Setting Your Account Timezone
We try and automatically set this accurately when your account is created, but there is a lot of nuance in time zones, so you can edit it within your Account Settings:
This informs plugins across the TRMNL plugin ecosystem about how to display time information to you. We even offer plugin developers a guide on timezone conversion.
BST vs UTC vs GMT
UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is the standard for all timezones, where any timezone is always referenced as how much +/- it is to UTC.
GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) is just a timezone and was formerly the standard used before UTC came along.
Now, to the point. If you set your timezone to UTC and live in the United Kingdom, you are only going to be in the accurate timezone for part of the year, because the UK, like many countries, observes Daylight Saving Time, shifting their clocks 1 hour during summer months, technically switching to BST (British Summer Time).
Luckily, you don't have to manage this manually, we'll do it for you:
If you are in the UK and want to keep your calendars in sync accurately, use the London timezone in your account settings.
The Plugin XXX is not Displaying Time Correctly
There are three methods of manipulating date/time information in a plugin:
Use the account's timezone offset to display the date/time in the user's local timezone. This is the preferred method, and we provide a guide to assist plugin developers.
Provide a form field option in plugin settings.
This method is used when it's beneficial to set a time different from your own account, such as with a world clock.Don't. Return the date/time information based on the data source.
This method is used when the server time is the source of truth for the information it provides, but also the default behavior without additional effort by plugin creators.
A Quick Note about .ICS Files and Calendars
When calendar information is shared, it commonly uses the ICS file format, which is robust, dynamic, and notoriously varied from calendar provider to calendar provider. The important note here is that TRMNL data is only as good as the information passed to it, so if a calendar event is set to the wrong timezone, there are hidden spam events in the calendar, or the calendar server is set to a different timezone than your account and does not include proper information within the ICS file, these are all issues that can cause problems in displaying events accurately.