It happens to everyone. You’re looking at your wrist, expecting to see 2:15 PM, but your watch insists it’s 4:15 AM. Or maybe you just flew across the country and your tracker is stubbornly clinging to East Coast time while you’re trying to find coffee in Seattle. It’s annoying. Honestly, it’s one of those little tech glitches that makes you want to toss the device in a drawer. But here’s the thing: your Fitbit doesn’t actually have a "clock" setting on the device itself.
Think about that for a second.
You can swipe through menus until your finger gets sore, but you won't find a "set time" button on a Charge 6, a Versa, or a Google Pixel Watch 3. That’s because the hardware is basically a mirror. It just reflects what your phone tells it. If you need to know how to change time and date on a Fitbit, you have to stop looking at your wrist and start looking at your settings menu in the app.
Most people assume the device is broken. It’s not. Usually, it’s just a sync failure or a hidden "automatic" toggle that’s gone rogue.
The Sync Fix: The First Thing You Should Try
Before you dive into deep settings, try the "lazy" fix. Most of the time, the time is wrong because your Fitbit hasn't talked to your phone in a few hours. This is common if you have "All-Day Sync" turned off to save battery.
Open the Fitbit app on your iPhone or Android. Ensure your Bluetooth is actually on—you'd be surprised how often that's the culprit. Pull down on the main dashboard screen. You’ll see that little rotating icon at the top. If it finishes syncing and the time jumps back to normal, you’re done. Easy. If it doesn't? Well, then we have to get into the weeds of the time zone settings.
How to Change Time and Date on a Fitbit Manually
Sometimes the "Automatic" setting is the enemy. It tries to use your phone's GPS or network provider to guess where you are, but if you’re near a state line or using a VPN, it gets confused.
To take control, you have to go into the app's internal clock settings. Tap your profile icon (or the device icon in the top left). Look for "App Settings." Inside there, you'll find "Time Zone."
Now, here is where it gets tricky. There is a toggle that says "Set Automatically." Flip that off. Once it's off, you can manually select your location. If you’re in London, pick London. If you’re in New York, pick New York. After you change this, you must sync the device again. The change lives in the cloud until you force that Bluetooth handshake to happen.
Why 12-Hour vs 24-Hour Time Matters
Some people hate military time. Others can't live without it. If your Fitbit is showing 14:00 and you want it to say 2:00 PM, you actually have to go to the Fitbit.com dashboard on a web browser.
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Yeah, it's weird. As of early 2026, many users still find that the mobile app doesn't always show the 12/24 hour toggle clearly.
- Log in to your account at Fitbit.com.
- Click the gear icon.
- Go to "Settings" and then "Personal Info."
- Scroll down to "Time Display."
- Change it, hit save, and then—you guessed it—sync your watch via the phone app.
Dealing with the "Dead Battery" Time Lag
If your Fitbit dies and stays dead for a few days, the internal hardware clock essentially "stops" at the moment the juice ran out. When you finally charge it back up, it might think it’s last Tuesday.
This is a specific hardware limitation. The device doesn't have a backup CMOS battery like an old desktop PC. It relies entirely on the sync process to "re-learn" what year it is. If you’ve charged it and the time is still wrong after a sync, you might need to perform a "Long Restart." For a Sense 2 or Versa 4, hold the button for 10 seconds until the Fitbit logo appears. For trackers like the Inspire 3, you usually have to plug it into the charger and press the buttons on the sides. Resetting the hardware forces the Bluetooth radio to broadcast a "help me" signal to the app, which usually snaps the time back into place.
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The Bluetooth Factor
Bluetooth is finicky. It’s the Achilles' heel of wearable tech. If your time won't update, your phone might be "holding onto" the connection too tightly.
Go to your phone’s Bluetooth settings. "Forget" the Fitbit device. Don't worry, you aren't deleting your steps. Then, go back into the Fitbit app and set it up as if it were a new device. This "re-pairing" process forces the phone to send a fresh timestamp to the tracker. It’s the nuclear option, but it works 99% of the time.
Nuance: Travel and Daylight Savings
Daylight Savings Time is a frequent flyer on the Fitbit support forums. Twice a year, thousands of people wake up with a watch that is an hour off. Usually, the phone updates automatically, but the app fails to push that update to the tracker because of a "sleep mode" conflict. If your phone updated but your watch didn't, just toggle your phone’s Bluetooth off and on.
For travelers, there's a specific setting called "Secure Time Zone." This is meant to prevent "time jumping" when you're on a plane, but it often causes the watch to stay stuck in your home time zone. If you travel a lot, keep that setting turned off so the watch can adapt as soon as your phone hits a new cell tower.
Actionable Next Steps to Fix Your Clock
If your Fitbit time is currently wrong, follow this exact sequence to fix it without wasting time:
- Check the App Version: Ensure your Fitbit app is updated in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Old versions of the app often have bugs that prevent time zone synchronization.
- Toggle Bluetooth: Turn your phone's Bluetooth off for 10 seconds, then back on. This resets the communication bridge.
- Force a Sync: Open the Fitbit app and pull down on the home screen. Wait for the green progress bar at the top to finish.
- Manual Override: If the sync fails to fix the time, go to App Settings > Time Zone, turn off "Set Automatically," manually select the correct city, and sync again.
- Hardware Reboot: If all else fails, hold the side buttons on your Fitbit until it vibrates and the logo appears. This clears the temporary cache and forces it to pull a new timestamp from the app upon restart.
Once these steps are completed, your tracker will be perfectly aligned with your local time. If the problem persists every single day, it's likely a background app refresh issue on your phone; ensure the Fitbit app is allowed to run in the background without battery optimization restrictions.