How to change timezone on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

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In this short guide we will show you how to change timezone on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux server/desktop by using both the graphical user interface (GUI) and the Linux command line.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to change timezone from command line
  • How to change timezone using GUI

Change timezone on Ubuntu 20.04 Server / Desktop

Change timezone on Ubuntu 20.04 Server / Desktop

Software Requirements and Conventions Used

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Installed or upgraded Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa
Software N/A
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Change timezone on Ubuntu 20.04 step by step instructions

Change Timezone from command line

  1. Check your current time zone settings: 
    $ timedatectl
               Local time: Thu 2019-12-05 23:22:43 UTC
           Universal time: Thu 2019-12-05 23:22:43 UTC
                 RTC time: Thu 2019-12-05 23:22:43
                Time zone: Etc/UTC (UTC, +0000)
System clock synchronized: no
              NTP service: inactive
          RTC in local TZ: no
  2. List available time zones. Te following command will list all available time zones on you Ubuntu 20.04 Server/Desktop system: 
    $ timedatectl list-timezones

    Use the grep command to narrow down the search. In the example below this command will produce a list of all available time zones in Australia:

    $ timedatectl list-timezones | grep Australia
Australia/Adelaide
Australia/Brisbane
Australia/Broken_Hill
Australia/Currie
Australia/Darwin
Australia/Eucla
Australia/Hobart
Australia/Lindeman
Australia/Lord_Howe
Australia/Melbourne
Australia/Perth
Australia/Sydney
  3. Set time zone: 
    $ sudo timedatectl set-timezone Australia/Sydney
  4. All done. Confirm the correct time zone settings: 
    $ timedatectl
               Local time: Fri 2019-12-06 10:26:13 AEDT
           Universal time: Thu 2019-12-05 23:26:13 UTC
                 RTC time: Thu 2019-12-05 23:26:13
                Time zone: Australia/Sydney (AEDT, +1100)
System clock synchronized: no
              NTP service: inactive
          RTC in local TZ: no

Change Timezone using GUI

  1. Open Date & Time settings.

    Open Date & Time settings by searching for time from an Activities menu.

  2. Click on Time Zone settings

    Click on Time Zone settings

  3. Select your desired Time Zone and close the window

    Select your desired Time Zone and close the window

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