What is the format of the Timezone in the new SettingsCommand.Command.Settings.TimeZone setting?

Question

Created Jul ’20

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What is the format of the Timezone in the new SettingsCommand.Command.Settings.TimeZone setting?

The current docs are vague.

TimeZone
string

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/settingscommand/command/settings/timezone?changes=latest_minor

Would it be the same as the setting in the TimeServer profile setting

timeZone
string
The time zone path location string in /usr/share/zoneinfo/; for example, America/Denver or Zulu.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/timeserver?changes=latest_minor

or a different format entirely?

Speaking of which if a Timeserver profile is applied and the new SettingsCommand is sent with a different Timezone which takes precedence or will that be an error?

Boost

Answer 1

Device Management Engineer OP

Apple

Jul ’20

The TimeZone string value should be an IANA time zone database name (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones). This is equivalent to the string used for the timeZone property of the macOS TimeServer payload.

This setting is only available on iOS 14+ and tvOS 14+; it is not available on macOS. Unfortunately, the documentation’s “Availability” column inherits its value from the general Device Management SettingsCommand, so it does not accurately reflect each individual Settings’ availability. The documentation for Set TimeZone is currently being updated to provide this information more explicitly.

On iOS, setting this will disable automatic time zone logic on the device. If the device has a forceAutomaticDateAndTime restriction set, this command will fail and return an error. The user will still be able to change the timezone, including by turning automatic date and time back on. The intention is to allow the timezone to be set when automatic determination may not be available (e.g., because Location Services are off).

0

Answer 2

BlueTeam OP

Oct ’20

Is this command applicable to supervised devices only? On unsupervised device the command failed with CommandFormatError error. Neither in https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/settingscommand/command/settings/timezone nor in response below it is mentioned that the command is supported on supervised devices only.

Request:

Code Block <plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>CommandUUID</key>
    <string>337531bb-0b5d-4959-aad8-6bb5751bfeed</string>
    <key>Command</key>
    <dict>
      <key>Settings</key>
      <array>
    <dict>
        <key>Item</key>
        <string>TimeZone</string>
        <key>TimeZone</key>
        <string>Europe/Paris</string>
    </dict>
</array>
      <key>RequestType</key>
      <string>Settings</string>
    </dict>
  </dict>
</plist>

Response:

Code Block <plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>CommandUUID</key>
	<string>337531bb-0b5d-4959-aad8-6bb5751bfeed</string>
	<key>Settings</key>
	<array>
		<dict>
			<key>Item</key>
			<string>TimeZone</string>
			<key>Status</key>
			<string>CommandFormatError</string>
		</dict>
	</array>
	<key>Status</key>
	<string>Acknowledged</string>
	<key>UDID</key>
	<string>17885e13a0919f1bb24bd4e410e6260552af0afe</string>
</dict>
</plist>

0

Answer 3

Engineer OP

Apple

Oct ’20

The TimeZone Settings command is supervised only. We have a radar open to add that detail to the existing text in the documentation.

0