You'd think adjusting a clock would be the easiest thing you do on a smartphone. It isn't always. Sometimes you're crossing a time zone and your phone stays stubbornly stuck on home time, or maybe you're one of those people who likes to set their watch five minutes fast so they aren't late for meetings. Whatever the reason, knowing how to change time on iPhone is a basic skill that occasionally hits a brick wall thanks to Apple’s deep-seated security settings.
Honestly, most of us never touch these settings. iOS is usually brilliant at grabbing the local time from cellular towers or GPS. But when it fails? It’s incredibly annoying. Your alarms go off late. Your calendar invites look like a mess.
The standard way to flip the switch
If everything is working correctly, you basically just need to dive into the Settings app. Open Settings, tap General, and then hit Date & Time.
Most iPhones have Set Automatically toggled on by default. To take manual control, you have to flick that switch off. Once it's off, a blue date and time will appear below your time zone. Tap that, and you can scroll through the wheels to pick whatever time you want. It’s simple, or at least it should be.
But here is where things get weird. Sometimes that "Set Automatically" toggle is dimmed. You tap it, and nothing happens. It’s greyed out, mocking you. This usually happens because of Screen Time restrictions or a corporate profile installed by your employer. If you’re using a work phone, your IT department might have locked the clock to prevent you from bypassing security protocols or "gaming" certain time-stamped apps.
Why the "Set Automatically" toggle gets stuck
If you can’t change time on iPhone because the option is locked, the first culprit is almost always Screen Time. Apple designed Screen Time to help people manage their digital habits, but it also includes "Content & Privacy Restrictions" that can lock down system settings.
To fix this, go to Settings > Screen Time. If you have a passcode set, you'll need to enter it. Look for Content & Privacy Restrictions. Now, you could just turn the whole thing off, but if you want to keep your restrictions active while only fixing the clock, look for Location Services inside that menu. If Location Services is set to "Don't Allow Changes," your iPhone won't let you mess with the time zone settings because the time zone is often tied to your GPS location.
Another weird quirk? Sometimes a simple restart fixes a "stuck" clock. It sounds like advice from 1998, but the internal "timed" process in iOS can occasionally hang. Hold the side button and volume up, slide to power off, wait thirty seconds, and boot it back up.
The "Time Zone" trap in 2026
We live in a world where GPS is everywhere, yet iPhones still get confused. If you’re traveling near a border—say, between Arizona (which doesn't observe Daylight Saving) and New Mexico—your phone might flip-flop every five minutes. This drains your battery. Why? Because the phone is constantly pinging towers to figure out where it is.
In this specific scenario, manually setting your time zone is a lifesaver. Instead of just changing the "time," you should search for the specific city. Tap the Time Zone field in the Date & Time menu and type in "Phoenix" or "Denver." This hard-locks the phone to that offset regardless of what the nearest cell tower says.
Does changing the time mess with your apps?
Yes. Heavily.
If you change time on iPhone to a future date to get more lives in a game or bypass a waiting period, you might break your other apps. Many secure apps, like banking tools or Outlook, use "certificates" to verify your identity. These certificates have expiration dates. If your phone thinks it is the year 2030, it will see a 2026 certificate and think it’s expired. You'll get "Connection Not Private" errors in Safari and your emails will stop syncing.
Interestingly, the "time travel" trick for games like Candy Crush is well-known by developers now. Most modern games check their own servers for the "real" time, rendering your manual iPhone clock changes useless for cheating.
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Dealing with the 24-hour clock
Some people just hate the 12-hour AM/PM system. It’s confusing. Is 12:00 PM noon or midnight? (It's noon, by the way). If you want to switch to military time, that’s in the same Date & Time menu. Just toggle the 24-Hour Time switch.
This is actually a great tip for travelers. Most international flight schedules use the 24-hour format. Having your phone match your boarding pass reduces the "mental math" at 3:00 AM in a foreign airport.
When the hardware is the problem
If your iPhone loses time every time it dies or restarts, you might have a deeper hardware issue. While iPhones don’t have a "CMOS battery" like an old desktop PC, they do rely on the main lithium-ion battery to maintain the internal clock state. If your battery health is significantly degraded—think below 80%—the voltage might drop enough that the clock resets to a default date like January 1, 1970, when the phone hits 0%.
If you see 1970 on your screen, don't panic. Just connect to Wi-Fi. The phone will reach out to Apple's NTP (Network Time Protocol) servers and snap back to the present.
Steps to take right now
- Check your General > Date & Time settings to see if "Set Automatically" is active.
- If the toggle is greyed out, navigate to Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions and ensure Location Services and System Changes are allowed.
- For those traveling, manually select a Time Zone city rather than relying on the "Set Automatically" feature to avoid "clock-drift" near borders.
- Verify your Region settings in General > Language & Region to ensure your calendar and temperature units match your new time settings.
Manual overrides are great, but for 99% of situations, keeping your iPhone synced to Apple's servers is the safest bet for app compatibility and security.