Times for events are moving around on the e-calendar

We have a problem. Times for events are moving around, even after being corrected they go back to their same squirrely time. For example the Stake Relief Society President supposedly had a meeting with one of the ward Relief Society Presidencies between 4 am - 5:30 am this morning. I mentioned this to the Stake Relief Society President and she told me that the calendar has gotten all messed up. She had gone back in and corrected all of the incorrect times, only to go back several days later and discover that the times were all messed up again and had returned to the incorrect times.

I am the coordinator for a stake building that has 5 units and the stake scheduling things on the e-calendar, this is a scary problem, particularly now that I have got just about everyone trained in how to use the calendar. Have you recently made changes to the system? Something has gone wrong. Thanks.

It sounds like a time zone problem, meaning that one or more calendar editors has the wrong time zone set on his or her computer. That would account for an event looking wrong to one person, and then when they change the event to be "fixed" (from their perspective of a different time zone), the time actually changes for everyone else and is now incorrect.

Then it's possible that someone else sees the incorrect times, and fixes them, which the first person perceives as messing them up again.

As aebrown suggest, the time zone used by the calendar is based on the one being reported by the user's computer. In the case of desktops and laptops, that's fairly straight forward. But when dealing with mobile devices, they get their information from their connection.

I'd suggest having the editors visit http://pellepim.bitbucket.org/jstz/ and see what timezone their computer is reporting.

It could also be that the person doing the editing is not using the "Update Event" button once the change is made and just going back to the calendar using the browser return arrow, or the cancel button thinking the change is automatic.

Thank you, I'll ask the RS President where she was and what she was using when she made the changes. Your answers explain why the correction didn't stick but do you have any idea "Why" everything got all muddled in the first place? I think the changes have occurred (I will check to be certain) with stake events, All of the times that have scrambled where input in the beginning of the year by stake people at their home computers in the same time zone. Thank you.

nancypalemany wrote:do you have any idea "Why" everything got all muddled in the first place?

Two possibilities:
1) Someone saw a problem and tried to fix it and created a bigger problem.
2) We're seeing reports of problems with November of 2014 due to the way the system handles changed in the month of Daylight Savings changes. It's possible that things scheduled last year looked fine at the time, but now as we approach November 2013, they look all messed up. Is the error off by just one hour?

No, the bounce forward in consistently 2 hours. A 4 pm Stk Relief Society event becomes a 6 pm event. I've been doing some sleuthing. These RS events have been on the calendar throughout 2013. The problem seems to be with the Stk RS President's entries, only. Unless said event is backed up against another event. Such as a 6 pm RS fireside is back up against a 4 pm Stk Youth Committee Meeting. When the Relief Society event bounces forward 2 hours it carries the Youth Committee Meeting with it. i.e. the Fireside is at 8 pm and the committee meeting is now at 6pm.

From the responses I have seen it doesn't seem like this is a system wide problem. I have a message into our STS, perhaps he can see what is causing the issue from his side of the system.

nancypalemany wrote:The problem seems to be with the Stk RS President's entries, only.

I would guess the RS presidents computer time zone is off.

nancypalemany wrote:These RS events have been on the calendar throughout 2013.

You might see who was the last to touch them. I think that appears in the lower right.

nancypalemany wrote:When the Relief Society event bounces forward 2 hours it carries the Youth Committee Meeting with it. i.e. the Fireside is at 8 pm and the committee meeting is now at 6pm.

Either that's a display issue or someone is moving both events. There is no connection the calendar, so moving one won't move the other.

nancypalemany wrote:I have a message into our STS, perhaps he can see what is causing the issue from his side of the system.

He's a stake calendar admin, but has no special tools to diagnose this.

I would find out more about the Stake RS President's computer. If it's a mobile device it gets it's time zone automatically. If she's near the edge, it might be coming from a cell tower on the other side of the line. It's not obvious to most users, but the calendar is highly dependent o the user's time zone being correct to give the correct information. All of the events are stored as GMT.

Another word of caution - the calendar supports drag-and-drop. Any careless handling (especially someone with a touch screen) could cause it to move. You might want to review who has editor rights and limit that. Who is to say the culprit isn't a counselor who is moving things?

Thanks you, Russell and Gary for your suggestions. My STS is the Regional STS, not just the stake Calendar Admin and the way things are going Stk Calendar Admin may soon become my title. I checked the RS Pres time on her home computer this afternoon - it was identical to mine, she lives about 3 miles away. I will check to see who was the last to handle the event. This one event I mentioned was only an example - there were a host of Stake Relief Society events that bounced ahead two hours on the stake calendar.

One other thing, she is not seeing events correctly on her screen. Let me explain - I have a private events calendar on which I am able to put weddings, funerals, recitals and other events that do not belong to a particular ward or the stake. There is a reoccurring event every Tuesday from 6 - 7 pm. On her calendar it appears to be scheduled for 4pm, on my calendar and on the calendars of at least 3 other people I have managed to contact today, it shows correctly as starting at 6 pm. I am wondering if there is some "bug" in the Stake Relief Society President's calendar. In this case, the time jumped backwards and not forwards. Any thoughts?

nancypalemany wrote:There is a reoccurring event every Tuesday from 6 - 7 pm. On her calendar it appears to be scheduled for 4pm, on my calendar and on the calendars of at least 3 other people I have managed to contact today, it shows correctly as starting at 6 pm. I am wondering if there is some "bug" in the Stake Relief Society President's calendar. In this case, the time jumped backwards and not forwards. Any thoughts?

It's good that you checked the time on her computer, but you really need to check the time zone of her computer. Since you are in Texas, I'm guessing you are in the Central Time Zone. With the evidence you've given, it seems certain that the RS President's time zone is set to Pacific time. It's 4pm in California when it's 6pm in Texas, which is why she sees that event as starting at 4pm. So make sure she changes her time zone to Central, and then adjusts the time to be correct.

nancypalemany wrote:My STS is the Regional STS, not just the stake Calendar Admin

I doubt if he has any additional powers to help. At best he may have admin rights to regional calendars.

nancypalemany wrote:I checked the RS Pres time on her home computer this afternoon - it was identical to mine,

Just to re-emphasize, it's not the time but the time zone that's critical. Some people just set the time and don't pay attention to the time zone.

nancypalemany wrote:One other thing, she is not seeing events correctly on her screen. Let me explain - I have a private events calendar on which I am able to put weddings, funerals, recitals and other events that do not belong to a particular ward or the stake. There is a reoccurring event every Tuesday from 6 - 7 pm. On her calendar it appears to be scheduled for 4pm, on my calendar and on the calendars of at least 3 other people I have managed to contact today, it shows correctly as starting at 6 pm.

All completely consistent with a wrong time zone on her computer.

I'll bet if you have her visit http://pellepim.bitbucket.org/jstz/ from her computer, she will see something different then you do.

aebrown wrote:With the evidence you've given, it seems certain that the RS President's time zone is set to Pacific time.

Which if memory serves me right, may be the default on some new computers.

nancypalemany wrote:On her calendar it appears to be scheduled for 4pm, on my calendar and on the calendars of at least 3 other people I have managed to contact today, it shows correctly as starting at 6 pm. I am wondering if there is some "bug" in the Stake Relief Society President's calendar. In this case, the time jumped backwards and not forwards. Any thoughts?

What does the calendar look like when you logon the calendar using the SRSP computer.

Gary_Miller wrote:What does the calendar look like when you logon the calendar using the SRSP computer.

That should quickly settle if this is a computer problem, or something with the account.

Another thought: Compare the times on church-wide events. You'll know they are correct on the calendar as they are entered by CHQ. It's just a question of how they'll display on the computer in question.

Gentlemen, Thank you for your suggestions, You were correct. The SRSP had just upgraded to a new operating system a couple of weeks ago when the problems with the calendar first began. Although her external clock was set for central time, there was an internal clock that was set for Atlantic time (2 hours ahead). Thanks for your help.