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Time Zone issue - most all users are 7 hours ahead.

Hey everyone, all of the sudden my forum is experiencing some serious time zone issues. When I post, it shows my correct time, however, when any of my users post (and most all are just 2 or 1 hour different than my time zone), all of their posts show up 7 hours into the future.

Example:

1) I post now at 1:13pm and that time stamp is correct.
2) 2-3 other users post, let's say the EAST COAST (so 2 hours ahead of me), it's showing them posting at 8:13pm.

This was not the case yesterday, but all of the sudden this occured.

The only thing I've changed was I deactivated and reactivated some plugins, but did not delete any. I did this because I received a few time out errors. That was fixed by deactivating/reactivating, but I reactivated everything.

Could anyone help me resolve this issue so that all most posts on my forum are in order of earliest to latest like it's always been? Thanks.

http://draftcalc.com/forums/

Comments

  • Oh, and Im running: Version 2.0.18.8

  • peregrineperegrine MVP
    edited December 2013

    look in the user table - column HourOffset

    this is the hours that will be added or subtracted for each user.

    find out which users have bad offsets and fix.

    if a user fsigned up for your forum from another timezone than the normally login from,
    it will use the timezone they first logged in under. this can be fixed by going to user table and modifying HourOffset column for the specific user.

    if all users are pretty much off you could set all users to a certain HourOffset with a update command in sql

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • Ok, this might sound dumb, but where is the table located? Only problem is, this appears to be for many people (and just happened, this was never an issue before), so I'm not sure what to set everyone to (there could be quite a bit, it seems like everyone is 7 hours different than me (and my time is showing correct for my posts).

  • peregrineperegrine MVP
    edited December 2013

    did your server timezone change or did host provider change anything? You might contact them.

    read up on phpmyadmin - very useful google it. you probably have access to it on your host provider, ask your host how to get to it.

    and you are talking about logged in users experiencing odd times correct.

    because if you are not logged in the times will almost always be out of synch.

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • The database has not moved, however I was exploring using it on a .net, so the files were uploaded and the that .net version was/is sharing the database for that testing. Past that, the database has not moved. Think that has anything to do with it (the files being on my .com and .net). I plan to remove the .net, it was a move I was going to make, but decided not to.

    Also, I called my hosting provider, they did some looking and said it is not on their end, and came back with this forum link (to vanillaforums.org :) ).

    I feel like it happened when i deactivated and reactivated my plugins. I guess I'm just trying to find the cause vs. trying to do all this altering of tables.

    So no other ideas other than going through myphpadmin (altering tables).

  • Pretty difficult to guess what did it. you haven't said what plugins you are using or what you disabled or if the server has a different timezone (re: com vs .net)

    you have too many variables that you are unsure about.

    .net is a different server correct? if the server you run your code on is in a different timezone that could cause a change. It doesn't explain why you have the correct time, unless you just created a new user for yourself.

    if you decide to alter user table to a specific HourOffset for all users. you can use this command

    the -8 in the example subrtracts 8 hours
    put whatever number you want.

    Update GDN_User SET HourOffset = -8
    

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • Ok, here is the strange part. I'm not changing time zones obviously, but I turned wifi off on my cell (which was showing my posts at 10pm, unlike my desktop which appeared to show me having the correct times for my posts)... and it shows some of my posts at 8am now, so it's now happening to me on my cell, in both directions, earlier and later. I just posted twice, both right now show 8am (on my cell on 3G).. then i jumped back on my desktop and the time looks correct again and so do everyone else's posts (they corrected to the appropriate time for my viewing, meaning no more 10pm posts and all show 320pm which is the current time). But, on my desktop, in a few mins, it will change back from time to time, showing everyone posting at 10pm ish instead of 3pm ish.

    Thoughts on what this could be? It's madness lol, but bad for business. I haven't looked at the table yet, plan to, but sounds like something else anyway.

  • But, on my desktop, in a few mins, it will change back from time to time, showing everyone posting at 10pm ish instead of 3pm ish.

    the only way I could envision this happening is if you lose your cookie and it thinks you are logged out.

    Do the "improper times" reflect the time you see when you are not logged in, assuming you are not using the timezone plugin. http://vanillaforums.org/addon/timezoneadjust-plugin. And I am not telling you use it, just verifying that you don't use it.

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • No I don't use that plugin. So here is what I think is happening. Tell me if you think this makes sense.

    Remember I told you I have the files (not databases) on two different sites, one is a test site to see if moving the forums was something I wanted to do? Well, I think a few regular posters have that .net, as I had some testing going on on it. I think those regulars may still be on the .net test site using the forums (while using the same database, different files). So, I will now just delete the test site all together so that the database isn't being accessed by two different site files. Think that will do the trick? I think so, because I have identified a few of the .net posters already and they are the ones with the off-base time zone. This doesn't explain why mine was off on my cell, although, it is very possible I clicked on a link from a PM (where I was sent an email alerting me of a VanillaForums PM) and it's quite possible I stayed on the .net after reading that.

    I'll report back if deleting this .net forum works (after i redirect it to the .com/forums.

    Thanks for the help and willingness to work though all the variables!

  • SmittySmitty New
    edited December 2013

    I hate to report back so early and the issues return on me, but this appeared to be the problem. All seems well again. As easy as it sounds to troubleshoot in hindsight, even when I moved away from the .NET/forums and changed all site links back to the .COM/forums, those small few that never switched back to the .COM/forums were unknowingly sending PMs to users that would trigger the .NET link to be included in the email regarding the VanillaForums PM lol (through a bookmark, because remember I kept the site files in place so for testing, but using the same single database). So, before I knew it, it was causing all kinds of time issues. And, on top of that, it was hard to tell what was fixed because I had 8 hour-into-the-future comments sitting on a lot of the recent topics, so it was tough to know what was new or old, or if it was all over and we were just looking at posts that had already been posted (but of course had a time stamp into the future)... so, the easiest way was to close some of those discussions, start new ones and monitor the new discussions.

    Again, I might be proclaiming victory here a bit early, but all seems well. Hope this self-inflicted experience helps someone else :)

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