Microsoft's Canada Timezone Troubles Leave Admins Fixing Calendars, Pretending They're In Bogota

Microsoft is grappling with time-zone issues across various products, including Outlook, Power Automate, Fabric, SharePoint, and others, following a change in time-keeping on November 1 for parts of Canada. The company has acknowledged problems spanning its software suite, resulting in inaccurate times, disrupted schedules, and a range of workarounds while Redmond works to resolve the issue.

Outlook users face the most challenges, as switching to the updated Canadian time zones won't automatically adjust existing calendar entries. Meetings scheduled after November 1 are at risk of being an hour off; only the organizer can modify them, and recurring meetings present an additional hurdle as changing the time zone erases any previously adjusted occurrences, requiring their recreation.

Microsoft is developing a PowerShell cmdlet to address non-recurring meetings, but this fix isn't expected until later in the week. For Power Automate and Fabric, Microsoft's temporary solution involves setting the time zone to a different location, such as Saskatchewan, Arizona, or even Bogota for Manitobans. SharePoint On-Prem users must await November 10 for correct time zones, while Power Pages customers may encounter server-formatted dates one hour off until a service fix is released by December 12.