iPhone keeps changing to Pacific time overnight

Two days in a row, in the middle of the night my iPhone 16 Pro Max (OS 18.5), has switched an hour behind local time here in Mexico to Pacific Time. Frustrating because I’ve missed two morning meetings now and no one believes me. The reception is spotty here but the automatic time zone feature is actively resetting itself to the wrong time zone while the phone is sitting and charging. Is this an OS bug? A bug in the new satellite feature?

iPhone 16 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Jun 18, 2025 12:24 PM

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Posted on Jun 18, 2025 2:20 PM

It turns out I’m about 20 miles south of a time zone border. There are many closer cell towers but perhaps it was connecting with one of those at night! A quirk in the local geography - here it’s mountain time, but twenty miles to the north EAST it’s pacific time. Never would have thought to check that!

5 replies

Jun 18, 2025 1:11 PM in response to Year Zero

Year Zero wrote:

Two days in a row, in the middle of the night my iPhone 16 Pro Max (OS 18.5), has switched an hour behind local time here in Mexico to Pacific Time. Frustrating because I’ve missed two morning meetings now and no one believes me. The reception is spotty here but the automatic time zone feature is actively resetting itself to the wrong time zone while the phone is sitting and charging. Is this an OS bug? A bug in the new satellite feature?

It sets to the cellular tower network time based on the location of the tower. If you are near the border it may be picking up the time from a US tower.

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iPhone keeps changing to Pacific time overnight

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