java incorrect timezone

Question

I have an instance of Java which seems to be using a completely incorrect time zone. Instead of using the Australia/Sydney time zone which Windows is using, it is using the

Answer 1

In case time zones seem completely gone, at least in my case that Java 5 was used on a legacy system, make sure that the proper file exists in %JAVA_HOME%\jre\lib\zi folder. For instance, me, I couldn't make Europe/Athens work for the life of me. It turns out that the file %JAVA_HOME%\jre\lib\zi\Europe\Athens was missing (those directories that refer to continents were completely empty in the JDK I was using..) - did a comparison with a freshly downloaded JDK 1.5.0_22 from Oracle.

Answer 2

Check information on the following link: http://techtavern.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/java-and-incorrect-timezone-on-windows-xp/
It shows, that there is a bug in JVM, causing reading incorrect default timezone from windows registry. There is no bug fix yet.

Answer 3

I had the same error, while I was setting my timezone to Malay Peninsula Standard Time, the JVM gave me Venezuela Time timezone.

The following fix works for me:

In the registry editor, edit your timezone to another timezone (I was trying to put another text like "Singapore Time". You can find the registry here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/TimeZoneInformation

And then, I reset it back to my desired timezone using Control Panel, Date and Time setting. When I check back to the registry editor, I can see it is reverted to Malay Peninsula Standard Time. And my JVM reads it correctly now...

Answer 4

There is a history of such problems that come and go, and no reasonable solution. See more here: Java incorrect time zone bug on Windows

Edit: Answering Tom and francis: In brief, Java runtime has hard time doing the job of correctly finding out the current time zone on the computer.

Windows registry information on the time zones has been unreliable, and the same for native windows API which relies on msvcrt.dll and various msvcrxx.dll . There is also Managed (.NET) API which requires installing a certain version of .NET Framework which contradicts portability of Java.

Thus, developers of Java runtime have hard time with the current time zone on Windows, and this may continue until Microsoft has some reason to cooperate.

If you want your Java application work correctly in any time zone, give users a possibility to correct the time zone via GUI.

Answer 5

I had the very same problem recently, apparently this is caused by an ambiguity how Windows represents its timezone settings in the registry and Java failing to interpret it correctly.

More details can be found in this article, which also describes "cures" for the affected machine:

• Changing date/time manually and then changing back to original correct time.
• Changing timezone and then back to original one.
• Requesting automatic time update from time server.

Answer 6

You should update your JRE/SDK, but TZUpdater may be sufficient.