Phone is in airplane mode with wifi on, but time zone is not updating?

[mrbofus]

I am traveling out of the country and my S6 is in airplane mode with wifi on and connected to a wifi network in a different country. However, the time zone is not updating, even though the phone knows I'm not in the Pacific time zone anymore (in Google Maps, it shows that I am in a different country). My previous Android phone, the Motorola DROID MAXX, also did not update the time zone despite being connected to a wifi network in a different country.

Interestingly enough, my iPhone 6 Plus, which is also in airplane mode with wifi on, does detect that I'm in a different time zone (once it connects to the wifi network) and changes the time automatically.

Am I missing a setting? Or is this a normal (non)function of Android phones?

 

[williams448]

Pretty sure it requires mobile data to update time & date.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mrbofus]

That's really interesting. I wonder why Android requires a cellular connection to do so? How do Android tablets without cellular capability update their time zones? Do all Android tablet users have to update their tablets' time zones manually?

 

[sonja77]

I just had to do that with my tablet. Just having location turned on did not work. I had to go in the settings menu and select the time zone I'm in.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

 

[mrbofus]

I just had to do that with my tablet. Just having location turned on did not work. I had to go in the settings menu and select the time zone I'm in.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

Hm, that's interesting, since that directly contradicts what @williams448 said. Although what he said seemed a little odd, since there are many Android devices without cellular connections.

Does this mean all Android devices, whether or not they have a cellular connection, cannot change their timezones automatically? That just seems so weird. If I can open Google Maps and it knows exactly where I am on the planet, why can't the device update the timezone? This is 2015, after all...

 

[dpomerance]

Time comes from the cellular network.

 

[mrbofus]

But that doesn't have to be the only source. As stated in the first post, iOS devices have been able to get network time via wifi for years.

 

[dzitnay]

Windows 10 is also able to auto-detect the time zone via WiFi. This is literally the only thing my wife's iPhone does better than my Android phone. Seems like it would be an easy fix.

 

[Vardace]

It is now possible to set time zone based on location in the date time settings on Android.

It was disabled on mine by default.