New time zone definitions updated notification

[Android Central Question]

Woke up this am to a push notification saying "new time zone definitions updated" "restart device to install otherwise update will be installed next time your device restarts". Anyone else received this update? I searched online and can't find anything for android phones only iPhones. I restarted device and my phone got hot and a little unresponsive. Kind of weird. Hope others have seen this too.

On samsung gs7 oreo

 

[504_jax]

No idea, my wife just asked me about it too. I updated my phone yesterday but never saw that pop-up. Haven't noticed anything different.

 

[nsk123web]

I got the exact same notification. It seems to be related to TimeZoneUpdaterO (that is what shows up when I long press the notification). Pressing details takes me to the App Notifications settings dialog for what seems like a Android system app (Time Zone Updater). Not sure if this is legitimate. There isnt an option to ignore it (other than not rebooting my phone).

I am using a Galaxy S7 Edge

As i was researching more, I found this link, which leads me to think this is legitimate:

https://source.android.com/devices/tech/config/timezone-rules

If it is indeed legitimate, it is another exasperating example of the fractured nature of Android updates.

 

[Joshua Fudali]

Yep I just got it dont know what it means. Have been looking for it but I dont know

 

[dendrome]

Chile recently updated their timezones.

https://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/chile-changes-dst-dates.html

 

[melissa meredith]

I woke up to it this morning.. I haven't done it but I had a reminder for a doc appointment at 10:30am and it went off at 11:30am so idk what's up with that.. I'm about to call Verizon

 

[Rukbat]

As i was researching more, I found this link, which leads me to think this is legitimate:

https://source.android.com/devices/tech/config/timezone-rules

https://source.android.com/devices/tech/config/timezone-rules It would have to be - it goes down as low as mktime, which is a Linux utility that converts Linux time (which is how time is stored in any computer running Linux, including Android phones) into month, day, year, hour, minute and second.

If it is indeed legitimate, it is another exasperating example of the fractured nature of Android updates.

How is that fractured? Apple is going to do, or has done, the same thing. Otherwise many Chileans' phones will be an hour off starting this coming Sunday. Google made it simpler for manufacturers to update a change in DST. If anyplace else changes its rules, the "update" will be a little data file, instead of a whole system update.

 

[JFNice]

I got the same notification on my Samsung Android, ran it and checked for what time zone I am in. I live in Mountain Time in the US and it used to be designated as MST Denver. Now it is MST Salt Lake City. I think that is the meaning of the time zone definition.

 

[Rukbat]

"The meaning of the time zone definition" is:

Some places change the date they change timezones or the amount they change by (there's a whole area of the world that changes by 30 minutes, not 1 hour). Some places opt to not change timezones. (Some states in Australia change, some don't.)

The change from Denver to SLC is the preference of whoever is writing the text or ordering it written. NYC is normally the location for Eastern time, but I've seen other eastern cities listed.

(And in the November 2018 update from Google, Denver is still listed for Mountain Time, so SLC is a Samsung modification.)

The actual literal meaning of "timezone" is the number of hours before or after UTC (time in Greenwhch, England) it is where you are.

 

[Velenoso]

I got whatever it was and nothing has changed, I'm so glad they're putting so much effort into software that does nothing for me and no effort into fixing bugs.

 

[Rukbat]

Remember, though, that 1 - it's trivial to change the timezone date, amount and location, and 2 - it's anything but trivial to fix some of the bugs that crop up in even the best software. (If you can't reproduce it at will, you can't fix it - and finding hot how to reproduce it can take time.)

 

[randyw]

Yea I got it on my Note 9 as well. Updated it with no problem.

 

[Moerby]

Just found this thread and I have a quick question ... for those of you who received this notification to restart you phones to apply the time zone updates, did the "Time Zone Updater" system app update to 1.0.04.0 as well?

 

[foxxirider]

Woke up this am to a push notification saying "new time zone definitions updated" "restart device to install otherwise update will be installed next time your device restarts". Anyone else received this update? I searched online and can't find anything for android phones only iPhones. I restarted device and my phone got hot and a little unresponsive. Kind of weird. Hope others have seen this too.

On samsung gs7 oreo

I just received the same notification. I'm googling to see if I can find out what it is.

 

[foxxirider]

This is the best explanation that I could find about the TIME ZONE UPDATE

Android 10 deprecates the APK-based time zone data update mechanism (available in Android 8.1 and Android 9) and replaces it with an APEX-based module update mechanism. AOSP continues to include the platform code necessary for OEMs to enable APK-based updates, so devices upgrading to Android 10 can still receive partner-provided time zone data updates through APK. However, the APK update mechanism shouldn't be used on a production device that is also receiving module updates as an APK-based update supersedes an APEX-based update (that is, a device that received an APK update would ignore APEX-based updates).

 

[Rukbat]

Some country changed their timezone setup, so the phone had to be updated in case it's ever being used in that country. The rest of the explanation is great for a manufacturer (or even some developers), but not of interest to normal users. (I'm a developer, and I don't even care, since I don't develop anything that's going to have to deal with timezone changes. If the time changes on a different date, so be it.)

 

[CodePrimate]

I got whatever it was and nothing has changed, I'm so glad they're putting so much effort into software that does nothing for me and no effort into fixing bugs.

Right, because you're the only person that matters. Who cares about those brown people in South America, they're lazy and can't tell time anyways. Why is Google wasting their time on code changes for them, **I'm** the priority!

/sarcasm pointing out the real laziness was not reading the thread to know "whatever it was" that you're commenting on.

 

[JCT_001]

I also received a notification that there was an update. If you don't do the update now it will automatically be done the next time you phone is restarted

 

[LisaI123]

I got the same notification today, more than 6 months later. I've no idea what it means either.

 

[LisaI123]

I got the same notification today, more than 6 months later. I've no idea what it means either.

But after reading this whole chain, I understand! Now I'm just wondering why I've never seen this before. It appears to be something that happens frequently throughout the year if different areas of the world change their time on different dates than we do here in Georgia, USA.