Incorrect Time Displayed on Tri Band Phone After Placing A Call

[The_Chemist]

I am experiencing a very strange issue on my Samsung Galaxy Mega Tri Band Phone.

 

I have searched the forums before posting this, and found no similar issues. Please forgive me if this was already posted elsewhere.

 

Upon a fresh boot, my Samsung Galaxy Mega displays the correct time. When I place a call, the time falls back 1 hour.

 

I'm not exactly sure how a cell phone grabs the time from the cellular system, but it appears that when my phone falls back to 3G for the call, the time resets to what the Shentel tower is broadcasting on 3G.

 

Are there separate time coordinations for LTE and 3G?

 

I can set the time manually to avoid the error, but that defeats the whole purpose of accurate time.

 

Does anyone else have this issue in the Harrisburg area? Has anyone else ever experienced this?

 

Maybe when the Mega falls back to take the call it interprets that literally as the end of daylight saving time and it "Falls Back" one hour!

 

Thinks

 

EDIT: This phenomenon happens when receiving a call as well.  As long as the phone falls back to 3G for a call, the time falls back one hour as well.  The only way to correct the time is to manually set it or reboot the phone.

[dedub]

sounds like a tower that got upgraded and has the wrong timezone or daylight savings setting configured

[The_Chemist]

sounds like a tower that got upgraded and has the wrong timezone or daylight savings setting configured

That's what I thought, but upon a fresh boot the phone is on LTE.  Only when it falls back to 3G does the time get messed up.  Does LTE and 3G broadcast separate times? 

[dedub]

possible, also possible that your 3g connection is a different tower from your lte connection.

[S4GRU]

LTE and 3G keep time different from each other on the Sprint network.  I remember when Sprint first started firing up LTE they had problems where the LTE was on one time zone, but 3G on another.  And the phone kept changing times depending on the signal.  People were going bonkers.  It was exceptionally bad around Hammond, Indiana.

[uecker87]

LTE and 3G keep time different from each other on the Sprint network.  I remember when Sprint first started firing up LTE they had problems where the LTE was on one time zone, but 3G on another.  And the phone kept changing times depending on the signal.  People were going bonkers.  It was exceptionally bad around Hammond, Indiana.

 

Yeah, my old home tower in Baraboo, WI had that for probably about a month before they finally fixed it (last November). 

 

OP - It should get fixed, but it wouldn't hurt to let someone at Sprint know.

[dedub]

if you have the sprint zone app, you should be able to file a report on it: network > report issue

[The_Chemist]

if you have the sprint zone app, you should be able to file a report on it: network > report issue

I do have the app, but you are limited to a dropdown list with pre-selected issues. There was no "other" choice for a problem not listed. 

[The_Chemist]

Thanks for the replies. 

 

I'm in the Hershey PA area right now and the problem exists here as well. 

 

There must be an entire cluster of Shentel towers with this problem. 

 

When my girlfriend gets home from work today, I'll check her Samsung S4T. If her phone exhibits the problem as well, I'll contact Sprint. 

[Galaxyguy]

I also noticed this problem since yesterday. I'm also in Shentel-land but much further south. To fix it, I just turned off automatic update of time zone and it's been fine ever since. My phone was showing I was in Central time. Not sure what Shentel did in the last couple days but I hope they get it fixed. It did not effect my work phone which is an old flip phone. 

 

I remember having this same problem when I was in Panama City, FL back in 2003 on Verizon, but that city lies right on the Eastern/Central time border. I'm nowhere near the Central time zone in VA. 

[The_Chemist]

I also noticed this problem since yesterday. I'm also in Shentel-land but much further south. To fix it, I just turned off automatic update of time zone and it's been fine ever since. My phone was showing I was in Central time. Not sure what Shentel did in the last couple days but I hope they get it fixed. It did not effect my work phone which is an old flip phone. 

 

I remember having this same problem when I was in Panama City, FL back in 2003 on Verizon, but that city lies right on the Eastern/Central time border. I'm nowhere near the Central time zone in VA. 

My girlfriend's Samsung S4T had the same problem as well  tonight. I called Sprint and reported the issue. Hopefully they will let Shentel know there is a problem so it can be corrected. 

[bakedc4]

I just tried it with my M8 with no issue here in Winchester. Called three different lines on two different providers and the time stayed the same. I'll be in Hershey tomorrow with my brother (regular gs4) and we'll test it a few times on the way up.

 

edit: Texting my brother this morning the timestamp is alternating between the correct time and four hours behind for his messages. The only other time I've encountered something like this was deep in the woods of WV roaming on US Cellular where all received messages showed six hours ahead. I know the roaming bug has been around forever and still isn't fixed but I've never had it with native service.

[jaybiz81]

I remember years ago with the original Evo, it would suddenly say I was in a town in southern Spain when I went on WiMax near my work in the Bronx. It was January and my phone would suddenly change to hours later and 75 degrees warm with weather. It was a nice mental picture while walking to the subway in frigid temperatures. Haha

[The_Chemist]

I reported the incorrect time issue to Sprint last evening around 5:45 pm. Just tried it now, and all was well. Apparently the word was passed along to Shentel , who took action.   At least the Harrisburg area appears good now. 

 

It's interesting that time for 3G and LTE come from separate sources. 

[jlbattagli]

This may be entirely coincidental, but my wife and I spent most of last week in the Baraboo, WI area (went to the Circus Museum, among other things). Got back home late Thursday night, and Friday afternoon she complained that her EVO 4G LTE was still on Wisconsin time. A full power cycle was required to get back on EDT. My LG G2 had no issue, so far as I noticed. I'm pretty sure there is no way her phone held on to a tower in the Central Time Zone for that long...

 

Or heck, maybe it has to do with these solar storms heading our way

[The_Chemist]

Well, I retract my statement above that the time is now correct. It's still 1 hour behind.

 

For whatever reason the weather widget is showing the correct time. The phone system time is behind by an hour. 

 

My girlfriend's S4T is behaving the exact same way. Hmmmm?

[bakedc4]

I tried six times while I was in Hershey and the time stayed correct. Each call lasted about 45 seconds and all where on B26 to start.

[The_Chemist]

I tried six times while I was in Hershey and the time stayed correct. Each call lasted about 45 seconds and all where on B26 to start.

I'm in Harrisburg right now.  My phone system time is still 1 hour behind.  The weather widget is displaying the correct time though.  My girlfriend's phone (S4T) in Hummelstown has the same issues as mine.  System time behind by one hour and weather widget correct.  

 

The phone system time will eventually correct itself, but falls back one hour when a call is placed or received. 

 

I'm not sure how the whole time sync thing works on LTE.  Don't know how often it syncs, why or when. 

[cgi-bin]

My girlfriend has been having this issue with her S4 mini for a few days. We even went in to the Sprint store to have them look at it. We were told it is a "Samsung issue". Which boggles my mind that it could be the hardware manufacturer causing the issue. However, I use a Nexus 5, and my time is correct. So, it could be how the manufacturer implements their time/date functions. I would hope that the manufacturer wouldn't tinker with such a core piece of functionality within the Android source code, but at this point it wouldn't surprise me.

 

Furthermore, I used to have a Samsung S3 before I upgraded last year, and I do recall a few times having an issue similar to this with my phone. 

 

We are in Mechanicsburg, which is very close to Harrisburg/Hershey area where the others have reported this. My gut feeling is that this has to be a tower/network issue. However, seeing that all of the people reporting the issue thus far are using Samsung phones, perhaps it is a manufacturer issue.

[The_Chemist]

My girlfriend has been having this issue with her S4 mini for a few days. We even went in to the Sprint store to have them look at it. We were told it is a "Samsung issue". Which boggles my mind that it could be the hardware manufacturer causing the issue. However, I use a Nexus 5, and my time is correct. So, it could be how the manufacturer implements their time/date functions. I would hope that the manufacturer wouldn't tinker with such a core piece of functionality within the Android source code, but at this point it wouldn't surprise me.

 

Furthermore, I used to have a Samsung S3 before I upgraded last year, and I do recall a few times having an issue similar to this with my phone. 

 

We are in Mechanicsburg, which is very close to Harrisburg/Hershey area where the others have reported this. My gut feeling is that this has to be a tower/network issue. However, seeing that all of the people reporting the issue thus far are using Samsung phones, perhaps it is a manufacturer issue.

Yeah, that's a good point.  So far only Samsung users have reported issues.  The phone is correct until it falls back to 3G to receive or place a call. 

 

This only started towards the later part of last week.  Hopefully Samsung didn't screw something up with an update that started all this nonsense.

 

All the time stamps are incorrect on my incoming and outgoing email as well. 

 

I wish I knew  why, when and how the phones are supposed to sync time over LTE. 

[superbelt]

It's not just a Samsung issue.

 

My wife has a Galaxy S5.  I have a LG G3, we are both having the clock issue.

 

I've been in the Hershey/Harrisburg/Mechanicsburg/York area the past few days and have experienced it in all regions.  I was late to work on Thursday last week because of it.  But noticed it first on September 10th.  Thought it was just a glitch, restarted my phone and went about my day.

 

Currently showing 10:30 when it's 11:32.

[The_Chemist]

It's not just a Samsung issue.

 

My wife has a Galaxy S5.  I have a LG G3, we are both having the clock issue.

 

I've been in the Hershey/Harrisburg/Mechanicsburg/York area the past few days and have experienced it in all regions.  I was late to work on Thursday last week because of it.  But noticed it first on September 10th.  Thought it was just a glitch, restarted my phone and went about my day.

 

Currently showing 10:30 when it's 11:32.

Alright then...  This is most definitely a Shentel issue.  I called and reported it to Sprint Friday evening.  Sprint may not have passed it along to the appropriate field engineer.  Or else, it's just low priority.  My girlfriend was late this morning because of it as well!

 

More people should start calling to report the issue.  Maybe then it will get bumped up a few notches!

[superbelt]

Would it be helpful for us to call Shentel (1-800-SHENTEL) directly?

[The_Chemist]

Would it be helpful for us to call Shentel (1-800-SHENTEL) directly?

Possibly so, if we can get transferred to the appropriate department.  Shentel takes their network performance very seriously!  At Sprint, the call may be "forgotten about" as soon as we hang up.  I guess it's up to each individual CSR to follow up on the report.