Skip to main content

Automations for GCal events are off by one hour

  • October 30, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 30 views
K
Forum|alt.badge.img+5

I have set up a simple automation to create an event from a date and time field. These are PDT and my GCal is set to Los Angeles time zone. However, the event that gets created is one hour behind the start and end time listed in Airtable:

1st event should start at 9:30 am on 11/13
2nd event should start at 21:30 (9:30 pm) on 11/13

Here is what arrives:

Off by one hour!

3 replies

ScottWorld
Forum|alt.badge.img+35
  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • October 30, 2020

Yes, this is frustrating. This is happening because Airtable is already accounting for daylight savings time ending on November 1st, even though it really shouldn’t be accounting for that until it ACTUALLY IS November 1st.

I personally believe that this is a problem/bug in the product, and I urge you to please email support@airtable.com about this issue to see if they can address it.

I’ve received many calls about this from my Airtable consulting clients who have been frustrated & confused about this unintuitive behavior.

What makes this even more difficult is — how are we supposed to type in times for future events that are beyond the date of the daylight savings time change? There is no clarity on that.

K
Forum|alt.badge.img+5
  • Kelly_Rogala
  • Author
  • Known Participant
  • November 3, 2020

Yes, this is frustrating. This is happening because Airtable is already accounting for daylight savings time ending on November 1st, even though it really shouldn’t be accounting for that until it ACTUALLY IS November 1st.

I personally believe that this is a problem/bug in the product, and I urge you to please email support@airtable.com about this issue to see if they can address it.

I’ve received many calls about this from my Airtable consulting clients who have been frustrated & confused about this unintuitive behavior.

What makes this even more difficult is — how are we supposed to type in times for future events that are beyond the date of the daylight savings time change? There is no clarity on that.


Hi @ScottWorld - just got this response from support. Will test it out later today:

Thanks for your patience with this.

I just heard back from our engineers that this issue should now be fixed. Could you check on your end to see if things are working correctly now?

The time calculation issue is happening because your calendar is currently in the PDT mode but you are trying to add an event in PST time. To fix this, you could explicitly add PST to the end of the times, however, you may not need to use this workaround if the problem is fixed now.

Let me know how it goes~~

ScottWorld
Forum|alt.badge.img+35
  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • November 4, 2020

Hi @ScottWorld - just got this response from support. Will test it out later today:

Thanks for your patience with this.

I just heard back from our engineers that this issue should now be fixed. Could you check on your end to see if things are working correctly now?

The time calculation issue is happening because your calendar is currently in the PDT mode but you are trying to add an event in PST time. To fix this, you could explicitly add PST to the end of the times, however, you may not need to use this workaround if the problem is fixed now.

Let me know how it goes~~


Not sure what they mean by adding PST to the time… that can’t be done in a date field, but it can be done with a formula field.

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement