How to Change the Time on Your Phone (Android & iOS)
Your phone's clock is wrong. Maybe daylight saving time didn't update, you crossed a time zone, or the display just shows something off. Whatever the reason, fixing it takes less than a minute — once you know where to look.
Here's exactly how time settings work on modern smartphones, and why the right approach depends on your specific situation.
Why Your Phone's Time Might Be Wrong
Most smartphones are designed to set the time automatically by syncing with network time servers through your carrier or Wi-Fi connection. This is called automatic date and time, and it's the default on virtually every Android and iOS device.
When this is working correctly, your phone should update the moment you land in a new time zone, or when a region switches between standard time and daylight saving time.
When it's not working, the usual culprits are:
- Automatic time was turned off (manually or after a reset)
- Your SIM card is inactive or you're in airplane mode
- A software bug caused the sync to fail
- You deliberately set a manual time and forgot
How to Change the Time on an iPhone
Apple's iOS keeps time settings inside Settings → General → Date & Time.
From there you have two paths:
Automatic (recommended for most users) Toggle Set Automatically to on. Your iPhone pulls the correct time from Apple's servers via your network connection. If you're in the correct time zone, this should fix the problem immediately.
Manual Turn Set Automatically off. A date and time picker appears. Scroll to the correct time and date and confirm. Your phone will hold that time until you change it or re-enable automatic sync.
One important detail: iOS ties time zone to location services. If automatic time seems correct but your time zone is wrong, go to Settings → General → Language & Region → Time Zone and adjust it there separately.
How to Change the Time on Android
Android fragments slightly across manufacturers — Samsung, Google Pixel, OnePlus, and others all have slightly different menu paths — but the logic is the same.
The most common route:
Settings → General Management → Date and Time(Samsung)
Settings → System → Date & Time(Stock Android / Pixel)
Inside that menu:
- Automatic date and time — toggle on to sync with your carrier's network time
- Automatic time zone — toggle on to update time zone based on your location
- Set date / Set time — appear when automatic is disabled, letting you dial in a specific time manually
🕐 On Android, automatic time syncs through your mobile network, not just Wi-Fi. If you're using a device without an active SIM (like a tablet on Wi-Fi), automatic time still works but relies on internet-based NTP (Network Time Protocol) servers rather than carrier signals.
Manual vs. Automatic: Which Should You Use?
| Setting | Best For | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic | Everyday use, travelers, most users | Requires network connection to stay accurate |
| Manual | Offline devices, specific testing needs, shared/kiosk devices | Drifts over time; won't update for DST or time zones |
For the vast majority of users, automatic is the right mode. Manual time is useful in narrow scenarios — a device kept offline permanently, a shared display showing a fixed time, or developer environments where precise control matters.
Why the Time Might Snap Back After You Change It
This trips people up. You set the time manually, it looks right, then 30 seconds later it jumps back to the wrong time.
That happens when automatic sync is still enabled. The phone corrects itself the moment it touches a network. The fix is to turn off automatic date and time first, then set your manual time. The toggle has to come before the adjustment.
When Automatic Time Isn't Updating Correctly 🔄
If automatic is on and the time is still wrong, a few things are worth checking:
- Restart the phone — a simple reboot forces a fresh network time sync on most devices
- Check your time zone separately — automatic time and automatic time zone are often independent toggles; one can be on while the other is off
- Toggle airplane mode on, then off — this resets your network connection and can trigger a re-sync
- Check for a software update — a known OS bug causing time sync failure may already have a patch waiting
On iPhones, also verify that Location Services is enabled for System Services, since iOS uses location to determine your time zone automatically.
The Variable That Changes Everything
The actual steps above are consistent across modern Android and iOS devices — but which path makes sense for you depends on how your phone is set up. A device without a SIM, a phone running an older OS version, a work-managed device with MDM restrictions, or a phone with location services disabled all behave differently when you try to adjust time settings.
Your carrier, your region's daylight saving rules, and whether your phone has an active data connection all factor into whether automatic sync does what you expect — and whether manual control is even available to you.