# How to change the timezone associated with a batch of observations? **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Tags:** web, question\ **Created:** [January 25, 2021, 6:34pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710 "2021-01-25T18:34:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![trscavo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/trscavo/32/3386_2.png) [@trscavo](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/trscavo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 6:34pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/1 "2021-01-25T18:34:03Z")
My [question about timezones](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/time-zones-are-they-important-how-do-you-change-it/4718) was asked previously in the forum but apparently not answered: How do I change the timezone associated with a batch of observations? When the new settings dialog was announced, I changed my default timezone to the correct timezone. Prior to that, I didn’t realize I had control over the default timezone. Consequently, I have 1000s of observations with an observed date having an incorrect timezone. It turns out the incorrect timezone I had been using all along is offset from the correct timezone by one, that is, the observed dates are off by one hour. Maybe that’s not a big deal, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![marina\_gorbunova](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/marina_gorbunova/32/31454_2.png) [@marina\_gorbunova](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/marina_gorbunova)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 8:06pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/2 "2021-01-25T20:06:21Z")
Go to profile, edit observations, and there you can edit timezone in bulk. ---
**Author:** ![kiwifergus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/kiwifergus/32/1904_2.png) [@kiwifergus](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/kiwifergus)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 8:54pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/3 "2021-01-25T20:54:35Z")
I don’t think you can alter the timezone independently from the actual time on multiple observations… any bulk edit is likely to make the time the same on all. For a one hour difference I would just let it slide… if you felt it was worth the effort, you could bulk add a description that describes why the time is out by one hour… or perhaps a tag or field alluding to the “time is out by one hour” status. The later could be explained in a journal post, and then if anyone asks what the tag or field is about, you just reply with the link to the journal post (rather than explaining repeatedly). ---
**Author:** ![trscavo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/trscavo/32/3386_2.png) [@trscavo](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/trscavo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/4 "2021-01-25T22:01:07Z")
> [@kiwifergus](#): > > I don’t think you can alter the timezone independently from the actual time on multiple observations… any bulk edit is likely to make the time the same on all. I tried it before I read your suggestion and it seems to work (sort of). I changed the timezone on 81 observations without disturbing the rest of the observed date. However, the operation terminated abnormally with 504 Gateway Timeout. I guess there were too many observations in the batch. I have about 4,800 observations with an incorrect timezone. Given the above result, I don’t see any reasonable way to change the timezone on all of them. ---
**Author:** ![cthawley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/cthawley/32/1445_2.png) [@cthawley](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/cthawley)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 10:24pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/5 "2021-01-25T22:24:37Z")
Yeah, for one hour, I wouldn’t worry too much. Worst case scenario an observation around midnight ends up being off by a day. I don’t think this would be a serious impact on most research uses for any data. ---
**Author:** ![kiwifergus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/kiwifergus/32/1904_2.png) [@kiwifergus](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/kiwifergus)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 11:04pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/6 "2021-01-25T23:04:02Z")
> [@trscavo](#): > > the operation terminated abnormally with 504 Gateway Timeout. I guess there were too many observations in the batch. check the results though. I recall something about a bulk edit, or perhaps it was a csv download, generating an error even though it completes satisfactorily. ---
**Author:** ![marina\_gorbunova](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/marina_gorbunova/32/31454_2.png) [@marina\_gorbunova](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/marina_gorbunova)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 8:06am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/7 "2021-01-26T08:06:36Z")
It doesn’t change time right now, only time zone, I tried. ---
**Author:** ![jon\_sullivan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/jon_sullivan/32/242_2.png) [@jon\_sullivan](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jon_sullivan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 9:01am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/8 "2021-01-26T09:01:59Z")
Yes, good point. Sometimes I get that error too and then check back later and everything has been changed. (The better solution though it not to try such big batches at once.) ---
**Author:** ![trscavo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/trscavo/32/3386_2.png) [@trscavo](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/trscavo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 2:27pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/9 "2021-01-26T14:27:33Z")
> [@kiwifergus](#): > > check the results though. The results look good to me. Here are the 81 observations I changed from Atlantic Time to Eastern Time: [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2020-04-25&order=asc&order\_by=observed\_on&place\_id=48&subview=table&user\_id=trscavo](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2020-04-25&order=asc&order_by=observed_on&place_id=48&subview=table&user_id=trscavo) How do I tell if the observations are corrupted? ---
**Author:** ![trscavo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/trscavo/32/3386_2.png) [@trscavo](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/trscavo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 2:39pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/10 "2021-01-26T14:39:07Z")
> [@cthawley](#): > > for one hour, I wouldn’t worry too much. Yeah, you’re probably right, but it’s annoying. I wish I would have caught this earlier. The onboarding process should have forced me to set a default timezone. I had no idea that contributed to the observed date. It should be taking the observed date from photo metadata where possible, right? ---
**Author:** ![marina\_gorbunova](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/marina_gorbunova/32/31454_2.png) [@marina\_gorbunova](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/marina_gorbunova)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 3:38pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/11 "2021-01-26T15:38:49Z")
Bulk editing (time-related or not) often results in timeout bug, but it still saves changes, if not for all observations chosen but for part of them. > [@trscavo](#): > > How do I tell if the observations are corrupted? Check what time they had before and after, you can see it in EXIF of files right on website or on your storage device. ---
**Author:** ![kiwifergus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/kiwifergus/32/1904_2.png) [@kiwifergus](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/kiwifergus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 6:51pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/12 "2021-01-26T18:51:32Z")
They won’t be corrupted… the time out error is more about how long your browser waits for the response that it ran ok, but the processing at the other end is not dependent on your browser waiting to find out that it completed ok… I was more suggesting that if you do check, that you’d find that they ran ok despite the error… :) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/7/7831452cf7f0d653ff1ffd34176334b7ef1b6a17.png) [@system](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2021, 6:51pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-change-the-timezone-associated-with-a-batch-of-observations/19710/13 "2021-03-27T18:51:53Z")
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