Microsoft's Canada timezone troubles leave admins fixing calendars, pretending they're in Bogota

Microsoft is grappling with the aftermath of Canada's decision to abandon seasonal clock changes. On November 1, parts of British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba switched to permanent UTC-07:00, UTC-06:00 and UTC-05:00 time zones, respectively, causing headaches for software administrators. Microsoft's software hasn't fully adapted to the new time settings, leading to incorrect times, broken schedules, and a slew of workarounds.

Outlook users have been hit the hardest, as switching the time zone doesn't automatically update calendar entries, potentially causing meetings to be an hour off. Microsoft advises users to change their Outlook calendar time zone, then manually adjust upcoming events and meetings. Recurring meetings pose an additional challenge, as changing the time zone resets previous occurrences, requiring them to be recreated.

Microsoft is working on a solution for non-recurring meetings, but a fix for recurring meetings is still in development. SharePoint On-Prem customers must wait until November 10 for the correct time zones. Power Pages users could see server-formatted dates appear an hour off until Microsoft resolves the issue, expected by December 12.

Admins are frustrated with Microsoft's guidance, with some having to write hundreds of lines of PowerShell code to fix Outlook settings and calendar events. Microsoft published its guidance on October 26, less than a week before the change took effect, and added affected products and workarounds four days later, leaving little time for administrators to test for potential issues.

Microsoft has faced similar challenges before, such as in 2022 when Chile delayed its daylight saving time switch, prompting Microsoft to warn about potential clock and scheduling problems.