How To Change Timezone in Ubuntu 24.04 with Terminal

Using the correct date and time on your Ubuntu system is essential for tasks and processes such as data logging. The system’s timezone is set during the initial setup, but users can still change it. Modern operating systems detect and synchronize time using NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) time servers.

How to Set the Timezone on Ubuntu

Most modern Linux distributions such as Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, CentOS v.7.x+, and other Unix-based systems provide the timedatectl utility. Show step-by-step how to set the timezone on Ubuntu 24.04. Make sure to log in as a root user to perform the following actions.

Display Current Date and Time

timedatectl

Sync Time to NIST Atomic Clock

timedatectl set-ntp yes

You can turn off NTP synchronizing with

timedatectl set-ntp no

Change the Time in Ubuntu

timedatectl set-time 11:40:50

The time format is hh:mm:ss (hours, minutes, seconds)

Change the Date in Ubuntu

timedatectl set-time 2024-10-12

The date format is yyyy-mm-dd (Year, Month, Day).

Set a Timezone in Ubuntu

List the names of the time zones

timedatectl list-timezones

Find the location closest to you, then enter the following

Replace Region/Location with a name from the time zone list.

Set UTC in Ubuntu

timedatectl set-timezone UTC

Hardware Clock to Sync to Local Timezone

timedatectl set-local-rtc 1

Hardware Clock to Sync with UTC

timedatectl set-local-rtc 0