Question

Zapier won't preserve time zone for calendar event

  • 17 February 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 576 views

I am attempting to monitor a spreadsheet and generate calendar events based on a column change. So far everything works correctly, except that the time zone is always set to my account time zone, not the time zone specified in the spreadsheet. These events need to respect multiple times zones. This may be a problem with how I have the data formatted in the sheet, but it is in line with the examples provided which do include a time zone. 

 

 

The included image shows the three fields I am using to construct the start and end times, but Zapier always drops the time zone and sets the event to Eastern Time (my account setting). I’ve tried using a formatter action but it also drops the time zone. How do I need to format the data in columns to maintain the time zone? Data must be human-readable and enterable.


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4 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @taylorstrait 

Try removing the “@” in the Start/End Date & Time fields.

Check out this help article: https://zapier.com/help/create/basics/different-field-types-in-zaps#formats-supported

 

Timezones

If you don't provide a timezone with your data, Zapier will use your account timezone.

Formats supported

Zapier tries to interpret any date or time you provide. For example, all of the following date formats are supported:

  • tomorrow at noon
  • next friday at 7pm
  • 2/13/2020 8pm EST
  • 2020-10-26T16:56 (standard ISO format)
  • 1393462573 (a UNIX timestamp)

Thanks for your reply! Removing the “@” did not resolve the issue, though.

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@taylorstrait 

This advice will depend on how many time zones you’re working with...

You may have to create a lookup table in GSheets or Formatter to use in the Zap to convert say ‘EDT’ to ‘US/Eastern’ for use in the a Formatter step to convert the date time to your GCal account timezone settings.

Action: GSheets - Lookup Row

or

Action: Formatter > Utilities > Lookup Table

plus

Action: Formatter > Date/Time > Format

 

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@taylorstrait 

Were you able to get this squared away based on the previous suggestions?

Please let us know, thanks.