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How to stop converting times to the local user

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Posted on by dw1713

We have a PowerApp where users from PST, MST, CST, and EST can go to only view data for their location. This data is entered into a Sharepoint list and feeds up into the PowerApp. I must admit even though the SP List is set to PST we enter times as if it is for their local timezone (i.e. If something starts at 12:30pm CST we enter it into the SP List as 12:30pm). Is there a way for PowerApps to stop converting times to the local user and just have it pull all the dates and (more importantly) times from the SharePoint List as is?

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WarrenBelz 154,930 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @dw1713 ,

This is a conundrum often faced with users across time zones. Firstly you need to be aware that all date/time values are stored by SharePoint "in the background" in the UTC value converted from the time zone of the local machine that stored it - so if Now() was stored at 7am CST which is UTC - 6, it would store 1pm. Then depending on who viewed the record, they would see this value in their time zone - PST would see 5am as they are UTC - 8.

This gets even more interesting when viewed directly on SharePoint - if the SharePoint site zone is EST, they would see 8am. If I looked at it in Australia at UTC + 10, I would see 6pm.

There is a Power Apps function called TimeZoneOffset that returns the difference between UTC and the local user's time zone that can be used here (it needs to be reading and writing in your case), so maybe you can look at that.

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dw1713 2 on at

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@WarrenBelz Do you have any resources that I can follow on how to input the TimeZoneOffset function into PowerApps? I am using a form and am having a hard time finding examples of where/how to write it in. I am interested in converting from UTC to Pacific as the Sharepoint List (where the data is pulling from) is in PST.

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WarrenBelz 154,930 Most Valuable Professional on at

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@dw1713 ,

This is more a logical issue than a coding one. You can use plus or minus TimeZoneOffset on any particular user's PC and it will apply that difference to the time either written or read (if used on both). What you have to realise is that (when written) the SharePoint time will then be stored at the UTC time adjusted by the difference (it will not be the correct UTC time) and when it is read back in another time zone, that adjustment will be there as well (so it will not be the correct time there). This is the conundrum with trying to work in different time zones if you do not want to simply let the system convert it.

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