ICAL Google Calendar TimeZone is GMT

[Kevin]

When I import my Events Calendar Pro, Google Calendar is treating it as:
GMT+00:00) GMT (no daylight saving)
instead of my local timezone.

Can you add timezone support to the ICAL file based on the WordPress TimeZone so that dates and times can be properly displayed in external calendar viewers that are subscribed to the ICAL file.

BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Asia/Tokyo
X-LIC-LOCATION:Asia/Tokyo
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0900
TZOFFSETTO:+0900
TZNAME:JST
DTSTART:19700101T000000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE

[Rob]

Hey Kevin. Thanks for the note here and sorry to hear that you’re having issues. Can you give me some clearer steps to recreate so I can attempt to see your issue? Or better yet, a link to a problematic iCal file on your site? My tests so far have been unsuccessful.

Here was what I did:

1. Created a new event on my WP site, which has UTC-7 as the time zone.
2. Published and downloaded the iCal file.
3. Imported the iCal file into Google Calendar.
4. The event was set to occur during the same timeframe in both locations.

If you can shed some more light on it I’ll definitely troubleshoot and get an issue logged for the team as needed. Thanks for being patient and apologies for the inconvenience so far.

[Kevin]

Hi Rob,

Thank you for your support.. I think the difference is that I am subscribing to the iCAL file rather than importing it into Google Calendar.

In Google Calendar: Settings–> Calendars –> Browse other interesting Calendars –>Add by URL –> Then point it to my iCAL URL.

In my case: http://ctk2030somethings.org/calendar/ical

Google Calendar treats the iCAL file as GMT+00:00) GMT (no daylight saving)

I am GMT -4 EDT, and so my events are showing 4 hours earlier than they are published on my events calendar pro

I have imported other calendars from Yahoo and other sources, and they pickup correctly on Google Calendar, but they specify in the iCAL file the filezone using the BEGIN:VTIMEZONE…

So I think the resolution to this is: To Add the BEGIN:VTIMEZONE based upon the WP Settings..

[Andy Fragen]

@Rob, something to consider, when I throw Kevin’s ical feed at iCalendar Validator, http://severinghaus.org/projects/icv/ , I get the following error, though not fatal.

Your calendar is using an invalid newline format. Make sure to use \r\n to end lines rather than just \n (RFC 2445 §4.1).

[Andy Fragen]

@Kevin, I agree with you that your calendar is presenting itself as GMT+0. I am GMT-8 currently. I have subscribed to my own calendar and find the times are spot on in Google calendar.

Two things come to mind.

1. Check to see if you have the correct time zone selected within the Google calendar settings.
2. Check to see if you have the correct time zone selected within WordPress settings.

ECP does add the **X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles** tag to my ics files. It gets this from the WordPress settings. If you have your WP > Settings > General > Timezone set to something like UTC-4, try setting it to a nearby city in the list.

[Kevin]

Andy – Thank You!
Solution #2 solved the problem… Setting WP Settings to Americas/New York instead of GMT -5, added the X-WR-TIMEZONE to the ICAL file, which fixed Google Calendar and its now displaying it correctly.

[Jonah]

@Andy, thanks for the solution!

@Kevin, so are you all set with this now? Can I close the thread?

[Support Droid]

This topic has not been active for quite some time and will now be closed.

If you still need assistance please simply open a new topic (linking to this one if necessary)
and one of the team will be only too happy to help.

[Author]

Posts