.

[jani1]

auto time and auto timezone both are enabled? what if you disable auto timezone? your network provider doesn't give the current time? i often travel through timezones and my e4 always follows local time via network sync.

as i read russia changed to +3 a year ago from +4 and +4 was only set in 2011. what was before that?

[xperiaperson]

Android has an issue with automatic time zone. All apps show wrong time when I have it enabled too (on E4g). Disable it and set your zone manually. See if it fixes things (it does for me). You can leave automatic date & time enabled.

[vimmer]

> auto time and auto timezone both are enabled? what if you disable auto timezone? your network provider doesn't give the current time? i often travel through timezones and my e4 always follows local time via network sync.

As i understand operator provides time in UTC and optionally name of timezone (if corresponded option enabled) and phone just converts it to local timezone. If timezone information is incorrect in firmware (UTC+4 instead of UTC+3 for MSK for example) phone will have incorrect time.

> as i read russia changed to +3 a year ago from +4 and +4 was only set in 2011. what was before that?

Bofere was +4 or +3 depends on Winter/Summer.

[vimmer]

> auto time and auto timezone both are enabled? what if you disable auto timezone? your network provider doesn't give the current time? i often travel through timezones and my e4 always follows local time via network sync.

As i understand operator provides time in UTC and optionally name of timezone (if corresponded option enabled) and phone just converts it to local timezone. If timezone information is incorrect in firmware (UTC+4 instead of UTC+3 for MSK for example) phone will have incorrect time.

> as i read russia changed to +3 a year ago from +4 and +4 was only set in 2011. what was before that?

Bofere was +4 or +3 depends on Winter/Summer.

[vimmer]

> Disable it and set your zone manually.

I can't set my timezone because it have outdated information about UTC time shift and it is the main problem.

I can select another timezone with right time shift, but after some time phone stops automatic sync - both checkboxes are unselected.

[xperiaperson]

That is really weird behaviour. Looks really like a software fault. I guess it's up to Sony to look into it. I have the correct +3 for Moscow on my phone (E4g), both for winter and summer time in Europe.