British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and northwestern Ontario stopped changing their clocks on Nov 1, 2026. If your iPhone 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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Go to Settings › General › Software Update and install anything waiting, then restart. Apple delivers time zone changes inside iOS updates, so an out-of-date iPhone keeps the old rules.
Go to Settings › General › Date & Time and switch on Set Automatically. If the switch is greyed out, a Screen Time restriction or a work profile is blocking it.
Go to Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services, make sure it's on, then open System Services and switch on Setting Time Zone. This is the setting that's most often off.
Back in Settings › General › Date & Time, the Time Zone line should show a city in your region. See the table below.
Turn the iPhone off and on, then 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 in your current time zone. 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 iPhone 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 iPhone 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 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.
Only if it has the latest iOS and location-based time zone is on. Install updates first, then check that Setting Time Zone is on under Location Services, System Services.
Location-based time zone is probably off, so the iPhone kept an old setting. Turn on Setting Time Zone under Location Services, System Services. BC and Los Angeles now differ by an hour from November to March.
No. Your Apple Watch takes its time from your iPhone. Update the watch as well so its own time zone rules are current.
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.