Power Apps Time zones, UTC, SharePoint, and Excel

In this video, you will learn about PowerApps timezones and UTC and how they play out when working with data sources like SharePoint and Excel. If you ever wonder why you see the wrong time or date in your apps or datasources this is the video for you.

#PowerAppsTimeZones

[derek_shannon]

Wow, Shane, super "timely" video ;-D Seriously, though, this video helps me better understand a bug we had to fix for our app, where users in Europe for example suddenly couldn't see any data since the date filters didn't line up, even though it seemed fine within the Eastern time zone it was created in.

[debbiecheok]

i just want to take this comment to say you are a real life saver!! there are some changes from 3 years ago on the formula tho, but this still gave me such a quick fix!!!!

[theelectricsheep]

Wow, that was so intense, my brain has chucked out a whole chunk of my childhood memories to make room for what I have just learned.

[MattSchuessler]

Great Video. This topic is such a cluster but fundamental for Devs to understand. Thank you for sharing it!

[kayfax]

Thank you so much for this - I love the "are you going to watch this video 10 times? Probably!".
My kids are starting to mimic you, that's how often I watch it.
This solved soo many issues for me.
Inspired by your video I checked the settings on our Sharepoint Sites and surprise, according to SharePoint, we were in California, although actually in Central Europe... Now I understood why all date-entries in my list were wrong after entering...
Also, I am working on an app, where, based on a Dropdown selection, the output of a form input needs to be used in a Html or RichText in three different languages (EN, GE, FR, hurray multiple speaking countries), AND therefore needed to output the date WITH weekday in three different languages, but AFTER the "view form (selected item)" had turned the original date into a text value... so thanks to you it is now converting it back to date value, and then outputting with a weekday :-)

[ashokpershad]

As always great and important video...since long I faced this issue from last two years when I used excel as data source..I tried every way to resolve but finally let it go...today I understand why it happened 😁

[nagamanikantaamudalapalli]

This Time Issues really melted my Brain. So Much Helpful video, Thank you.

[paulkroon]

He Shane, nice to hear you're in the Netherlands. I hope you enjoy your stay.

I would like to share a approach I always use. The date I don't store as a date but as an iso formatted number (20201123). Based on this number field I calculated a date field purely for display purposes. An extra benefit with this approach is that indexing and filtering is more optimized with a number which will speed up your apps.

If I need to show the real time, lets say 9 should stay 9 always, I also add a number field to store the offset from utctime.

Always enjoy looking at you're video's Shane.

[franknielsen]

My head just Also having challenges when I combine SharePoint with Power Automate, and have to do something with the time. Can be a bit frustrating, but at least I now Know why. THX a lot for great tutorial :)

And have a great day

[miltinhocamo]

Thanks a lot Shane ... you responded to me all my doubts about the crazy utc behavior, questions i did to you a few days ago... Good job.

[lucianojesusdeoliveira]

This video saved my day, Shane! Thanks, man! Greetings from Brazil! :)

[ketimouravidze]

Shane, i wish you were my uncle.
Thank you for the video

[tenisviejos]

Great video, Thank you! This is extremely useful, no matter the app/platform!

[Sustainable.]

You are best of the best Shane 😍, , thank you, most kind 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[mvos]

Hi Shane, thanks for your very clear explanation. I'm busy with an app that will be used across the world with the data source (D365 Business Central) in The Netherlands. I'm warned now. Thanks!

[stevenned]

Man what a great video again. It is ridiculous that several components in de Power Platform as in Sharepoint and Excel all can use different time zones. I had hard discussions with Microsoft about this. In your video I hoped to see a calculated column in your list based on de function now() (So calculated in SPO). I have that and it returns always the Pacific time zone: ALWAYS! Even when I have my SPO site regional settings on Amsterdam time It also the case with other columns with a time stamp. Really annoying. To solve this, I tried two days to find all time settings in my 365 settings because I thought there were some internal conflicts between time zone settings. Unbelievable on how many places you can edit time zone settings. I didn't count but I think there are more than 15 places where you can change they all interact on an other part in 365.
Your video brings some work arounds and I'm happy with that but it shows also that Microsoft have some work to do.
Save a time field as Ridiculous.
Greetz from the Netherlands.
Steven

[davidmckenzie]

I'm glad I live in the UK, this is UTC+0 ;-) Well at least until Daylight Savings Time adds an hour!

[kimgaskins]

Shane, we're having a time issue and we are NOT using a Sharepoint list, we're using the dataverse. We select 6/30, the actual value stored (via the flow) in the table is 6/29. We'll try .JustDate and see if that makes a difference.

[stayalive]

Shane: "Hopefully I suffetiently melted your brain" My brain is happy with this info :)

[sadelina]

Thanks I change time zone in sharepoint ang all works :D