How to Troubleshoot Devices Showing Incorrect Date and Time After Some Time

Contents

Purpose

This article provides guidance to troubleshoot scenarios where devices automatically switch to an incorrect date, time, or timezone, which may further lead to issues such as:

Internet connectivity problems
SSL or certificate errors
Application sync failures
Authentication issues

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure the following:

Device is online and receiving policies from SureMDM
You have access to the applied profile or configuration settings
Administrative access to push scripts (if required)

Common Cause

In most cases, incorrect time or timezone occurs when:

Automatic Time is disabled
Automatic Time Zone is disabled
Device is not syncing with a valid time source (NTP server)

Steps

Step 1: Verify Profile Settings

Navigate to the applied profile and ensure the following options are enabled:

Auto Time (Automatic Date & Time) → Enabled
Auto Time Zone → Enabled

Both settings must be enabled. Enabling only one may still result in incorrect time behavior.

Step 2: Apply Configuration via Script (For Zebra Devices)

If the issue persists on Zebra devices, you can enforce correct settings using the below Run Script:

!#suremdm

zebra(<wap-provisioningdoc><characteristic version=”10.2″ type=”Clock”><parm name=”AutoTimeZone” value=”true” /><parm name=”AutoTime” value=”true” /><characteristic type=”AutoTimeDetails”><parm name=”NTPServer” value=”” /><parm name=”SyncInterval” value=”” /></characteristic></characteristic></wap-provisioningdoc>)