Wrong appointment time since DST in Germany

[schmidtze]

Hi,

I'm using AquaMail Pro on my phone and my tablet and I'm very satisfied with it. For my business calendar (Microsoft Exchange), I'm using AquaMail, which created an account for it automatically. Unfortunately since begin of daylight saving time (27th of March), all appointments will be shown shifted by 1 hour into future, on both devices. For testing, I created an Exchange account manually on my phone, which doesn't have this problem. Do I miss something? Or is it maybe a bug?

Best regards
Friedemann

[StR]

I don't work with Exchange myself, but from what I know, Aquamail doesn't change anything for the events. It just passes the event info to the app handling your calendar.
So, the difference you observe is likely from the difference in the time zone settings on your exchange server and your calendar.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

I'd need to see a debug log (please see below).

With the log enabled, use Outlook or web mail (web calendar) to change something about the event (e.g. the color / category).

Then use "refresh" in the Calendar app, so that AquaMail syncs the change, and wait for it to complete.

Finally, please email me the log file and let me know what the correct time should be.

---

Exchange has different ways to report time zone info, it's possible that either it's reported wrong (specifically over EWS, and correct over ActiveSync), or else it could be a bug in AquaMail.

[fschw]

Hi,

I can (mostly) confirm this problem. I added my exchange account to AquaMail. Normal appointments are ok, but all existing recurring appointments in the daylight saving time period are shifted by one hour. If I add a new appointment, regardless if it is in the DST period or outside, it is shown correctly. If I add a new recurring appointment which runs across the DST change date, those appointments after the DST period are shifted by -1 hour. Example: I add a new recurring appointment, from today on every Wednesday at 2 p.m., until some date in December. All appointments until October 30th are correct, those after October 30th are scheduled at 1 p.m.
I have attached a debug log snippet. Search for "Testterminserie3", a recurring event I created that shows the problem.

Best regards,
Frank

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Can you confirm that this is correct? The start / end times and the time zone?

<t:StartDate>2016-04-20+02:00</t:StartDate>
<t:EndDate>2016-11-20+01:00</t:EndDate>
<t:StartTimeZone Name="(UTC+01:00) Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rom, Stockholm, Wien" Id="W. Europe Standard Time">

And that you're in UTC+0100 now, and after October 30 it's UTC+0200?

[StR]

In my Android's (4.1.2) built-in calendar app, in its settings, there an option: "Use home time zone" ("Displays calendars and event times to your home time zone when traveling").
I have it check-marked. What it allows me is that if I have scheduled some meeting at 10am for the date I will be in a different time zone, if I didn't have that, - it would be showing me the event at a completely different time.

However, when I am already in a different time zone, setting new events can mix things up. The event reminders then happen at a wrong time, not when I expect. (I forgot the exact details.)

Why am I writing this? I suspect that you may have a similar effect. So, you can check what that option is set to on your phone, and then toggle that setting and see how the behavior will change. Maybe what you are observing is the peculiarity of your calendar program, and not that of Aquamail?

(Just in case: While using the built-in calendar app, I am using Google calendar, not the internal device calendar.)

[mikeone]

Can you confirm that this is correct? The start / end times and the time zone?

<t:StartDate>2016-04-20+02:00</t:StartDate>
<t:EndDate>2016-11-20+01:00</t:EndDate>
<t:StartTimeZone Name="(UTC+01:00) Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rom, Stockholm, Wien" Id="W. Europe Standard Time">

Should be correct.

And that you're in UTC+0100 now, and after October 30 it's UTC+0200?

Since we are running in DST currently in Germany it seems to be:
"And that you're in UTC+0200 now, and after October 30 it's UTC+0100"

Daylight Saving Time 2016 [Germany]:
from 27.03.2016 02:00 to 30.10.2016 03:00
Daylight Saving Time 2017 [Germany]:
from 26.03.2017 02:00 to 29.10.2017 03:00

[fschw]

Quote from: Kostya Vasilyev, Aqua Mail on Today at 02:09:44 am
Can you confirm that this is correct? The start / end times and the time zone?

<t:StartDate>2016-04-20+02:00</t:StartDate>
<t:EndDate>2016-11-20+01:00</t:EndDate>
<t:StartTimeZone Name="(UTC+01:00) Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rom, Stockholm, Wien" Id="W. Europe Standard Time">
Should be correct.

Yes, it is correct.

Since we are running in DST currently in Germany it seems to be:
"And that you're in UTC+0200 now, and after October 30 it's UTC+0100"

Also correct.

I also checked the "Use home time zone" setting: it was not checked. Enabling it does not make any difference (well, I did not remove and re-add the Exchange account, just let the calender update/sync).

[Kostya Vasilyev]

I see it now.

Your server returns:

(UTC+01:00) Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rom, Stockholm, Wien

My code expects (this is from some reference somewhere, I don't remember now):

(UTC+01:00) Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna

And so because there is no match, it falls back to "UTC+01:00" which is obviously wrong.


"Use home time zone" is not applied to already synced events.

It would be interesting to change that setting and then change something about the event on the server (the color would be enough) and do a "refresh" in Calendar app.

But I will fix the real issue (or rather will add a workaround).

[Kostya Vasilyev]

@StR:

Exchange does not use IANA time zone names.

Depending on the version (2007 vs. 2010 vs. 2013) it returns "Windows time zone names" or its own "Exchange time zone names".

And Android calendar needs IANA names, so Aqua has to convert back and forth (and there are more twists...)

[Kostya Vasilyev]

@fschw

Please try updating to this test version:

https://www.aqua-mail.com/download/AquaMail-market-1.6.1.5-13.apk

And then change something about the event (on the server, using web mail or Outlook), the color would be fine, and finally "refresh" in Calendar app.

Or just try a new test event.

The time zone should now be parsed to "Europe/Berlin" and not "GMT+01:00" (as it did in the version you have now).

@schmidtze

I expect this should fix the issue for you too.

[fschw]

Yes, great, problem fixed! New test event created, and start- and end-time are same before and after DST change.

 Thank you!

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Excellent, thanks.