You're staring at your screen and something feels off. Maybe you just hopped off a red-eye flight from New York to London and your lock screen still thinks it's midnight. Or perhaps you're one of those people—and honestly, there are more of us than you'd think—who likes to set their clock five minutes fast just to trick themselves into being on time for work. Whatever the reason, knowing how to change the time on phone isn't always as intuitive as it used to be back in the Nokia brick days. Back then, you just went to "Settings" and there it was. Now, our phones are basically supercomputers that try to be too smart for their own good, constantly syncing with cell towers and GPS satellites to ensure you never have to lift a finger. But when they fail? They fail hard.
Why Your Phone Gets the Time Wrong Anyway
It’s actually kinda weird when you think about it. We pay a thousand dollars for these devices, and yet they still occasionally lose track of time. Usually, it's a "Network-Provided Time" glitch. Your phone listens to the local cell tower to figure out where it is and what time it should display. If that tower is undergoing maintenance or you’re in a weird dead zone between two towers in different time zones, your clock might start jumping around like a caffeinated kangaroo.
I’ve seen this happen most often on Amtrak trains or long drives across state lines. You’re in that "no man's land" where the signal is bouncing between towers, and suddenly your phone thinks it’s an hour earlier. It ruins your alarms. It messes up your calendar invites. It’s a mess.
The iPhone Method: Diving into iOS Settings
Apple likes to keep things "clean," which usually means burying the one setting you actually need under three layers of menus. If you’re on an iPhone, you’ve gotta head to Settings, then tap on General. Don’t look for "Clock"—that’s an app, not a system setting. Once you're in General, you’ll see Date & Time.
Now, here’s the kicker. Most iPhones have Set Automatically toggled on by default. If it’s greyed out, it’s probably because you have a Screen Time restriction or a corporate management profile on your phone. If you can toggle it off, do it. Suddenly, a blue date and time will appear. Tap that, and you can scroll through the wheel to whatever time your heart desires.
Wait. One quick thing. If you’re changing the time to "cheat" in a mobile game like Candy Crush or Animal Crossing—yeah, we know the trick—be careful. Switching your time back to the present can sometimes break your phone's ability to sync with iCloud or even lock you out of your banking apps. These apps use "SSL certificates" that check if your phone's time matches the server's time. If they don't match, the app thinks you’re being hacked and shuts down.
How to Change the Time on Phone: The Android Way
Android is a different beast because every manufacturer—Samsung, Google, OnePlus, Motorola—likes to move the furniture around.
On a Pixel or a "clean" Android build, you’re looking for Settings > System > Date & Time. On a Samsung Galaxy, it’s usually under General Management. It’s annoying, I know. Samsung loves to add that extra layer.
Once you find the menu, the process is basically the same as the iPhone. You’ll see a switch for Automatic date and time or Use network-provided time. Flip that switch off. Now the manual options will light up. You can pick your time zone separately from the actual time, which is actually super helpful if you’re working remotely for a company in a different country and want your phone to reflect their workday instead of yours.
Dealing with the Daylight Saving Time Headache
Every year, like clockwork, millions of people search for how to change the time on phone because of Daylight Saving Time. While most modern OS versions (iOS 17+, Android 14+) handle this flawlessly, older devices or phones that haven't been updated in years might just... forget.
If your phone didn't "spring forward" or "fall back," it's usually not a hardware problem. It's a database problem. Your phone uses something called the tz database (Time Zone Database), which is a global collaborative effort to track every time zone change on Earth. If your phone's software is ancient, it doesn't have the new rules. The fix? Update your software. If you can't update, you have to go manual.
The "Greyed Out" Problem: When You Can't Change It
Sometimes you get into the settings and the toggle is stuck. It won't move. You’re tapping the screen like a madman and nothing happens.
This usually happens for two reasons:
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- Screen Time/Parental Controls: If your phone is managed by a parent or an employer, they might have restricted the ability to change the time. Why? Because kids found out they could bypass "app limits" by simply rolling back the clock. Clever, but it forced Apple and Google to lock that setting down.
- Find My iPhone / Security Features: In some rare cases, if you have certain high-level security "Stolen Device Protection" features turned on, the phone will insist on using GPS time to ensure the device location is accurate.
Practical Steps to Fix Your Clock Right Now
If your time is wrong and you need it fixed this second, don't just guess.
First, go to a site like time.is. It tells you exactly how many seconds your device is out of sync. It’s terrifyingly accurate.
Second, if the "Automatic" setting is failing you, toggle it off and then back on. This forces the phone to re-ping the nearest NTP (Network Time Protocol) server. It’s the digital equivalent of unplugging it and plugging it back in.
Third, check your Time Zone. Sometimes the time is "wrong" because the phone thinks you’re in Anchorage, Alaska when you’re actually in Miami. Go to the Time Zone setting, turn off "Set Automatically Based on Location," and manually search for your closest major city.
Beyond the Screen: Why Correct Time Matters
It’s not just about not being late for a coffee date. Your phone uses the time for almost every background process.
Encryption relies on timestamps. If your phone's clock is off by more than a few minutes, you might find that you can't log into Gmail, or your WhatsApp messages won't send. The "handshake" between your phone and the internet requires both parties to agree on what time it is. If your phone thinks it's 2015, the modern internet will basically refuse to talk to it for security reasons.
Final Checklist for Time Management
- Check for Software Updates: Often, a bug in the clock is fixed in a minor "point" release (like iOS 17.2.1).
- Toggle Airplane Mode: This forces a fresh connection to the cell tower, which often pushes the correct time to your device.
- Privacy Settings: On iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services and make sure Setting Time Zone is turned on. If the phone can't see where it is, it can't set the time automatically.
- Manual Override: If all else fails, just turn off the automatic sync and set it yourself. Just remember to check it once a week, as internal hardware clocks (quartz oscillators) can drift by a few seconds over time without a network sync to keep them honest.
Now that you've got your clock sorted, make sure to double-check any recurring alarms. Sometimes changing the time zone or manually shifting the clock can cause "ghost alarms" that go off at the old time or don't go off at all. Open your Clock app, delete your main alarm, and recreate it from scratch just to be safe. It takes ten seconds and saves you from a very awkward conversation with your boss tomorrow morning.