Why does Json.NET DeserializeObject change the timezone to local time?

Question

I'm using json.net to deserialize a DateTimeOffset, but it is ignoring the specified timezone and converting the datetime to the local offset. For example, given

var content = @"{""startDateTime"":""2012-07-19T14:30:00+09:30""}";

When deserialised using:

var jsonSerializerSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings() { DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.IsoDateFormat, DateParseHandling = DateParseHandling.DateTimeOffset, DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.RoundtripKind };
var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(content, jsonSerializerSettings);

The obj will contain a property containing a DateTimeOffset but the value will be 2012-07-19T15:30:00+10:30 i.e. converted to the local timezone instead of preserving the original timezone.

Is there a way to get the value to be parsed as expected so that the resulting DateTimeOffset property will match the supplied value?

Funny thing is that the date/time is actually correct, 14:30 in +9:30 must be 15:30 in +10:30. — Steen Tøttrup, Aug 01 '12 at 16:23
Not sure if there's any relation here, but it seems WCF serialization/deserialization does this trick by default as well. Perhaps the same solution could help you: http://daveonsoftware.blogspot.com/2008/07/wcf-datetime-field-adjusted.html — Jesse C. Slicer, Aug 01 '12 at 17:21
Hint for other. Sometimes it's better to use `DateParseHandling.None` to output the date as a `string` and parse yourself. — andrew.fox, Mar 29 '22 at 05:54

Peter Ritchie · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-12T22:52:50.770

17

It seems to be ignoring DateParseHandling.DateTimeOffset and is using DateParseHandling.DateTime. I would log an issue here: https://github.com/JamesNK/Newtonsoft.Json

edited Nov 12 '15 at 22:52

answered Aug 01 '12 at 16:19

Peter Ritchie

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I do not know if this bug has been fixed. – Peter Ritchie Mar 18 '14 at 15:17
@PeterRitchie any success resolving this issue? I am using 8.0.3 version but still getting the same issue – Jasmeet Feb 15 '17 at 19:13
@JasmeetSingh Shows as being fixed on the Newtonsoft site. – Peter Ritchie Feb 16 '17 at 17:20
@PeterRitchie yeah I saw that. Problem in my case was there were 2 api's wrapped over one. I had to do the setting changes on the wrapped one. Thanks – Jasmeet Feb 16 '17 at 22:05

score 16 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 19 '17 at 13:20

16

Try using this:

microsoftDateFormatSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings
{
    DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.MicrosoftDateFormat,
    DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.Local
};
var items = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<lstObject>>(jsonString, microsoftDateFormatSettings);

I don't know if it will work in all cases but for me it did. You can try some other values for DateTimeZoneHandling or search for more options on Google.

edited Jul 19 '17 at 13:20

Marcos Dimitrio

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answered Jun 30 '14 at 03:43

Wolf

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Not worked - exception – hamaronooo Dec 22 '22 at 13:34
Not working , when parsing still recalculate to LocalTime and add local UTC offset – jasmin Jul 25 '23 at 14:58

score 16 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 19 '17 at 13:22

If you're using .NET WebApi you can add the following to the WebApiConfig.cs file to handle this globally in your application.

config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings.DateTimeZoneHandling = 
    Newtonsoft.Json.DateTimeZoneHandling.Local;

This will specifically tell the JsonFormatter to include and understand the local time zone information when serializing and deserializing a date.

score 11 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 17 '12 at 16:01

I'm not sure regarding which version did you use, because at some point of time we had the same problem, then update fixed it...

Your code works wrong for me also, but if I create class like

public class A
{
    public DateTimeOffset startDateTime;
}

and call

var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<A>(content, jsonSerializerSettings);

everything works as expected. Yes, it's bug for sure, yes, I don't know how to get result exactly as YOU want, but probably, it will help for someone else.

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 21 '17 at 08:38

This works for me, a timezone is preserved

var jss = new JsonSerializerSettings
    {
         DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.IsoDateFormat,
         DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.Local, 
         DateParseHandling = DateParseHandling.DateTimeOffset
    };
var responseObj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<dynamic>(body, jss);
return responseObj.Select(s => new {
                    id = s["id"].Value<int>(),
                    date = s["date"].Value<DateTimeOffset>().DateTime,
                });

A JSON body is something like this

[
    {
        "id": 211,
        "date": "2017-10-22T12:00:00+03:00",
        "status": 1
    },
    {
        "id": 212,
        "date": "2017-10-28T12:00:00+03:00",
        "status": 1
    }
]

Confirmed this works perfectly, and I just switched out all my DateTime to DateTimeOffset .NET Core, and works perfectly. This answer should be higher up! — Mike Upjohn, Apr 22 '23 at 07:58

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Sep 24 '19 at 14:23

1

As a simple way, you can Convert Date to Ticks for serializing and convert it from Ticks to Date for deserializing:

Serializing:

DateTime date = new DateTime();
ticks = date.Ticks

Deserializing"

Datetime = new Datetime(ticks);

edited Sep 24 '19 at 14:23

veben

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answered Sep 24 '19 at 14:01

Adel Nasiri

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 30 '20 at 08:21

To use the correct Local Date with custom JsonConverter, do:

var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json, type, new JsonSerializerSettings {
    DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.MicrosoftDateFormat,
    DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.Local,
    Converters = new JsonConverter[] { new MY_CUSTOM_CONVERTER() }
});

I search hard on the internet to combine them together, and eventually found JsonConverter can be feed into JsonSerializerSettings.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 25 '18 at 12:59

To use these settings in serializer, type:

var serializerSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings
            {
                DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.MicrosoftDateFormat,
                DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.Local
            };
            var serializer = JsonSerializer.Create(serializerSettings);

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 08 '23 at 10:29

This is the only thing which worked for me (it differs from other supplied answers which didn't work). The key is DateParseHandling.None.

Previously JsonConvert.DeserializeObject was converting UK dates to US dates, even in hyphenated form. e.g. 2023-06-08 to 2023-08-06.

var jsonSerializerSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings
        {
            DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.IsoDateFormat,
            DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.Local,
            DateParseHandling = DateParseHandling.None
        };

then:

JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<*class*>(response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result, jsonSerializerSettings);

Why does Json.NET DeserializeObject change the timezone to local time?

9 Answers9

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