# Is there a way to set that the camera time zone is UTC? **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [October 30, 2024, 8:57am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-set-that-the-camera-time-zone-is-utc/57767 "2024-10-30T08:57:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![phma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/phma/32/54376_2.png) [@phma](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/phma)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2024, 8:57am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-set-that-the-camera-time-zone-is-utc/57767/1 "2024-10-30T08:57:32Z")
Since the filesystem stores file times in UTC, I set my camera’s clock to UTC, so that when I do `vdir`, the file times are displayed in my local time zone (which is US Eastern). The time in the EXIF of the file is also in UTC. So I have to adjust all the times by 4 (soon 5) hours when I upload them. How can I tell iNat that my camera’s clock is in UTC? I found a post in Feature Requests and another in General about this, but they’ve been closed. ---
**Author:** ![tiwane](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/tiwane/32/54612_2.png) [@tiwane](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/tiwane)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2024, 4:36pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-set-that-the-camera-time-zone-is-utc/57767/2 "2024-10-30T16:36:44Z")
Are you able to share an example photo or two via Dropbox or Google Drive (to preserve metadata) that people can test with? ---
**Author:** ![phma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/phma/32/54376_2.png) [@phma](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/phma)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2024, 8:10pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-set-that-the-camera-time-zone-is-utc/57767/3 "2024-10-30T20:10:37Z")
I have neither Dropbox nor Google Drive, but I have a WeTransfer account; if you send me your email address, I’ll send it that way. You can send me the address by PM. ---
**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2024, 8:18pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-set-that-the-camera-time-zone-is-utc/57767/4 "2024-10-30T20:18:56Z")
> [@phma](#): > > So I have to adjust all the times by 4 (soon 5) hours when I upload them. hopefully you’re using the offset functionality and not trying to adjust the date/time on each observation. if you’re starting with UTC dates, then i think offsetting during upload is the best approach with the current user interface. i think the only other approaches would be to use a tool/script to update the EXIF datetimestamp in your image files before upload, or to write a script to offset the datetimes in your observations after upload. for reference, here’s the thread that describes how the current time zone implementation works in the system: [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/automatic-time-zones/7760](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/automatic-time-zones/7760). ---
**Author:** ![phma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/phma/32/54376_2.png) [@phma](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/phma)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2024, 7:19pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-set-that-the-camera-time-zone-is-utc/57767/5 "2024-11-04T19:19:44Z")
> [@pisum](#): > > hopefully you’re using the offset functionality and not trying to adjust the date/time on each observation. if you’re starting with UTC dates, then i think offsetting during upload is the best approach with the current user interface. I have to adjust the time on each observation. What is the “offset functionality”? Can you send me an email address for me to send a picture to? ---
**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2024, 11:51pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-set-that-the-camera-time-zone-is-utc/57767/6 "2024-11-04T23:51:37Z")
in the web upload screen, select the observations that you will offset the time for: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/3X/0/5/057247f7215d8b2467239f9f748ad20616f67230.png) … in the left pane, use the offset time slider to select the number of hours to add or subtract from the selected observations, and then click the “offset” button: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/3X/6/7/670b8d7b42755f809696c5b63180e4535dcbdf85.png) … ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/3X/b/0/b0387559d24f7b8de373ea4e2630db17fea7ce8d.png) … note that the screen won’t let you hours beyond the current date/time. i assume it probably uses your curren time zone to make this determination, which i think this is usually fine in a single time zone scenario, but i don’t know what happens if you have observations from multiple time zones. (that should be an uncommon situation though.) ---
**Author:** ![phma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/phma/32/54376_2.png) [@phma](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/phma)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2024, 11:55pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-set-that-the-camera-time-zone-is-utc/57767/7 "2024-11-04T23:55:51Z")
That’s what I’ve been doing, but I have to do it to each observation, which you said I shouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2024, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-set-that-the-camera-time-zone-is-utc/57767/8 "2024-11-05T00:00:29Z")
> [@phma](#): > > I have to do it to each observation, which you said I shouldn’t. i meant that you can execute the offset once per batch upload (after selecting all observations in the batch), as opposed to updating the time in a separate action for each observation in the batch. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/7/7831452cf7f0d653ff1ffd34176334b7ef1b6a17.png) [@system](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 12:01am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-set-that-the-camera-time-zone-is-utc/57767/9 "2025-01-04T00:01:19Z")
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