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utcNow function gives the wrong time

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Posted on by Rafal1

I am using utcNow() function in order to populate one of my datetime fields in the Sharepoint list which is meant to give me the UTC time of when the form was submitted.

For whatever strange reason this produces current datetime minus 8 hours so rather giving me 16:00 UTC it gives me 08:00 am.

Any ideas as to why this happens and how to solve this.

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Community Power Pla... on at

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Re: utcNow function gives the wrong time

This is f'ng ridiculous. They literally have a utcNow() function that returns a local time value based on sharepoint settings. The function does not do what it says it does.
Rafal1 13 on at

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Re: utcNow function gives the wrong time

Thank you 🙂
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tom_riha 10,127 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Re: utcNow function gives the wrong time

That doesn't look like the settings of the SharePoint site where you store the date. Go to the SharePoint site where you store the date -> Settings -> Site administration: Regional settings.
Rafal1 13 on at

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Re: utcNow function gives the wrong time

Yes, the platform is set to UTC and as you said, I do not want to do any additional calculations not to mess anything else later.
tom_riha 10,127 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Re: utcNow function gives the wrong time

It shouldn't be -8 in the flow, but I didn't want to completely ignore the possibility that somebody messed up that action.

You can try to add 8 hours, but I'd rather double check the regional settings of the SharePoint site, if you store it as utcNow+8 in SharePoint then it might mess up any potential background logic in the future.
Rafal1 13 on at

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Re: utcNow function gives the wrong time

I have just checked, regardless whether I use utcNow() function or a form submission time (dynamic object) I always get -8 hours in my Sharepoint list. (this would be another question: Why is form submission time producing UTC time - 8 hours too? My Microsoft platform is set to UTC timezone)
Looks like the only solution might be adding 8 hours to the UTC time (or form submission time).

BTW, how can it be -8 hours in the flow? Universal time is the same wherever we are on the planet is this not the purpose of this function? To always give same time regardless who and where runs it?
tom_riha 10,127 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Re: utcNow function gives the wrong time

When you check the flow run history, Is it -8 hours already in the flow, or only after you save it into SharePoint? If it's correct in the flow but wrong in SharePoint then SharePoint is doing the conversion. If it's wrong already in the flow then there's something wrong with the flow. 🙂
Rafal1 13 on at

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Re: utcNow function gives the wrong time

Thank you for responding.

This process follows form submission but because response datetime was giving me incorrect time, I thought that using Universal time will solve it. It is even more puzzling as I am based in UK and none of my regional settings in any of the systems would be set to minus 8 hours.
tom_riha 10,127 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Re: utcNow function gives the wrong time

Hello @Rafal1 ,

my first guess would be that it's due to the regional settings in SharePoint. You take utcNow() in UTC time zone, store it to SharePoint (SharePoint works always with time in UTC) and then your regional settings will convert it to UTC-8 on the SharePoint site.