How-to set Android device date/time programmatically

Question

BACKGROUND

I am working on a project using the Wi-fi only version of the Samsung Galaxy tab (7"). On some of the devices we are seeing the date/time on the device getting reset (don't know why) to some date in the past (like 1/1/2000).

QUESTION(S)

How can I programmatically reset the device date/time? I'd prefer to use some adb shell command if possible (my shell scripting is rusty). If there is no shell command that can accomplish this, is there a way to accomplish this by writing and installing an app (seems like a security violation)?

score 31 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 23 '12 at 10:51

31

You can use the next command:

adb shell date -s YYYYMMDD.HHmmss

example:

adb shell date -s 20120423.130000

sets the date to Mon Apr 23 13:00:00 CEST 2012 (my phone is on CEST time zone)

answered Apr 23 '12 at 10:51

JuanMa Cuevas

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Hi, is it possible to get the time from a windows machine and set it as android time ? – jeet.chanchawat Apr 09 '13 at 11:07
2

Sorry, not a Windows user – JuanMa Cuevas Apr 16 '13 at 12:53
hi its nice,there any method to exicute this command on my application apk using java code – harsha.kuruwita Oct 14 '13 at 06:18
@harsha.kuruwita you could [run a shell command within an app](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6882248/running-shell-commands-though-java-code-on-android) but need a rooted device – JuanMa Cuevas Oct 14 '13 at 09:16
@harsha.kuruwita this post explains [how to change the system time](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6584772/is-possible-to-set-system-datetime-from-my-android-app) – JuanMa Cuevas Oct 14 '13 at 09:18
This was the only one that worked out-of-the-box. – Curious Mind Feb 15 '18 at 11:59

António Almeida · Answer 2 · 2014-04-22T16:12:05.713

2

I made this perl script to handle this problem:

clock.pl

use Time::localtime;
$_=localtime;
system'adb','shell','date -s',sprintf("%04d%02d%02d.%02d%02d%02d",$_->year+1900,$_->mon+1,$_->mday,$_->hour,$_->min,$_->sec)

Call it using cmd (windows) or terminal (mac):

perl < clock.pl

The android clock will be instantly updated with your machine time.

edited Apr 22 '14 at 16:12

answered Apr 22 '14 at 11:56

António Almeida

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8
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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 12 '11 at 14:58

1

Use the shell's 'date' command. With an argument of unix epoch time (i.e. seconds since 1/1/70) it sets the device's clock, e.g. 'adb shell date 1318349236'.

You can get the current timestamp in seconds with 'adb shell date +%s'. If you have busybox, the date command is more capable, and you can get your arbitrary desired date in seconds with 'busybox date +%s -d "2010-01-01 12:34:56"'

answered Oct 12 '11 at 14:58

Bill

37
2

1

When I try adb shell date 1319124916 I get this time 1319124916 -> 1319124916.0 settimeofday failed Bad file number – celoftis Oct 20 '11 at 15:24
1

On Linux I use: adb shell date -s \`date "+%Y%m%d.%H%M%S"\` – Mar 29 '13 at 18:25

Georg W. · Answer 4 · 2017-10-20T07:48:42.807

I am using the following commands to correctly format date and time in windows and the set system time on android

set datetimef=%date:~3,2%%date:~0,2%%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%%date:~-4%.%time:~6,2%
adb shell date -d %datetimef%

This does set the unix system time of Android but does not change the hardware clock. The time displayed by android gui is also not influenced this way.

I guess hwclock command should be used to update the hardware clock, but this does not execute due to permission errors.

Lava Sangeetham · Answer 5 · 2017-09-26T20:08:36.767

Change Date based on Your system date

Change Date same as system

adb shell date -s `date +%G%m%d.%H%M%S`

Change Date to tomorrow:

adb shell date -s `date --date='1 day' +%G%m%d.%H%M%S`

Change Date to Tomorrow 12 AM

adb shell date -s `date --date='1 day' +%G%m%d.000000`

Change Date to Yesterday

 adb shell date -s `date --date='1 day ago' +%G%m%d.%H%M%S`

Change Date to week ago

adb shell date -s `date --date='1 week ago' +%G%m%d.%H%M%S`

How-to set Android device date/time programmatically

5 Answers5