What is PHP default timezone?

If you notice the incorrect time in your PHP scripts, the likely culprit is that the hosting server is in a different timezone.

For example, when you’re an InMotion web hosting customer, you can select from data centers in Washington, D.C., or California, which means the server’s timezone will be either Eastern Standard Time (EST) or Pacific Standard Time (PST).

If you want to change that, it’s a quick fix. Simply insert a line of code into your php.ini file and the location you set in the code will determine the time to display in your PHP scripts. Keep reading to learn how.

Set the Timezone in PHP

1. Open your php.ini file with the File Manager in cPanel .
2. Add the following line of code to top of your php.ini file: date.timezone = "US/Central".
   
   
   
3. Replace US/Central with the timezone from here that corresponds to the time you want to display.
4. Once you have entered the desired timezone, click Save Changes to save the file.
   
   
   
5. Now, you can check your phpinfo.php page to verify the change took place.
   

Congratulations! You are now able to set the timezone in PHP. If you wish to see more guides with tips and information for your website issues, please see our InMotion Hosting Support Center!

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Simply Schedule Appointments relies on WordPress to successfully configure the PHP default timezone function to UTC. This is a function that the majority of plugins should not be modifying themselves, but we sometimes come across some that do. When this happens, SSA (and probably other plugins, too) can break and appear buggy.

One of the biggest symptoms SSA shows with this error is that all of your dates and times will shift regardless of whether you’re using the correct timezone in the plugin.

Confirming a PHP Default Timezone Error

There are two ways to confirm whether you’re dealing with this issue.

Check SSA Support Tab

Go to the SSA Support tab and if you look under PHP default timezone, there should be a message saying:

“PHP default timezone was changed after WordPress loading by a date_default_timezone_set() function call. This interferes with correct calculations of dates and times.”

Check the Site Health Panel from your WordPress Dashboard

From your WordPress Dashboard, go to Tools > Site Health. Under Critical Issues, you should see the following error, “PHP default timezone is invalid”.

How to Fix PHP Default Timezone Error

We’ll need to track down the plugin or theme causing this error. To do so, we recommend that you complete the following steps on a staging site if possible or make sure to create a backup on your live site before you continue.

1. See if it’s a plugin conflict by disabling all other plugins, or by using Plugin Detective to quickly identify a conflict
2. See if it’s a theme conflict by switching to a default WordPress theme.

We offer a guide to walk you through the troubleshooting process using Plugin Detective.

Once you’re able to narrow down on the culprit that’s modifying the date_default_timezone_set() function, you have two options. Either disable the plugin/theme (if it’s unnecessary or if there’s an alternative one you could use) or you can try contacting the developer and mentioning that WordPress requires the timezone to be UTC in order to function properly.

You could also send them the following article that offers helpful suggestions in fixing this issue in the code itself.

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  What is the default time zone in PHP?

  Reading the timezone set using the date_default_timezone_set() function (if any) Reading the value of the date. timezone ini option (if set) If none of the above succeed, the default timezone will be UTC.

  Where is PHP timezone set?

  Open Hosting → Manage → PHP Configuration page. There, open the PHP options tab and edit the date. timezone value: If you are not sure which time zone to insert, check the Time Zone Map.

  How to set UTC time in PHP?

  date_default_timezone_set() sets the default timezone used by all date/time functions. Instead of using this function to set the default timezone in your script, you can also use the INI setting date. timezone to set the default timezone.

  How to set est time zone in PHP?

  php echo date_default_timezone_get(); $currenttime = date('h:i:s:u'); list($hrs,$mins,$secs,$msecs) = split(':',$currenttime); echo " => $hrs:$mins:$secs\n"; date_default_timezone_set('US/Eastern'); echo date_default_timezone_get(); $currenttime = date('h:i:s:u'); list($hrs,$mins,$secs,$msecs) = split(':',$currenttime ...