British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and northwestern Ontario stopped changing their clocks on Nov 1, 2026. If your Android phone has old time zone rules, or its location setting is off, it can fall back an hour anyway, or show US time. Here's how to check and fix it.
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On Android 10 and later, time zone rules can arrive in two ways, so check both. First, the system update: Settings › System › Software updates (Samsung: Settings › Software update). Second, the Google Play system update, which lives in a different spot on each phone. Search Settings for "Google Play system update". Restart after installing.
Go to Settings › System › Date & time and switch on Set time automatically and Set time zone automatically. On Samsung it's Settings › General management › Date and time.
On newer phones, the same screen has Use location to set time zone. Turn it on, and make sure Location is on. Without it, the phone takes its time zone from the mobile network, which often guesses wrong near borders.
The Date & time screen shows your current time zone. It should read GMT−07:00 in BC, GMT−06:00 in Alberta and GMT−05:00 in Manitoba, all year. See the table below.
Restart the phone and reload this page. The clock check at the top should say your device is ready.
Meetings booked before the update can show an hour off. If you organized the meeting, open it and save it again. If someone else did, ask them to.
| If you're in | Your clock should be | Pick this city if asked |
|---|---|---|
| Most of BC | UTC−7 all year | Vancouver |
| Alberta, BC's East Kootenay (Cranbrook, Fernie), the NWT | UTC−6 all year | Edmonton or Calgary |
| Manitoba, northwestern Ontario (Kenora) | UTC−5 all year | Winnipeg |
Your Android phone doesn't look up the rules online. It carries a built-in rulebook of every time zone, and it only learns about changes like British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and northwestern Ontario dropping daylight saving time when that rulebook gets updated. Two things go wrong:
The rulebook is old. If the device hasn't been updated, it still expects your area to "fall back" on Nov 1, 2026, and your clock will be an hour behind until March.
It thinks you're somewhere else. With location-based time zone turned off, your Android phone keeps whatever time zone it last had, or takes a guess from your mobile network or Wi-Fi. After a trip to Seattle, or near a border like Lloydminster, Creston or Kenora, that guess is often wrong.
Older devices that no longer get updates may never learn the new rules. As a stopgap, turn off Set time zone automatically, tap Time zone and pick a place that's already on the right time all year:
Your clock will be right, but the city name won't be, and calendar apps may show some meeting times strangely. Some workplaces ask staff not to do this, so check with your IT team first, and switch back to your real city once an update arrives.
The time zone rules may come from the Google Play system update rather than the main Android update. Search Settings for "Google Play system update", install it and restart.
The steps are the same, but the settings live under General management, Date and time, and the main update is under Software update.
Use the last-resort workaround on this page to pick a city that is on the right time all year, and switch back if an update ever arrives.
British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and northwestern Ontario stopped changing their clocks. Most of BC is UTC−7 all year, Alberta and the NWT are UTC−6, and Manitoba is UTC−5. Read the full explainer.