Os X Won't Save Time Zone

T

ttown1079

Registered
I have *repeatedly* tried to set and save the time zone for my Powerbook. When I open Date & Time and set the time zone, it seems to be set correctly but the clock on the top pane never changes. I close Preferences and open it immediately and the time zone is set back to GMT. I cannot figure out how to save this.

I am running OS 10.4.2.
 
Hmm...

I suspect this is a bad file permission. Have you tried repairing permissions? (This is something the Disk Utility in the Utilities folder can do - it just checks against what it expects, and makes adjustments).

The file in question is /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist

If you're up for it, type this into the terminal, and give me the result:

Code: 
ls -lF /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist

(of course, press return)

So check your permissions, and let us know what you find.

Also, might be handy to load up the Console (in the Utilities folder as well), and see if any errors are reported when you try and change time zones and then exit from the Pref Pane).
 
kilo,
thanks for the reply. i've repaired the perms before w/ no luck.

i tailed the system.log and watched the console when trying to set and exit the time. no messages except for the authentication i have to do to change time settings.

.GlobalPreferences.plist is owned by me with a group of admin and the permissions are 644. Still no luck.

If I could find an error message somewhere, perhaps I could track it down but I have no idea where its failing.

Here is an portion from my .GlobalPreferences.plist after I tried to modify the TZ:

<key>com.apple.TimeZonePref.Last_Selected_City</key>
<array>
<string>35.050000</string>
<string>-90.00000</string>
<string>5</string>
<string>US/Central</string>
<string>US</string>
<string>Memphis</string>
<string>U.S.A.</string>
<string>Memphis</string>
<string>U.S.A.</string>
</array>
 
I have the exact same issue on my Mac Mini. I was hoping it was a PRAM but ..alas it wasn't.

-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 1461 Nov 3 16:13 /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist

These were the results of mine.

Any ideas? I just had the Hard drive replaced in my mini, and didn't have the problem before then - I had copied my old drive with CCCloner, and then imaged it back.
However, I don't see why any hardware issues would stop the software from changing the clock time zone.

Thanks,
jc
 
Here is an portion from my .GlobalPreferences.plist after I tried to modify the TZ:
Click to expand...
Your .GlobalPreferences.plist may be the problem. Like any preference file you can delete it and the system will replace it automatically. You will have to reset your preferences of course, but that is the standard "fix" when a plist change won't stick.
 
Thanks, everyone. I renamed the file and let the recreate on reboot. For the first time, I'm not in GMT. I appreciate the help.
 
I had the same prob. but I solved it in another way. I changed the time zone prefs in root user. It worked.
This came to my mind because of a problem I had before. For some reason, when the login window appeared, the keyboard was set to AZERTY, although everywhere else it was set as QWERTY. I went to the root user, and there the Keyboard input prefs were set to Belgium (the machine was installed from an image made by a Belgian). I changed it and it worked!
 
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