What to Do if Your Samsung S21 Time is Wrong

Among the problems faced by Samsung users, the date and time displaying incorrectly have become an annoying issue for a lot of people. For some, the time display incorrectly, while others see a few seconds ahead of real time on their smartphones.

If you are one of them and your Samsung S21 time is wrong, then this guide is for you.

Why does my Samsung Galaxy S21 Time Wrong?

There are three (3) ways that your Galaxy S21 allows you to set up the date and time.

Date and time settings in Samsung Galaxy S21

Set date and time automatically provided by the mobile network (cellular)
Set date and time automatically provided by the network or by a selecting time zone manually
Set date and time manually

Therefore, the reason for displaying the wrong time on your Galaxy S21 depends on how you set up the date and time on the device. Let’s take each scenario and discuss the possible reasons.

If you set up the date & time by selecting “Automatic date and time” or “Automatic time zone,” The most common reason for the wrong time is a bug or a glitch in the Android system. However, sometimes network issues (cannot connect to network, poor signals, sudden location changes) can also cause an incorrect time on your Galaxy S21.

On the other hand, if you have selected “Select time zone” option, incorrectly set up time zone may be the case why you are seeing an inaccurate time on your smartphone. There are similar cases that some users install third-party apps to detect the correct time zone and set up the date and time. And again, if you use such apps, the issue can be with them.

But if you did not use both the first and second methods and set up the date and time completely by yourself (manually), the problem might be you have set up it wrong or incorrectly. Often times when we do that, the time changes happen when we restart the device, or turned it off for a while.

No matter how you set up the date and time on your Galaxy S21, in this guide, you will learn how to fix the wrong time on your Samsung Galaxy S21 once and for all.

How to Fix the wrong time on Samsung Galaxy S21

Although we have mentioned only the base model of Samsung Galaxy S21, every piece of information and solutions in the guide is suitable for any model of Galaxy S21. (Samsung Galaxy S21+, S21FE & S21 Ultra)

First, we will do some basic troubleshooting and if them did not work then you can follow the rest of the solutions to get the problem solved. Let’s get started.

Fix 01: Restart the device

If you haven’t tried, you can restart your S21 to refresh the date and time. Make sure you have enabled “Automatic date and time” or “Select time zone” and select the zone correctly before restarting your device.

Another reason to restart your phone is to fix temporary glitches or bugs causing the time to display incorrectly. Most of the time this trick should fix the issue. But if not, don’t worry. You can go to the next solution below.

Fix 02: Turn on Automatic date and time

If you use a SIM card and are connected to a network, the Automatic date and time option should fix the wrong time on your Galaxy S21.

This solution works best if you are a traveler or going abroad. Since the time zone gets changed when you travel across countries, switching to this option will fix that issue too.

Here is how to change the time to Automatic mode.

Open Settings
Tap on General management
Tap the “Date and time”

Turn on “Automatic date and time”

Restart your Galaxy S21

After the restart, turn on mobile data and make sure the time is displaying correctly.

Fix 03: Use the timezone to fix the wrong time

If automatic time did not work for you and you have not set up the time zone to display the date and time, then you can try it to fix the wrong time issue on your Galaxy S21.

This option is also suitable for people who do not travel very much and since there is no timezone change, you will be fine.

The procedure is the same as before. Since you need to select the correct time zone, if you do not know that, you can use a tool like timezone detector to get the correct time zone for your area.

Go to Settings
Tap on General management
Tap on “Date and time”
Turn off “Automatic date and time” if enabled
Tap on “Select time zone”

Select the time zone according to your area
Restart your device

After restarting, check if the time displays correctly on your Galaxy S21.

Fix 04: Drain the battery completely

If both the “Automatic time” and “Select time zone” options did not work for your phone, then you can try to set up the date and time completely by yourself. But before we get into that, there are another 2 solutions that you can try to see if the problem gets fixed.

Usually, when the date and time display completely wrong even after doing changes to time settings, we can try to remove and re-insert the battery as a solution. However, new smartphones like your Galaxy S21 do not have a removable battery.

As a solution to that, we can drain the battery completely and then charge the device and then turn it on to see if the time starts to display correctly. So what you need to do is.

Let the battery drain completely
After it turns off (due to low battery level) let the device off for a while (a few hours)
Charge the phone completely
Turn on the phone
Use the “Automatic date and time” or “Select time zone” to set up the date and time
See if the time display correctly

Fix 05: Reset network settings

As you may know now, to display date and time automatically, your Galaxy S21 requires an active network connection. If there is any misconfiguration in network settings that cause the time to display incorrectly, we can fix that issue by resetting the network settings.

Here is what you need to do to reset the network settings on your Galaxy S21.

Go to Settings > General management
Tap on “Reset”
Then tap on “Reset network settings”

Confirm
After completes, restart the device
Use the “Automatic date and time” or “Select time zone” to set up date and time

Fix 04: Set up the date and time manually

After you have done draining the battery and reset the network settings. You can set up the time by manually if the other two methods did not work.

Go to Settings > Date and time
Tap on “Set date” and enter the current date
Tap on “Set time” and enter the current time

Restart the device and see if the date and time display correctly

Fix 05: Factory data reset

If the time is still wrong on your Galaxy S21, then there may be a problem with the Android system. To identify fix such issues can be a very difficult task for an average user. Therefore, you can perform a factory data reset as the solution.

Note: Factory data reset will erase every personal file in your device. Before doing a factory data reset, take a backup of your personal files first.