How to Change Timezone in SharePoint Online (Quick Tutorial)

Last Updated on August 26, 2023

Do you need to configure or change the timezone in SharePoint Online?

Well, if you tried it on your own, it’s likely that you never found the option. That’s understandable since it’s well hidden.

In this article, I’ll show you how to change the timezone in SharePoint Online in regional settings, your Office profile, and many more.

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents:

How to change SharePoint regional settings
How to change your Office profile’s time zone
How to change SharePoint tenant’s time zone
How to change SharePoint’s timezone using PowerShell

How to change SharePoint regional settings

The timezone option is actually hidden inside the regional settings in your site settings. The first thing you need to do is go to the site settings page.

Follow these steps:

Click the gear icon on the upper-right corner of the page
Select the site information option from the list

Click on the gear icon and select site information

From there, click the view all site settings link near the bottom of the panel:

Click on the view all site settings link to proceed

On the next page, you will find the regional settings under the site administration category:

On the next screen, the option for timezone is shown first:

Click the dropdown button
Select the timezone to use

Changing the timezone in regional settings

Before you exit the page, make sure to hit the OK button on the lower-right corner of the page. This will take effect immediately.

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How to change your Office profile’s time zone

Can you change your own Office profile’s time zone? Well, it turns out that you can actually can — though it may take a few steps to get there.

While on any SharePoint site or Microsoft 365 app:

Click your profile picture/icon on the upper-right corner
Hit the My Office profile button there

That step will bring you to Microsoft Delve. Click the update profile button to proceed.

On the next screen:

Expand the question about language and regional settings
Click the link provided in the answer

On the next page:

Go to the language and region tab
Configure your settings to personal
Change your timezone
Click the save all and close button below the page

The reason why you need to change the region settings first to personal is that by default, it follows the settings defined by site administration.

That’s why the first time you come to this page, you can’t change the timezone settings unless you change the regional settings to personal.

How to change SharePoint tenant’s time zone

Did you know that you can also change the tenant’s timezone? For this, you need to get to the SharePoint admin center first.

Follow these steps:

Click the app launcher on the upper-left corner
Hit the admin button on the left panel

Click on the admin app under the app launcher panel

On the next page:

Expand the options for admin centers from the left panel
Click the option for SharePoint

Find SharePoint under the admin centers group

Once you’re in the SharePoint admin center:

Go to the settings section of the admin center
Click the site creation option

This will open a panel to the right:

Click the timezone dropdown
Select the timezone you want to use
Click the save button at the bottom

How to change SharePoint’s timezone using PowerShell

Before I end this article, I want to share with you that it’s also possible to use PowerShell to change the timezone.

Below are the codes you need to enter — credits to Salaudeen Rajack for the codes:

But before you can update a site’s timezone, you need the timezone ID. Enter the following codes to do so:

#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"
 
#SharePoint Online Site URL
$SiteURL = "https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/"
 
#Get Credentials to connect
$Cred= Get-Credential
$Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)
   
#Set up the context
$Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteUrl)
$Ctx.Credentials = $credentials
 
#sharepoint online powershell to get time zone
$Timezones = $Ctx.Web.RegionalSettings.TimeZones
$Ctx.Load($Timezones)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
 
#Get Timezone ID and Description
$Timezones | Select ID, Description

You will then see the following response:

Once you have the time zone ID and description, use the following codes:

#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"
 
#Config parameters for SharePoint Online Site URL and Timezone description
$SiteURL = "https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/"
$TimezoneName ="(UTC+04:00) Abu Dhabi, Muscat"
 
#Get Credentials to connect
$Cred= Get-Credential
$Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)
   
#Set up the context
$Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteUrl)
$Ctx.Credentials = $credentials
 
#Get all available time zones
$Timezones = $Ctx.Web.RegionalSettings.TimeZones
$Ctx.Load($Timezones)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
 
#Filter the Time zone to update
$NewTimezone = $Timezones | Where {$_.Description -eq $TimezoneName}
 
#sharepoint online powershell set time zone
$Ctx.Web.RegionalSettings.TimeZone = $NewTimezone
$Ctx.Web.Update()
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

If you want to use PnP PowerShell to set the timezone, use these codes:

#Set Config Variables
$SiteURL = "https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename"
$TimezoneName = "(UTC+04:00) Abu Dhabi, Muscat"
 
#Connect to SharePoint Online with PnP PowerShell
Connect-PnPOnline $SiteURL -Interactive
 
#Get the Web
$web = Get-PnPWeb -Includes RegionalSettings.TimeZones
 
#Get the time zone
$Timezone  = $Web.RegionalSettings.TimeZones | Where {$_.Description -eq $TimezoneName}
 
If($Timezone -ne $Null)
{
    #Update time zone of the site
    $Web.RegionalSettings.TimeZone = $Timezone
    $Web.Update()
    Invoke-PnPQuery
    Write-host "Timezone Updated Successfully!" -ForegroundColor Green
}
else
{
    Write-host "Timezone $TimezoneName not found!" -ForegroundColor Yellow
}

To use PowerShell to set the time zone of a SharePoint Online site, use these codes:

#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"
 
#function to change Timezone regional settings of a SharePoint Online site
Function Set-SPOTimeZone
{ 
    Param ([Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Web]$Web,[Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.TimeZone]$Timezone)
 
    Try
    {
        #Update the timezone of the site
        $Web.RegionalSettings.TimeZone = $NewTimezone
        $Web.Update()
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
 
        Write-host -f Green "Timezone has been updated for "$Web.Url
 
        #Get all subsites of the web
        $Ctx.Load($Web.Webs)
        $Ctx.executeQuery()
 
        #Iterate through each subsites and call the function recursively
        Foreach ($Subweb in $Web.Webs)
        {
            #Call the function to set Timezone for the web
            Set-SPOTimeZone -Web $Subweb -Timezone $NewTimezone
        }
    }
    Catch [System.Exception]
    {
        Write-Hoste -f Red $_.Exception.Message
    }  
}
 
#Config parameters for SharePoint Online Site Collection URL and Timezone description
$SiteURL = "https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/"
$TimezoneName ="(UTC+04:00) Abu Dhabi, Muscat"
 
#Get Credentials to connect
$Cred= Get-Credential
$Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)
   
#Set up the context
$Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteUrl)
$Ctx.Credentials = $credentials
   
#Get the Root web from given Site Collection URL
$Web = $Ctx.web
$Ctx.Load($Web)
 
#Get the Time zone to update
$Timezones = $Ctx.Web.RegionalSettings.TimeZones
$Ctx.Load($Timezones)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
$NewTimezone = $Timezones | Where {$_.Description -eq $TimezoneName}
  
#Call the function to set Timezone for the Root web
Set-SPOTimeZone -Web $web -Timezone $NewTimezone

If you want to change the timezone for all existing site collections, use the following codes:

#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"
 
#function to change Timezone regional settings of a SharePoint Online site
Function Set-SPOnlineTimeZone([String]$SiteURL,[String]$TimezoneName,[PSCredential]$Cred)
{ 
     Try
     {
        #Setup Credentials to connect
        $Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)
   
        #Set up the context
        $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
        $Ctx.Credentials = $credentials
   
        #Get the Root web from given URL
        $Web = $Ctx.web
        $Ctx.Load($Web)
 
        #Get the Time zone to update
        $Timezones = $Web.RegionalSettings.TimeZones
        $Ctx.Load($Timezones)
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
        $NewTimezone = $Timezones | Where {$_.Description -eq $TimezoneName}
  
        #Update the timezone of the site
        $Web.RegionalSettings.TimeZone = $NewTimezone
        $Web.Update()
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
 
        Write-host -f Green "Timezone has been updated for "$Web.Url
 
        #Get all subsites of the web
        $Ctx.Load($Web.Webs)
        $Ctx.executeQuery()
 
        #Iterate through each subsites and call the function recursively
        Foreach ($Subweb in $Web.Webs)
        {
            #Call the function to set Timezone for the web
            Set-SPOnlineTimeZone -SiteURL $Subweb.URL -TimezoneName $TimezoneName -Cred $AdminCredentials
        }
   }
    Catch [System.Exception]
    {
        Write-Host -f Red $_.Exception.Message
    } 
} 
 
#Config parameters for SharePoint Online Admin Center and Timezone description
$AdminSiteURL = "https://crescent-admin.sharepoint.com/"
$TimezoneName ="(UTC+04:00) Abu Dhabi, Muscat"
 
#Get credentials to connect to SharePoint Online Admin Center
$AdminCredentials = Get-Credential
 
#Connect to SharePoint Online Tenant Admin
Connect-SPOService -URL $AdminSiteURL -Credential $AdminCredentials
 
#Get all Site Collections
$SitesCollection = Get-SPOSite -Limit ALL
 
#Iterate through each site collection
ForEach($Site in $SitesCollection)
{
    Write-host -f Yellow "Setting Timezone for Site Collection:"$Site.URL
 
    #Call the function to set Timezone for the site
    Set-SPOnlineTimeZone -SiteURL $Site.URL -TimezoneName $TimezoneName -cred $AdminCredentials
}

Do you have any questions on how to change the timezone in SharePoint? Feel free to let me know in the comment section.

For inquiries and other concerns, kindly use the site’s contact form and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.