We recently relocated from New York to Arizona and ran into a time not syncing issue in Windows 10. This article will focus on the troubleshooting steps that we have followed to fix the problem. Believe it or not, there are multiple ways to troubleshoot time-not syncing issues in Windows 10. You typically notice time not syncing issues on your computer after a location change or a Time Zone change.
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6 Ways to Fix Time Not Syncing Issues in Microsoft Windows
Generally, one would change the Windows 10 time zone setting is as follows
Right, Click on the current time, then go to Adjust Date/Time as shown below.
In the following window, Microsoft Windows lets you update your time and time zone settings. These settings are usually taken care of automatically by Windows after you pick your time zone during Windows setup.
Sounds pretty easy right! We recently came to find out otherwise, no matter how many times we’ve clicked on the sync button after selecting our new state, it simply did not save changes.
1. Windows Time Not Syncing – Troubleshooting Via Local Policy
We then moved on to the old Windows Control Panel to change the time zone through there. You can access the old Windows Control Panel by typing the word “control” in the Windows 10 search bar as shown. Select Clock & Region and then Date and Time.
Even while using the Windows old control panel, we were unable to change the time zone. However, this time we got a different error message that said, “Unable to Continue, You do not have permission to perform this task. Please contact your computer administrator for help.” Now that we received an actual error message, we knew what needed to be done before making the time zone change in Windows 10.
We need to complete two steps before we can make the time zone change in Windows.
- Access Local Security Policy
- Add Users group to the Change Time Zone Policy
To access the local security policy in Windows, type secpol.msc into the Windows search bar as shown below.
You will then be presented with the following Local Policy window where you can change the time zone settings.
Double click on the “Change the Time Zone” property, and once opened, it would look something like this. Notice we do not have the “Users” group in here, which is why they are not able to make changes to the time setting. To add the “Users” group, click on “Add User or Group.”
You should now see the window below where you can add object names.
However, it isn’t straightforward as typing in the object names.
You will need to make sure that you click on Object Types first to include all Objects, as shown below.
Finally, you can type in the Users object as shown and click OK.
Ideally, you will now want to reboot your computer for the new settings to take effect. After your computer reboots, you should try to change the time as usual or mentioned at the beginning of this article. You may have better luck using the old Microsoft Windows Control Panel. If these steps have not fixed your time not updating Windows 10 error, continue reading for more ways to troubleshoot Windows Time Synchronization.
2. Windows Time Not Updating – Restarting the Time Service
If your Windows 10 time is not updating due to a service stoppage, following these tips should correct it.
Press the Windows + R key to bring up the Run menu and then type in Services.MSC and press enter.
Find the “Windows Time” service and double click to open it on the list of services. You will now be presented with the Microsoft Windows services screen as shown below.
As you can see above, the Windows Time service is set to “Manual,” and the service status shows “stopped.” We want to change this so that the service will start up automatically. Under the startup type, select Automatic and then click on Start.
Once you have made the change, click on “Apply” and then click “Ok” to close the window. Reboot your computer and re-check to see if the Windows time is now updating correctly.
3. Windows Time is Wrong – Windows Command Prompt Fix
Windows Command Prompt is an easy way to fix Windows Time, not syncing problems. If you are going this route, please open the Windows Command Prompt window with Administrator rights, as shown below.
You can then type in the following commands, press enter or copy the clipboard below, paste it in, and press enter.
net stop w32time w32tm /unregister w32tm /register net start w32time w32tm /resync
4. Windows Time Synchronization Doesn’t Work – Windows Time Script
To make this process even easier, we have created a Windows Time Sync Script to download and run on your computer. We have compressed the script inside a zip file, so please do grab 7-zip if you cannot open it. After extracting the files, you will need to right-click on the script and select “Run as Administrator.”
The Windows time update script will do its thing, and if all went well, it would close on its own.
5. Windows 10 Time Fix – Windows Time Server Update
Sometimes selecting a different Windows Time Server can fix time not syncing issues in Microsoft Windows. Windows 10 lists two other time servers for fetching the most up-to-date Time information. As mentioned earlier in this article, open the Windows 10 Time settings, then go to the “Add clocks for different time zones” link as shown below.
Go to the “Internet Time” tab and put a checkmark on the “Synchronise with an Internet time server” option. Please change the time server to the alternate from the drop-down, which is time.nist.gov in our case. Click “Update now” to fetch the Time information from the server.
Here are additional tips for troubleshooting the time server in Windows from Microsoft. Warning these steps will ask you to edit the Windows Registry, so be sure to create a backup before making any changes.
6. Windows Showing Wrong Time – Replace the CMOS Battery
If your computer shows an incorrect time after it boots from a long shutdown period, the CMOS battery may need to be changed. The CMOS battery holds vital information when your computer is shut down, such as the current time. Refer to your computer manual, motherboard manual, or the video linked above to locate the CMOS battery on the motherboard. Typically motherboards have a CR2032 Lithium battery. You can purchase a new CMOS battery here, and please be sure to double-check the battery type before ordering one.
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