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You are here: Home / iPhone / Why is ‘Set Automatically’ grayed out in iPhone Date & Time settings?

Why is ‘Set Automatically’ grayed out in iPhone Date & Time settings?

By Dan Helyer 36 comments Last updated October 9, 2019

Can’t change the time on your iPhone? Some users are finding the ‘Set Automatically’ option for their iPhone’s Date & Time is grayed out and, therefore, inaccessible. This happens for a number of reasons, which we’ll discuss below.

Typically an iOS device uses its location to automatically set the clock to the appropriate time zone. However, there are plenty of reasons you might not want it to do so: changing the time zone to a few hours early, making your clock fast to avoid being late, or maintaining a constant time on your device regardless of location.

Whatever the reason, you need to be able to turn off the Set Automatically option in your Date & Time settings. And, if it’s grayed out or can’t be turned off, try out the troubleshooting tips in this post to fix it.

Screenshot of the Set Automatically button grayed out in iPhone Date & Time settings
There are a number of reasons the Set Automatically button might not work.

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How do you change the time in iOS?

You should be able to change the date and time on your device by going to Settings > General > Date & Time.

Screenshot of the Date & Time settings with Set Automatically turned off
With Set Automatically turned off you can manually choose the date and time.

Ideally, you’d be able to turn off the Set Automatically button and manually input your preferred date and time. Of course, if you were able to turn off the button you wouldn’t be reading this post in the first place. 

Make sure you return to this page in your iPhone settings after each troubleshooting step below to find out if you’ve fixed the problem.

Check Screen Time’s share setting

When you share screen time information across device, iOS and iPadOS lock your device’s Date & Time settings so you get accurate reporting of your time on all your device’s screen.

When you turn on Share Across Devices in Screen Time that this grays out the Set Automatically option for your device’s Date & Time.

So try turning this off, and see if you can now adjust your date and time settings.

Turn off Screen Time’s share across devices feature

  1. Go to Settings > Screen Time
  2. Scroll down to Share Across Devices and toggle it off toggle off share across devices in screen time
  3. Go to Settings > General > Date & Time
  4. Confirm you can toggle Set Automatically on or off and that it’s not grayed out

Turning Screen Time off also accomplishes this task.

Turn off your Screen Time passcode

Screen Time was introduced in iOS 12 and allows you to restrict app usage based on certain times of the day. It’s great not just for personal productivity, but also to control the technology use of children.

If Screen Time has been turned on with a passcode — recommended if kids are about — then it’ll block you from being able to turn off the automatic date and time setting. This stops clever miscreants from simply changing the time whenever they want to bypass the Screen Time restrictions.

You can remedy it by turning off your Screen Time passcode, making any date and time changes you want, then turning the passcode back on again.

How to turn off the Screen Time passcode:

  1. Go to Settings > Screen Time
  2. Tap Change Screen Time Passcode
  3. Then tap Turn Off Screen Time Passcode
  4. Enter your Screen Time Passcode
Screenshot of the Screen Time passcode settings
Screen Time could be stopping you from changing the date and time.

Or turn off Screen Time altogther

Another option is to temporarily turn off Screen Time and see if you can now toggle Set Automatically on or off.

How to turn off the Screen Time

  1. Go to Settings > Screen Time
  2. Scroll down and tap Turn off Screen Time turn off screen time
  3. Enter your Screen Time passcode
  4. Check Settings > General > Date & Time and see if you can now toggle Set Automatically 
Don’t know or remember your Screen Time passcode?

Change your Location Services.

Your iPhone uses its location to find the right time zone. The first thing to do is turn this feature off in Location Services to see if that lets you manually change the time.

How to turn off the automatic time zone locations in iOS:

  1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services
  2. Scroll to System Services
  3. Turn off the Setting Time Zone button
Screenshots navigating to the System Services Location Services page
With the Setting Time Zone button turned off you may be able to manually change the time.

Be sure to turn the Setting Time Zone button back on if you want your iPhone to be able to automatically set the date and time in the future.

Check your carrier settings.

Some mobile carriers don’t allow you to turn off the automatic date and time settings on your device. You’ll first want to update your carrier settings and then contact your carrier directly to find out.

How to update carrier settings on iOS:

  1. Go to Settings > General > About
  2. Wait 30 seconds, allowing your device to check for an update
  3. That’s it! If nothing happens you’re already up-to-date
Carrier Settings update
A pop-up will appear if you need a Carrier Settings Update.

If a carrier settings update doesn’t help matters you could call your carrier directly. They’ll be able to tell you if their policy allows you to manually set the date and time.

Restart or restore your iPhone.

Restart your iPhone to fix many software issues.

If you’ve gotten this far with no other solution it’s likely that a software error is causing the problem. 

Perform a simple restart on your device by holding the power button until you’re prompted to slide across the screen to power off. Wait 10 seconds before powering on again.

Once the iPhone has restarted return to the settings to see if ‘Set Automatically’ is grayed out still. If so, it’s time for a restore.

A restore will return your device to factory settings, so you’ll want to make a backup on iCloud or iTunes first. Once you’ve done that, restore your device using the instructions below and then recover all your data from the backup.

How to factory reset an iPhone:

  1. Go to Settings > General > Reset
  2. Choose to Erase All Content and Settings
  3. Enter your Apple ID and passcode when prompted
Three iPhone screenshots navigating to the Reset page
Restore your iPhone to factory settings so that you can choose a new time zone.

It’s about time we got all that sorted. If you found the help you need, please let us know in the comments below. 

Dan Helyer

Dan writes tutorials and troubleshooting guides to help people make the most of their technology. Before becoming a writer, he earned a BSc in Sound Technology, supervised repairs at an Apple Store, and even taught English in China.

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Reader Interactions

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Show 36 Comments

  1. Fake name says

    March 17, 2022 at 10:59 PM

    My iPad is being weird the set time zone automatically option is grayed out and I think it’s because Screen Time is stopping me from doing it.
    And if I try to turn off to remove this restriction it requires me to enter passcode and after 9 failed attempts it will say try again in 1 hour and now I can never remove that restriction.
    That really pisses me off.
    Can you help me.

    Reply
  2. Sharon Adams says

    March 15, 2022 at 6:43 AM

    Thank you so much for your article. This allowed me to set the time on my iPhone when nothing else worked. Terrific instructions. Keep up the good work!

    Reply
  3. Yemi says

    December 10, 2021 at 8:18 AM

    Thank you so mush….it worked

    Reply
  4. Alstn says

    August 22, 2021 at 9:55 PM

    TQSM bro!!! Its workkkinggg
    ●Turn of “Share Across Devices”

    Reply
  5. KTill says

    July 18, 2021 at 1:07 PM

    Great info. The Screen time sharing tip did the trick.

    Reply
  6. Olayinka says

    June 2, 2021 at 5:32 PM

    Thank you so much, this sh*t gave me headache until now. You’ve put a smile on my face ,once again thanks so much

    Reply
  7. Nile Revir says

    April 30, 2021 at 2:37 AM

    Another possible solution is a hard restart.
    A hard restart, or hard reset, is the step between a soft restart, swiping the “slide to power off” switch-slider, and resetting all settings.
    To perform a hard restart you’ll need to check for your specific device. An iPhone6s, you hold the lock/power button and home button until the Apple Symbol appears. On an iPhone without a home button hold volume and lock button, you get the idea.
    If all the regular routes fail you:
    1. Soft Restart (almost never works)
    2. Hard Reset (has fixed many issues of mine)
    3. Reset all settings (the article doesn’t recommend this option? Very odd, it has a similar effect as the next option but fixes the problem without erasing the phone. DRAWBACK: erases all setting changes, unless a back is made)
    4. Full Reset, Then Restoration: Erases and then replaces all the settings, by restoring the backup the setting causing the problem will be put back on the phone. Taking the problem away and putting it back again.
    Three is a good choice, it will erase the setting causing the problem, since we cannot find it, we erase all the settings.

    Reply
  8. Carrah says

    December 21, 2020 at 7:09 AM

    Thank you, thank you! I live close to the time change line and have been struggling with my time flip-flopping and never knowing the “right” time!

    Reply
  9. Mavis says

    December 15, 2020 at 4:27 AM

    Thank you…it was very helpful

    Reply
  10. Chayim says

    October 25, 2020 at 3:55 AM

    Screen time was the problem. Turned it off and the grayed out became black.

    Reply
  11. Biver says

    October 10, 2020 at 10:13 AM

    Worked cool asweone

    Reply
  12. Phoenix Tilley says

    September 30, 2020 at 6:44 PM

    Very Help, Much Thank, so grateful.

    Reply
  13. Dickson says

    July 11, 2020 at 4:54 AM

    Wow…I tried the first option and then boom!!!! It worked…I’m so happy right now

    It’s as if you made this post for me

    Thanks

    Reply
  14. Will says

    June 5, 2020 at 11:00 AM

    More than great and super helpfull this tips and info! Thank you very much!

    Reply
  15. alang360 says

    April 27, 2020 at 1:00 AM

    thanks..its working..thats great and very helpful..

    Reply
  16. Logan Callahan says

    March 29, 2020 at 7:37 PM

    worked great! after turning off the Share Across Devices setting it easily allowed me to change it.

    Reply
  17. Matt says

    March 12, 2020 at 10:24 AM

    I have tried all of these now and it’s still not working

    Reply
  18. Tomie says

    January 27, 2020 at 6:10 AM

    Worked on the first trial. Thanks

    Reply
  19. Sam says

    December 22, 2019 at 11:20 AM

    Hi! I followed all the steps, including the Screen Time function turning off and turning off Location Services, and I even shut down my phone, but it still isn’t working. It worked on my old phone, but not this one. Is there any step I can take without wiping out all my data?

    Reply
  20. happy says

    November 10, 2019 at 1:10 AM

    thank you very much!
    great help!

    Reply
  21. Pou says

    November 8, 2019 at 2:11 AM

    Thanks a lot

    Reply
  22. Butter says

    October 20, 2019 at 1:44 AM

    This was so helpful. The first solution worked. I set up screen time some days ago and I selected share across devices. Turns out that was the problem. Thanks a lot, I never would have guessed.

    Reply
  23. Mirna says

    October 8, 2019 at 10:23 PM

    Hi
    1/I cannot change the date and time of my phone. I tried everything in this page.
    2/ the front censor is not working, is this why FaceTime is not working too?
    Thx

    Reply
    • Elizabeth Jones says

      October 9, 2019 at 11:50 AM

      Hi Mirna,

      It seems that if you turn on Share Across Devices in Screen Time that this grays out the Set Automatically option for your device’s Date & Time. So try turning this off, and see if you can now adjust your date and time settings.

      1) Go to Settings > Screen Time
      2) Scroll down to Share Across Devices and toggle it off
      3) Go to Settings > General > Date & Time
      4) Confirm you can toggle Set Automatically on or off and that it’s not grayed out

      Liz

      Reply
      • joseph says

        December 17, 2019 at 10:23 AM

        hi i tried that but i cant get the write date

        Reply
  24. Fortune Mashego says

    September 14, 2019 at 2:20 AM

    Thank you very much it worked

    Reply
  25. Gina says

    August 24, 2019 at 1:14 PM

    Why is settings not an app I can lock on my kids phone. She is able to get more screen time despite the time blocks by simply turning off the time. Apple needs to add every single app to restrictions to include settings. Then she can’t change the time. I need to control her settings.

    Reply
  26. Adam says

    August 8, 2019 at 8:21 PM

    I can’t turn off screen time passcode plz Help

    Reply
    • Elizabeth Jones says

      August 9, 2019 at 9:52 AM

      Hi Adam.

      For issues with Screen Time’s passcode, please see this post How-To Reset the Screen Time Passcode on iOS 12 & above

      Reply
  27. KY Yeoh says

    July 3, 2019 at 6:40 PM

    turned off passcode screentime fixed it for me
    thank you so much

    Reply
  28. Colm says

    July 3, 2019 at 2:54 AM

    Turning off screen time fixed it for me.
    Many thanks,

    Colm

    Reply
  29. leslie says

    May 26, 2019 at 9:59 PM

    THANK U THIS WAS VERY HELPFUL

    Reply
  30. Maxwell says

    May 13, 2019 at 5:10 AM

    It was the screentime passcode that blocked it out. Thank you.

    Reply
  31. Paula says

    April 25, 2019 at 12:34 AM

    This was so useful !!!! Thank you so much

    Reply
  32. matthew says

    March 23, 2019 at 9:09 PM

    i have done all the steps but its still grayed out what do i do…???

    Reply
    • Elizabeth Jones says

      March 26, 2019 at 6:36 PM

      Hi matthew,

      Check if you enabled any restrictions in Screen Time (Settings > Screen Time) by turning off Screen Time temporarily.

      If you see the setting return (no longer grayed out) then you had some restriction set in Screen Time.

      Depending on where you live, some mobile carriers do not allow you to adjust the setting for “Set Automatically.”

      Reply

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