Imported Event’s Start/End Time Wildly Wrong

[bmcofnc]

I’ve seen a few posts with this problem, but not exactly this range of error. The 3.2 update hasn’t made a difference.

Specifically, the following FB event (which has a real location with a street address, and so presumably is passing the “EST” timezone displayed in FB through [even though we’re now in EDT!]):
https://www.facebook.com/events/674939622550724

The start time is 1:30PM, but the event gets imported as starting at 5:30AM and finishing at 8:30AM. (No end time has been set in the FB event.) I have deleted and reimported the event several times now with the same resultant timings, with and without plugins and themes active.

I’ve updated the event’s time by hand on our WP events calendar, but this defeats the advantage of an automatic importer. Any ideas? Thanks!

[bmcofnc]

I saw ‘s post regarding time zones set in code possibly having an effect.
My hosting company had a default set in my php.ini – I tried commenting that out to no avail:
php.ini:;date.timezone = “America/New_York”

The only places I see the function call _ mentions are here:
$ grep -r “date_default_timezone” *
wp-admin/options-general.php: date_default_timezone_set($tzstring);
wp-admin/options-general.php: date_default_timezone_set(‘UTC’);
wp-content/plugins/user-avatar/user-avatar-pic.php~: date_default_timezone_set(‘UTC’);
wp-content/plugins/user-avatar/user-avatar-pic.php: date_default_timezone_set(‘UTC’);
wp-settings.php:date_default_timezone_set( ‘UTC’ );

I’ll try disabling the user-avatar-pic plugin again tomorrow and go through another test iteration, but I’m pretty sure I had that disabled and it still came through as 5:30am-8:30am. Can someone try importing the above event and see if you get that time frame, or another?

[bmcofnc]

Sorry, it’s late – the post I was attempting to refer to above was Cristiana’s, here:

Imported time is off by 4 hours

[Julie Kuehl]

Hi bmcofnc,

OK, I was able to import to my set up and have it display the appropriate time (it’s 12:30 CST for me). So It’s something with your set up I’m thinking. Have you changed the timezone in the WordPress Settings > General? If so, did you select a UTC time? We’ve had some wonkiness with those, so I’ll suggest that you pick a city instead. New York should work.

Can you confirm that those settings are correct before we dig deeper?

— Julie

[bmcofnc]

I have the site’s time zone set to New York under Settings > General. I did previously try changing it to UTC-5, but got the same result.

[Leah]

Hi bmcofnc,

I just tried importing this event and I also had it import correctly. I had my time set to New York to match yours, and the event came in with a Start Time of 1:30pm. It also had an End Time of 1:30pm, which is currently the closest we get to no end time- it won’t show an end time on most views. Since both Kelly and I were able to import it, I’m thinking it might be something funky with your system.

Can you please go to the Events –> Help page and copy all the information in the black box here? (You can use a private reply to keep the info secure). That will help us dig further into this issue.

Thank you,
Leah

[bmcofnc]

Apologies on the delayed response – we were out of town for the weekend hosting a charity event, and work has been busy.

I can’t find the black box you’re referencing – when I click on Events -> Help, I end up at Events -> Settings under the Help tab. (I assume that’s intended.) On that page I see “Getting Started,” “Support Resources To Help You Kick Ass,” and several other sections of information. Any tips on finding the box you’re describing?

The date discrepancy unfortunately bit us yesterday – one of our chapters had an event at 7:00PM last night that was advertised on our site as 11:00am, so I’m positive we’re still seeing the effects, whatever their cause.

Thanks for your help!

[bmcofnc]

Here’s the white box at the top right – I don’t see any private info I’d want to send in a private message so I’m sure this isn’t what you’re looking for, but for what it’s worth:

The Events Calendar

You are up to date!

Latest Version: 3.2
Author: Modern Tribe Inc
Requires: WordPress 3.6+

[bmcofnc]

To try and narrow down the apparently schizophrenic time zone effect, I’ve gone back and re-checked the time zone (set to “New York”), and the time is correct: 14:58pm. I also started a new post, and changing the “Publish immediately” setting popped up the current (and correct) time, too.

From what I’ve seen so far, it seems like WordPress proper is honoring the time zone setting consistently.

[Julie Kuehl]

Hello again bmcofnc,

The black box we are referring to is at the bottom of the Events > Settings > Help tab. You might have to scroll down a ways to get to it. It sounds like you were very close! And it’s your choice if it’s private or not. It’s mostly a list of plugins and setting specific to your system.

So, trying to sort out all the information here, the time zone is correct if you enter an event directly in WordPress, but comes in -8 hours if imported from Facebook? That is, Facebook time is 7:00 pm, but imported time is 11:00 am?

— Julie

[bmcofnc]

That is correct – the Time Zone is correct if I enter an event directly in WordPress, but it comes in -8 hours if imported from Facebook. The event was indeed at 7:00pm in FB, but imported as 11:00am.

Hmm – I don’t see a black box display on the page at all. :\
Here’s what I see at the bottom of the page:

Not getting help?

If you find that you aren’t getting the level of service you’ve come to expect from Modern Tribe, shoot us an email at [email protected] or tweet @moderntribeinc and tell us why. We’ll do what we can to make it right.

Thank you for creating with WordPress.
Version 3.7.1

[Julie Kuehl]

Hi bmcofnc,

Oh, my apologies on the black box info. I thought you also had our PRO add-on installed. Never mind about that then.

Boy, I’m just not able to duplicate that here. Does it happen for you consistently on a variety of events? Have you tried importing from other Facebook Pages? What happens if you set your WordPress time to just straight up UTC? Does the discrepancy still show up?

I will admit to being a bit stumped on this one.

— Julie

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