Troubleshooting Mac Timezone Issues: Fixing Mac OS Ventura's Stuck Wrong Time Zone and Unchangeable Settings

Returning from vacation or business trip, you might encounter a frustrating situation where your Mac is stuck on the wrong timezone, and changing it seems impossible even with the automatic timezone setup. After researching various sources, I've found a solution to this problem. In this post, I'll share the steps to fix this issue on Mac OS Ventura. Apple's approach to handling timezones might have room for improvement, but you can ensure smooth functioning by following these simple steps.

Step-by-Step Guide:

If you find your Mac stuck on a vacation timezone, here's how you might resolve it:

1. Connect to a Wireless Network: First and foremost, ensure that your Mac is connected to a wireless network. Sometimes, being connected to a wired network can cause the timezone issues
2. Adjust Your Settings:
1. Click on the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen.
2. Choose "System Settings" from the dropdown menu.
3. In the System Preferences window, select "General."
4. Navigate to "Date & Time" settings.
5. Verify Automatic Settings: Double-check that both "Set time and date automatically" and "Set time zone automatically using your current location" are turned on.
3. See below: 

    

Summary:

By following these steps, you can probably fix the stuck timezone problem on Mac OS Ventura. It's essential to have your Mac connected to a wireless network for smoother time and timezone synchronization. Though Apple's timezone handling might have some room for improvement, taking these actions ensures your Mac operates smoothly, and you won't have to worry about being stuck in the wrong timezone after a trip.

    

How to fix: outlook showing wrong contact infomration - How To Reset The Outlook Nickname Autocompletion Cache on a Mac

It took me a while but this article solved my problem: 

ON a PC:

To delete a single cached entry:

In Outlook:

1. Open Outlook.
   • Outlook 2010/2013/2016/2019: On the Home page, click New Email.
   • Outlook 2007: Click New > Mail Message.
2. Type one or more letters of the recipient name or address; this will show memorized (cached) entries in a drop-down list.
3. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to select the entry to be deleted. With the entry highlighted, press the DELETE key on your keyboard.
   This removes the entry from your autocompletion cache.

On a Mac:

In Outlook for Mac 2011/2016:

1. Open Outlook and click New email.
2. Type one or more letters of the recipient name or address; this will show memorized (cached) entries in a drop-down list.
3. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to select the entry to be deleted. With the entry highlighted, press the DELETE key on your keyboard. Or you can click on the cross sign with your mouse.
   This removes the entry from your autocompletion cache.

XML files on Excell, the easy way

 If you have an XML data file and you would like to read that on excel just follow those steps below. 

Yes, you can open and work with XML files in Microsoft Excel. Excel can import XML data and display it in a structured table format. To open an XML file in Excel, follow these steps:

• Open Microsoft Excel.
• Click on the "File" tab in the top-left corner.
• Choose "Open" from the menu.
• In the file browser dialog, navigate to the folder where the XML file is stored.
• In the "File type" dropdown menu (usually located at the bottom-right corner of the file browser dialog), select "XML Files (*.xml)".
• Choose the XML file you want to open and click "Open".

Excel will import the XML data and display it in a structured table format. You can then work with the data in Excel, such as filtering, sorting, or applying formulas.

Please note that Excel may not correctly interpret or display very complex XML files or those with specific formatting requirements. In such cases, you may need to use specialized XML editing software or work with the XML file programmatically using a programming language such as Python or Java.

If you then would like to manipulate that data you can follow the instructions below: 

If you open the file on Google Sheets you can use the QUERY command.

In Excel the equivalent of this Google sheets command: "=QUERY(TabName!A:R,"SELECT N,O,P,Q,R,H")"

In Microsoft Excel, you can use Power Query to achieve similar functionality to Google Sheets' QUERY function. Power Query is a data transformation and analysis feature that allows you to import, manipulate, and analyze data from various sources.

To replicate the Google Sheets QUERY command in Excel, follow these steps:

• Click on the "Data" tab in the Excel ribbon.
• In the "Get & Transform Data" group, click "Get Data" and then choose "Combine Queries" > "Append Queries as New".
• In the "Append Queries" window, choose "Two or more tables" and click "Add Table".
• Choose the source sheet (in your example, it's "TabName") and click "OK".
• In the Power Query Editor, select the columns you want to include in your query (in your example, columns N, O, P, Q, R, and H).
• Click the "Home" tab in the Power Query Editor, and then click "Close & Load".

Excel will create a new sheet with the selected columns from the source sheet. Note that Power Query in Excel does not use the same QUERY language as Google Sheets, and you may need to learn the Power Query interface to manipulate and filter the data further.

Keep in mind that Power Query might not be available in all versions of Excel. It is available in Excel 2010 Professional Plus and later versions, as well as in Office 365.

How to change default "Open with:" settings on a Mac

 I I got this answer from here. 

==========================================

Choose a file that has the same extension as the other files that you extensively use and right click on it. Example: .mov extension (video)

• Select “Get Info” from the list shown in the pop-up
• Choose Open With and expand the drop down to choose an app
  
• Select Change All… option under Use this application label box
• Finally a pop-up asking “Are you sure you want to change all similar files to open with the application” comes up, select continue to save the settings
  
• Now the next time you open a file, it is opened using the default application of your choice

 ===========

Simple but it required me multiple searches to find the right answer. 

How to change cell color based on day of the week - Google Sheets - Conditional format based on day of the week

I was looking for a way to change the color or a cell based on the date of the week reflected on that cell or another cell. In my case I was trying to make 2 different colors for Monday and Thursday. 

I found a discussion here that gave me hints into what I found is the best answer. See below. 

Use the function weekday(cell)=? (1 for Sunday, 2 for Monday, .....7 for Saturday). Detailed description is below (thanks to the answer by Emerson Peters on link above): 

===================================

Say the column of dates is A. Select it, Format > Conditional formatting..., Custom formula is and enter:

=weekday(A1)=1  

Choose the formatting required.

The final 1 above is for Sunday, other days follow in numeric order.

Repeat for the other required formats, adjusting the 1 as necessary for other days of the week.

Because these rules do not conflict (each date is only one specific day of the week) the order in which the rules are added (with "+ Add another rule") does not matter.

===================================

I have used this process and created Conditional Format rules to make Mondays Green and Thursdays Pink. As below see results and conditional format formulas:

Results: 

Conditional format rules:

I hope this helps you and it did to me. 

Apple Magic Trackpad 2 or Magic Mouse or Apple Keyboard on Windows 10

 I got my hands into a 2nd hand Apple Magic Trackpad 2 and really enjoyed using it on my Mac. For work I need to use a windobesides using it on my Mac I also would like to use it on my Windows 10 laptop. 

Initially, I could not make it work wirelessly but if you use the charging usb-lighting cable and install drivers following instructions below that I have found here: 

Here are the steps:

1) If you've already added your Magic Mouse as a Bluetooth device in Windows 10, remove it before beginning.

2) Download Apple's Bootcamp Support Software here: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1837?viewlocale=en_AM&locale=en_AM

3) Unzip the file and navigate to the following folder:

bootcamp5.1.5769\Bootcamp\Drivers\Apple

4) Double-click on the file AppleWirelessMouseDriver64.exe. This will install the proper driver for the Magic Mouse. (also Install all the drivers you think you need, for magic mouse, keyboard and pad)

5) Add your Magic Mouse under Windows 10 Bluetooth devices.

Thunderbird View "Day Starts at:" option not working - Toggling between Inbox and Calendar tabs causes calendar to always scroll back to starting at midnight

I have recently being forced to update to Thunderbird 68.4.2 on my workng machine (and lost access to Rikaichan....but this is the topic for another posting) and noticed that everytime I moved between Inbox or any other tab back to the calendar view last view I had on my calendar was lost!

I was trying to fix this behaviour by going to Tools->Options->Calendar->View->Day starts at:
and then setting the start time to 7am so I could see something like this:

However the view would always be different than that!

I found the following references to this bug here and here but no good fix.

Some of the answer you can find on the first link:

Thanks for reaching out. I think thinks are different in 68.0. The start time refers to when the work day starts (which is time range with different shading). There is no setting view start time.

and

You're right, there's no setting for the start time - it's midnight. But I note that the scroll bar position in Day or Week view is remembered between TB restarts, so that if the window was scrolled to show 8:00 a.m. at the top at TB exit, it window looks the same when TB is restarted (TB 60 & 69b). Does that at least work on your system?


One of the recommended fixes was to scroll the view as you wanted and then close Thunderbird, so that setting would be saved on session.json but other viewers tried and it did not work.

I think I found the problem, if you made the changes but goes back to any other Thunderbird page (like inbox) before it closes the settings for the view are lost. What I tried and worked for me was set the view on the calendar tab and then close Thunderbird from that view. This has reset the default view to my last one!

I just wish Thunderbird would have this fixed instead of having us need to create work arounds for something so trivial.