NOW function showing wrong time

[Gwill1983]

Hi all,

I am trying to use the now function to show the current time in my excel online sheet, but it is returning a time 7 hours in the past.

I have checked my onedrive settings, outlook clock & PC clock and they are all set to the correct timezone so not sure how to fix this!

Any ideas?

 

[Anthony47]

Do you know that the cell will update the shown time only when something get recalculated in the workbook?

 

[Gwill1983]

Hi Anthony,

Thanks for this. Are you certain?

Each time I close and open the document then the time updates. If I set this up in a different cell now then the time shows as 3:24am, but it is 10:24 locally.......

 

[tyija1995]

Hey, not a proper solution but for temporary measures you could use =NOW()+(7/24), I am not sure how to fix the problem other than that I am afraid

 

[Gwill1983]

Perfect! Thanks.

I don't mind about the initial problem, just needed a way of fixing this! Perfect

 

[Anthony47]

Hi Anthony,

Thanks for this. Are you certain?

Each time I close and open the document then the time updates. If I set this up in a different cell now then the time shows as 3:24am, but it is 10:24 locally.......

I wanted that you were aware that once the time is set into the cell, that timevalue will not change by itsef untill excel does any calculation (enter some data, a new formula, data filter, save file, open file,....)
I understand that you have a fix, and maybe you are ok now; but I am curious to know if you mean that the timevalue you get at the moment that you enter the formula is different from the timevalue that is shown by the pc clock (so Windows says "It is 10:24" and Excel says "It is 3:24)
Another curiosity: you insert a formula and you get the wrong time; if you inspect the cell do you still view the formula or the timevalue? (I mean what you see in the formula bar)

Bye

 

[jasonb75]

Is it showing GMT instead of local time?

Change your display language and time zone in Microsoft 365 for Business - Microsoft Support

Set your Microsoft 365 display language and time zone in the same place.

support.office.com

 

[AhoyNC]

If you do a google search you'll see that this has been a issue with Excel Online for sometime. Also, didn't see any fix for the issue. Looks like it's using GMT.

 

[Gwill1983]

Thanks all.

Just to clarify, I was putting the formula into the cell =NOW() and setting the time format. It was showing the time as 3:24am when my time is 10:24am.

I did loads of google searching to find a solution, and couldn't so would see if anybody had a work around which I was supplied with earlier.

Once I added the formula then this remained what was shown when I selected the cell

 

[jasonb75]

If =NOW() is showing the wrong time, then it is a setting, not the formula. While the workaround might be 'correct' for now, it could potentially cause you additional problems later.

Did you check the link in post 7 to see if there is a setting that you missed?