Solved When did your clock last synchronise?

Mooly · Feb 4, 2022

I noticed the clock was about 20 seconds in error today and on checking the 'last synced' date was surprised to see 01/01/22 Clicking sync now worked correctly and it re-synced. The date seems odd, more than just coincidence that it should be 01/01.

If I look at 'date and time' in control panel (so the old settings window from Vista/W7 etc) it says the clock is being synced on a schedule but doesn't say what that is. I always thought is was weekly.

So when did yours last sync?

Open Time and Date Settings

barman58 · Feb 4, 2022

I'm still on Windows 10 so it's working as it always has, it updated today and also fine when I manually updated.

One thing that it may be is the RTC ( Real Time Clock), on your system, do you switch off your system overnight Etc? and how long is it normally left switched off. if so when was the last time you changed the Bios Battery, the RTC and therefore the System time will be kept accurate when the system is on but will use the battery when it is off which will eventually provide a lower voltage and eventually die completely and require replacement. this can cause the RTC to slip during use giving results you are seeing

Mooly · Feb 4, 2022

Its pretty old, a Dell Vostro laptop from 2012 so the coin cell battery may well be down. 20 seconds error after a month though isn't that much for something like a quartz clock etc.

All powered off overnight... which has just reminded me I did turn off Fast Start around that time (for something entirely unrelated and just to prove a point with a wireless USB mouse receiver drawing a little power when off). So that is actually something that did change system wise around that time. I'd forgotten I had done that.

I'll keep a watch on whether it resyncs from now on (having manually run a sync) and if not I can turn Fast Start back on just to cover all bases and be sure it is all back as it was.

Do you know if there is any registry key or similar that would show when the next resync might actually be due?

RFS · Feb 4, 2022

Thought it would be more often than this.

So tried a sync and got this

Needed two attempts before it worked.

barman58 · Feb 4, 2022

I should have checked before I posted before, as expected Shawn has already completed tutorials for the clock settings

Sync Clock Time with Internet Time Server in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to manually synchronize the clock time with an Internet time server for all users in Windows 11. Time is a measure in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals...

www.elevenforum.com

CornishRattler · Feb 4, 2022

Wait….there’s a clock

Mooly · Feb 4, 2022

barman58 said:
I should have checked before I posted before, as expected Shawn has already completed tutorials for the clock settings

Ah. So once a week. So that hasn't happened in my case. Interesting and its unfortunate its one of those things can only be tested over long periods of time.

RFS said:
Needed two attempts before it worked.

Going back to Vista and W8 and the old time setting window and that is something I used to see every time I manually synced however although it reported 'an error has occurred' the syncing actually worked and the clock jumped to correct time.

Fabler2 · Feb 4, 2022

This is on the Dev channel,

AddRAM · Feb 4, 2022

I would hope it syncs itself everyday.

Mooly · Feb 4, 2022

Fabler2 said:
This is on the Dev channel,

Now that info is missing on mine.

AddRAM · Feb 4, 2022

I have it.

Bree · Feb 4, 2022

Mooly said:
So when did yours last sync?

Mine synced at 5:38 this morning, which was when I turned it on and it resumed from hibernation.

Mooly · Feb 4, 2022

Wow. I have been able to bring the info back. In my case it was the Fast Start. I've re-enabled Fast Start in the Power Plans and done a restart and another resync of the time and voila, the missing info on the schedule is back. Surely that has to be a bug.

Fabler2 · Feb 4, 2022

Mooly said:
Wow. I have been able to bring the info back. In my case it was the Fast Start. I've re-enabled Fast Start in the Power Plans and done a restart and another resync of the time and voila, the missing info on the schedule is back. Surely that has to be a bug.

View attachment 20726

I don't have fast start enabled on mine as I've disabled hibernate.

Mooly · Feb 4, 2022

I haven't disabled Hibernate on mine. The only setting I switched was the tick for Fast Start on the Power Plans page.

Now back to where it was:

RFS · Feb 4, 2022

Just checked my other PC and it shows the date of the last sync as 12 November 2021. This is the date when I carried out a clean install, so it has not been syncing at all. The clock was also 6 minutes out.

Richj44 · Feb 4, 2022

RFS said:
So tried a sync and got this

View attachment 20722

Needed two attempts before it worked.

BobD · Oct 21, 2022

I have had trouble with this for a while. It always worked when I invoked a manual sync. Well before 22H2. I even wrote a powershell script to do a time update every morning. I just checked and my Time service was stopped. That sounds like a good reason why it won't sync. Started it and checked via Control panel and it showed sync immediately. Checked Win 11 settings and it still shows last sync (manual by me) as 13 Oct 22. I have two other Win 11 22H2 machines. I'll have a look at them.

BobD · Oct 21, 2022

Had a look at my other two machines and they had not time synced. Did a manual update and first time on both of them had a timeout. This looks like my problem but not sure how to fix it or how to specify a longer timeout. I just found that my ISP has a time server. I'll try that. I also found a web site that has a few suggestions.