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no date and time option on gear s3

(Topic created on: 16-08-2017 10:29 AM)
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lsb3011
First Poster
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i cant find the date and time option when i go into

 

settings-device menu

 

any ideas ?

 

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41 REPLIES 41
ChrisM
SuperStar
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Hi @lsb3011.

 

We're not sure what your wanting to do here. The Gear S3 automatically syncs the date and time from your phone.

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GPSviews
Explorer
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Dear Chris, with all due respect the question is valid and the user should have received from you a proper answer from a Moderator than a "what your wanting to do here". This may be an important bug on some watches and it  should be addressed more seriously.

My Gear S3 Frontier (SM-R760) has the same problem. There is no Settings/Device/Date and Time section on the menu, the time DOES NOT sync with the phone, Gear app does not have a way to change time manually neither and so, I have no way to change the time on my watch accordingly to the season.

To me, this is clearly some kind of bug since the watch did have the option on the setting menu a month ago. However, in all forums I have found users posting this problem, somebody downplays the issue by speculating the watch syncs wth the phone automatically. Well, the watch DOES NOT syncs and that is part of the problem. Now if we take this issue seriously, we should try to find a solution. The device is primarily a watch and it is quite bad that sudently there is no way to adjust its time. The only update from Samsung I recall have made on mine (other than apps and faces) has been the package for S-voice. I am not saying it caused the bug but it is worth to check with others users. Until you need to chage the time manually, many may not know that the menu has gone from the setting section.

From what I have found, this bug seems to happen on SM-R760 (bluetooth only) and I do not know if it includes other models. Restarting the watch, modifying the time on the phone, puting the watch on standalone mode, changing location options, all them do not lead to automatic change of the time nor make the "Date and Time" menu show up again under Setting/Device.

Perhaps a reset may solve the issue but it would be quite a shame for a watch to need that extreme step to be able to adjust the time on it.

 

anybody else have found "date and time" section on the Settings/Device menu gone?
kind regards

AntS
Moderator
Moderator
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@GPSviews wrote:

anybody else have found "date and time" section on the Settings/Device menu gone?

Good question there, @GPSviews.

 

Any info you guys can post here would be great for us to escalate this to the relevant peeps for you (e.g. what phone you're using in connection with the watch; phone firmware version; Gear app version; what region you're from etc.).

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GPSviews
Explorer
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Many thanks for your attention into this.
I did tried a factory reset. After connecting it to the phone (Gear) again and attempting to restore the backup, the process crashes if the phone is on the charging cradle. I tried again and the restore worked fine. However, the time is wrong, not the same as on the phone, Gear does not have a feature to manually change the time on the watch and on the watch side, the option "Date and Time" simply does not exist under Settings/Device/. So, no way to fix the time. I took a sreenshot of the menu but "Quick reply" does not allow me to attach the image. Anyway, the menu ends on "Auto open apps" without "Date and Time" and without "Language" neither.

In another attempt to fix this, I reset the watch again but tried setting it as a standalone device without phone connection (no Gear). There the watch asks for language, timezone etc. Once the first setup is finished and I have access to the menus, there I find /Settings/Device/Date and Time as well as Language etc. I have access to Timezone etc.
I read on a guide for Gear S2 or Classic, I do not recall well, that these menu are only available on standalone mode. I thought that if you set "airplane" mode, or disconnect any bluetooth/wifi/remote feature, the watch is on "standalone" mode. On the watch (top menu) it states "standalone". On this mode, the full menu should appear, but now I understand that "standalone" can also be when you setup the phone entirely without Gear connection. Two bad Samsung has two types of "standalone" modes.
My first impression is that this bug should be fixed by simple removing the automatic removal of the menus when connecting the watch to Gear. These menus (Date and Time, Language etc) should be available for manual use all the time on the watch. A second option to solve this, even better, would be to keep the watch as it is but adding then on Gear app, the feature under settings to adjust manually the time on the watch, perhaps just next to Backup/Restore.

Clearly this is a bug, because the watch should sync the time when connected to Gear and it is not doing it. At least when the phone Date and Time are set manually (automatic is disabled).

I travel overseas due to my job. Now I am in Chile, and here they tend to change the time system without much logic (some years they change seasonally and others do not). This time they do adjusted the time seasonally for summer time (from GMT-4 into GMT-3). My phone did not adjusted automatically so I disconnected the automatic feature and adjusted the time manually. However, the watch did not synced to the new time regardless of rebooting both devices.

My only way to solve this issue is fooling the watch by setting another timezone on the phone. If I change from Santiago(GMT-4), to Brasilia (GTM-3) then the watch shows the right time. So, at least it is clear to me that the watch adjusts its time by syncing with the timezone of the phone instead of the TIME set on the phone. This should be fixed and Gear should include a time/date and language. I use my phone in English due to some apps that are not properly translated, but I rather use my watch in French. I cannot do it neither if using the watch connected to Gear app. So, time and language are issues to improve on both sides. At least, the watch should retrieve the time from the phone and not guess it based on the timezone set on the phone.

Here is the information on Gear app and the watch:

Samsung Gear (2.2.17022862)
Gear S Plugin (2.2.03.17041461)

Gear S3 Frontier model SM-R760
Tizen version 2.3.2.4
Software version R760XXU2BQG4
GPSviews
Explorer
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In my opinion, a watch should always have a way to adjust its time manually.
If you get your phone stolen with before a trip (ca. at the airport) and you go to another timezone, how are you expected to adjust the time? At least now I know that by resetting the watch into standalone, I can regain full control of the menu, but loosing all the settings, apps, faces, documents etc.

The options on the watch menu should not disappear when using Gear app. I hope Samsung takes this into account and removes the "menu restrictions" on a new update.
GPSviews
Explorer
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I FOUND A "TEMPORARY" SOLUTION


I lost most of the day doing tests, reading a trying to find a solution. I got an answer from Samsung Support as well. They recognize there is a problem as well as the many issues of their only solution, that is to perform a factory reset of the watch to regain full control of the menu.

Here is what I found so far:

  • the menus Date and Time - Timezone - Language, under /settings/Device/ simply disappear as soon as you connect the watch with Gear app on a phone. You use Gear app? then check your watch and verify if you can adjust the time and date on the phone... you cannot. Neither the language nor timezone.

  • if you have your phone set with automatic time/date/timezone, and your are not traveling between timezones, not your local government changes arbitrarily the time, and your local conditions are such that you never need to adjust manually the time/date on your phone, then you have no problem on your watch, despite you lost these menus as well and you cannot use a different language on the watch than your phone. It may be rare to think on that case, but I am one of these because I want to have my phone in English due to some translation limits on some of my apps, but would like to have my watch in french. If connected to Gear app, this is simply impossible (at least to this post's date and time).

  • if you find yourself in a situation like missing/loosing/getting robbed your phone and you need your watch to have changed its time/date for some reason (your are ready to take a flight overseas), you cannot do it. Despite being a watch, it does not provide a way to adjust manually the time/date/timezone/language. These options on the settings are lost as soon as you connected the watch to your lost phone. Your only way to regain control is to reset the watch and set it as "standalone" without connecting it to any phone. During the first steps of the setup, the watch asks or provides the chance to choose "standalone" rather than connecting it to a phone. Of course you will loose many things (updates, files, apps, faces, settings, etc.). But you will be able to use the watch as a watch because you will have all the needed the menus.

Samsung Support recommended me as a solution, to reset the watch. This is not accurate. Do not do it. If you do that and later your phone offers to restore it from a previous backup, the watch will still not have the menus to be able to adjust the time and date among others. The problem persists. Also, the Backup/Restoring process is far from being complete neither. You have to know that even using a recent restore, you will loose at least: all your alarm sets, apps updates, your widgets and the order you set them, the cities on your world clock, any change on the units on the Altimeter/Barometer etc and any transferred file to the watch. So, this proposed "solution" does not seem correct to me nor fair. You loose too much on the process and it does not get you back control on the menus that disappear once connected to Gear app. The only actual (to this day) way to recover these menus, is if you reset the watch, and then you set the watch from scratch as “standalone” without linking it to a phone with Gear app. I tried and did some tests on this mode as well. It connects to wifi networks but you cannot retrieve the apps you bought, nor use Samsung Health properly, nor even receive files trough bluetooth from a Pc/Mac/Linux computer. I was able to pair the watch with my computer but after three seconds it closes the connection. Just like my Samsung NX1 (also with Tizen). They are locked to connect only with their own apps.

 

A temporary "solution"
This is not elegant but it is better than the proposal I receive from Samsung Support today.
The watch, when using it with Gear app on a phone, hides some menus that should never hide, and then seems to sync time/date/timezone/language with the phone. But it does it, not the way you would expect. The watch does it by giving more value to the timezone set on the phone rather than the time itself that is set on the phone. It should sync to the time rather the time zone, but this is key to know.

 

So, the workaround is:

  1. do not reset your watch (not needed)

  2. connect the watch with Gear app to your phone as usual

  3. disable on your phone the features "automatic date and time" and "automatic time zone". Both are set by collected data from local cellphone towers that I have found in several countries, to not update their time soon enough when changing seasons etc. Again, if you are in a reliable cellphone network, you do not have this problem and you can keep these features automatic. This is a workaround for people like me, that travel into sites without reliable data from cellphone network providers and in need to manually be able to adjust time and date on the smartwatch.

  4. adjust the time zone on the phone to one that fits your local UTC or GMT conditions. Like me, now in Chile, I changed manually to "Brasilia GMT-3" fooling the watch. Check your watch because with this, it may already have corrected the time regardless of the time you have on your phone. This proves that Gear S3 sets its time by syncing based more on the time zone rather than the time set on the phone. The bug is that there are cases when the watch does not sync its time with the same time on the phone.

  5. also, adjust manually the time on your phone.

  6. you are set. Do not forget to manually change your time zone and time according to the local conditions.

About the language, there is nothing you can do today. Once connected the watch to Gear app, it cannot be used in a different language than the phone. With this workaround you can fool the watch and force it to change the time, using the time zone on the phone (not just the time).

 

Do not you agree with me that at least "Time and Date" should be able to be adjusted manually on any watch? with or without a phone aside? Even more on the flagship of the smartwatches? Gear S3 is primarily a watch, isn't it?

 

This is what I think it should be improved by Samsung with some updates (do not take me wrong, I love this device but this bug/limitations should be addressed):

- Gear app should include on the settings, the options to set Time, Date, Timezone and Language on the watch independently from their value on the phone. Sure, most people would keep all in sync  - as long as not traveling to sites like I do. So, the manual option should be there anyway. More if it is taken away from the watch side.

 

- The watch should keep all the menus from Standalone mode, despite being connected to Gear app. Therefore the option to manually set these variables on the watch, regardless if you have or not your phone nearby and without needing to reset nor loose any information.

 

Samsung Support, in their answer also stated this about this bug: “Hopefully you might be getting the feature that you are expecting in the software updates which will be released in the future.”

I would say "Lets hope for the best, but always be prepared for the worst".
kind regards!

GPSviews
Explorer
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a correction... It states: "You use Gear app? then check your watch and verify if you can adjust the time and date on the PHONE... you cannot."

it should state: "You use Gear app? then check your watch and verify if you can adjust the time and date on the WATCH... you cannot."
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AntS
Moderator
Moderator
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Thanks @GPSviews. :thumbsup:

 

I've made our software folks aware of this issue and the info you've given there. I'll keep you guys updated.

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AntS
Moderator
Moderator
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Hi all.

 

Our software guys have looked into this, escalated to the relevant people, and discussed it extensively. We're afraid there's no plans to alter the current setup. :smileysad:

 

Appreciate that this is disappointing for you guys, but would like to thank you for all the very useful info you gave here so it could be looked into as well as it has been.

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