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Summary: Email is timestamped by the program that creates it. Normally Window's time, date and time zone are used. Web services, however, need a little more. How do I fix the time on my email? The time on my computer is correct, but when I send emails, the time's an hour ahead! What's wrong? You nailed the one thing that many people forget: the time on their computers. However, depending on your mail service, you may need to make sure something else is set correctly as well. The "one hour off" is actually a clue that your time zone is set incorrectly. And, of course, where that gets adjusted depends on what program or service you're using. Let's look at a couple of common situations... • First, as you point out, your computers time and date must be correct. That's easy to adjust: just double click on the clock in your task bar and you'll get the Date and Time Properties dialog where you can adjust the date and the time:
Notice the "Time Zone" tab? Click on that and make sure your time zone is correctly selected:
Finally, go ahead and click on the tab labeled Internet Time:
Most of the time the default settings are correct, but make sure that Automatically synchronize... is checked to allow Windows to synchronize your clock with an appropriate time server. If your clock "drifts", as some do, this will help keep it accurate. The preceding steps should correct any time errors in an email client you run on your machine. Programs like Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, and others all use Windows to determine the time, date, and time zone. If you're using a web service such as Hotmail, though, you're not quite done. "Programs like Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird and
so on all use Windows to determine the time, date and time zone."
Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo!, and other web-based services usually ask you for your time zone when you sign up. If you ignore that, get it wrong, or move to a different time zone, you'll need to change the setting in order for the time stamps of your emails to be correct. For example, once you've logged into Hotmail, click on the Options button in the upper right:
Then click on Personal on the left, for Personal Options, and then click on My Profile, which is described: "Change your name, location, and other personal information." As I write this, Microsoft is transitioning to "Windows Live" for account management, so the resulting page will be a Windows Live branded page:
If you scroll down that page, you'll find a setting beneath your location where you can specify your time zone:
Press Save, and it's updated. Services other than Hotmail have similar settings in profile, user account, or personal information settings. Regardless of which service you use, the time zone must be set properly for your email to be timestamped correctly. Related:
Article 10999 | Posted December 14, 2006 |
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Finally fixed this annoying little problem. Just changing my hotmail time zone worked for me. Thanks a lot.
Posted by: Steve at August 6, 2008 8:29 AMThis fixed the problem for me. I have Qwest Live Mail which is actually supplied by Microsoft. When I signed up for it they never mentioned setting this parameter and if you don't it apparently defaults to Universal (Zulu to us pilots) time, formerly known as Greenwich time. Just reset the parameters mentioned in the article to your time zone and it should fix the problem. Thanks again!
Posted by: Ridgerunner at August 12, 2008 5:09 PMThank you so much for the Hotmail Options suggestion. I had been putting up with the incorrect time since 2002 !!!! It was the time zone that was incorrect.
Posted by: Roberta at August 20, 2008 4:10 AMSo why can't Outlook or any other email app actually show the timezone name as well?
Outlook 2007 allows you to give a nickname for your local timezone, and for an additional timezone, s why not use this?
Posted by: IanG at August 20, 2008 1:47 PMMy hotmail time stamps are 4 hours ahead. I have never left the US Eastern Time zone. My PC's clock is setup correctly and so are the settings in hotmail but the time is still 4 hours off. Something is awry...any help?
Posted by: Paul at September 9, 2008 8:52 AMI set everything correctly as above instruction and the time on my gmail is correct but yahoo mail time stamp is not correct. Don't know why!
Posted by: Diep at September 10, 2008 9:45 PMHow do I set my Yahoo mail acct to tell ME what TIME I receive my mail. PLEASE help I need to know what time people send me mail.
Posted by: Tom Tawoda at September 11, 2008 8:15 AMI've now sorted my problem thanks to this site, cheers.
Posted by: Zandra Green at September 11, 2008 11:33 PMThank you! It's important my yahoo email sent shows the correct time for assignment ontime completion. As my computer clock/timezone was correct,I was tearing my hair to figue why my AM sent time showed up as PM.Your article showed me how the change the yahoo options where I had a timezone selected which changed my AM to PM on mail sent. I don't know it got there! Thank you Thank you! Clear instructions for once and my "time sent" is now correct.! Well done!
Posted by: Angela Homer at September 21, 2008 12:00 PMIt worked!!! The time was wrong on my account and it was driving me crazy. I was constantly trying to calculate the difference. Thanks for the help!
Posted by: Venessa at September 25, 2008 6:07 PM