Set Default Site Time Zone in Office 365
Imagine my pleasure to see this tweet first thing this morning from Sohail Merchant (@sohailmerchant)!
@sympmarc I think you will be very happy to see this!
— S Merchant (@sohailmerchant) September 14, 2018
I’m not sure when this actually showed up, but it’s an ask from me which goes back almost four years on UserVoice. Interestingly enough, they are still THINKING ABOUT IT. I don’t see anything obvious on the Office 365 Roadmap, either.
Changing the setting is pretty simple – as long as you are a SharePoint administrator. Click on the waffle, and choose Admin. Once there, go to the SharePoint Admin Center. You have to switch into the modern Admin Center to get to this setting.
While the modern Admin Center is officially still in “preview”, it’s rapidly gaining useful functionality like this.
The time zone setting is in the Settings section under Site Creation.
Now when you create a new modern site, it will be set to your default time zone. Many organizations on Office 365 have either a single time zone presence – or at least a main one. Even if you need to change the time zone settings for some of the sites, it’s better than all of them!
No more PST time zone for those of us in the other 23 / 24ths of the world!
Must be super new as I dont see that option :) Also @Marc, your new sharepoint admin experience has alot more options than mine.
@Warren:
I’ve had reports from some people that they can’t see this stuff and others who can. I’m on Targeted Release, but that doesn’t seem to be the gating factor. I think it must be mid-rollout. Keep an eye out for it!
M.
Yeah, we will have to just wait. But this feature is going to save a lot of trouble moving forward :-) Oh the amount of times sites get created and later people ask hey, why are my dates weird. The amount of times I’ve seen this. It would be better served if it could be Office365 tenant wide.
Of the five tenants I’ve checked, none have this option yet. Admittedly, I think they’re all Australia based…
I have checked two of my clients tenants, both Northern Europe based and its not available and I checked our companies own one, no dice :-) I think its safe to Assume its US first?
Hrm…. Jan 2, 2019 and this option doesn’t exist on that settings page. Must be a really slow rollout. In the US, and on Targeted Release.
It appears that they have removed this option. I saw the option on ,y tenant a month ago, but now Jan, 2019 it is gone.
I can see the option now – BUT – it’s only half the job. That sets the TIMEZONE – but not the LOCALE. I end up with Australian times (Melbourne) – and then U.S. date format.
I’m stunned that Microsoft only did ONE of those settings – why o why !!?!
@Chris:
Sigh. Well, halfway home is better than nowhere at all?
M.
My thoughts exactly. You still have to remember to change the region ….
So what are you meant to do if you have an global organization with multiple offices spread across 3-5 time zones? Seems like the most practical solution would be to not even bother with regional settings and only apply personal settings for each user based on their home office.
Then there is always the issue of people travelling from one office to another? I guess you could combat that by teaching them how to set their own personal time zone settings when they are on the road travelling?
@Yuri:
The UI adapts dates and times based on the current user’s settings. That said, I’ve found it makes sense to set the timezone for each site to the predominant one which holds for the majority of the people using it. This is more important in team-based work than in Communication Sites.
As someone who travels frequently, I only change my Windows timezone when I travel. Everything else “just works”.
M.
Hi Marc, what if we change a site’s time zone after it’s been in use- does it affect existing calendar/date entries or anything else? Thank you!