How can I get the correct time zone ( time) ? I have tried a few solutions but I can't get it to work.

[MikeRooker]

Hey guys, I have tried a few solutions including the one below.
I'm just trying to update a column field to time stamp when an email was sent out via the flow. But no matter what, I keep getting time 3 or 4 hours before the correct time.
What am I missing here please?

Thank you in advance for any help.

[Gristy]

your configuration looks good, i assume timestamp is a date column in Share Point.

Are you able to share more example.

[MikeRooker]

Hello Gristy! Thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm sure you know how frustrating it can be for someone who ate and drank SP Designer and InfoPath for years and now have to learn how to "walk" again.
So many great people here kind to help. Really humbling.

Anyhow I have tried a few approaches such as the one below that did not work either.
This looks to offset the hours. I'm not even sure if I found the correct variable for time stamp.
At this point I was trying different variations.

But the one in question that I had posted:

Here I convert the timestamp for when the flow had been run.

Then I update the item with the "converted time"dynamic field.

And lastly here is the date column on the SP List

And thank you in advance for any help.

[Gristy]

I was a InfoPath MVP so i know what you mean :).

Your problem is you are passing in a non-UTC time to SharePoint.

All Date fields in SharePoint are UTC. Therefore you can pass timestamp directly in and when displayed in SharePoint it will display to the regional settings of the site (or user if set)

Cheers

Chris

[MikeRooker]

Hey Gristy would you be so kind to point out what I must to do sort the issue out,
It was a lot simpler with Infopath and SP Designer. I just want data and time appropriate to my workspace.

Thanks for any help.

[Gristy]

Just use timestamp in update item 2.

There is no need to convert.

You would do this if you are using it in a email as that does not know what timezone the date is in i.e. UTC

[efialttes]

Hi!

Not related to your issue, I guess, but please note also if you want to assign an expression to any input, as you tried to do it here to Bease time:

You need to do it from Dynamic Content editor instead

https://flow.microsoft.com/es-es/blog/use-expressions-in-actions/

Hope this helps

[Anonymous]

Hi,

You can use either convert time zone template or expression to fetch latest time.

1. As per you Convert Time Zone- In Base Time : put utcnow() in expression/ created/modified whatever.

2. use expression in your 'Welcome Sent' like this

convertTimeZone(utcnow(),'UTC','W. Europe Standard Time','dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm') or

convertTimeZone(utcnow(),'UTC','India Standard Time','dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm')

3. Check your site regional setting.

4. As Gristy pointed out timestamp will work in update item.

Thanks

Hardesh

[MikeRooker]

Hey there Gristy. Well actually what prompted me to open up this post was the fact that what happens when I just use timestamp as mentioned, the time is off by 3 hours earlier. I scoured the web and saw that others have the same issue because Flow is agnostic to time zones and supposedly is set to a given time irregardless of where one is leaving many flummoxed and having to resort to ConvertTimeZone.

[efialttes · Accepted solution]

Hi again!

"I'm just trying to update a column field to time stamp when an email was sent out via the flow. "

Mmmm... just curiosity... are you assigning email date time to your SP column, or are you generating the Timestamp by means of utcNow() expression?

Thanx!

[MikeRooker]

Hello efialttes! Hope you are well!

It is the latter. " generating the Timestamp by means of utcNow() expression"

[efialttes]

@MikeRooker 

Thanks for your fast response! And, when you mention the following...

"But no matter what, I keep getting time 3 or 4 hours before the correct time."

...you mean when you check the value in the Sharepoint list from your browser, the expected time is not the one displayed, right? Or... is it displayed properly in SP list, but once you read the Timestamp column from Power Automate and add it inside your email body, the expected time is not the one displayed?

Thanks!

[MikeRooker]

Hello again @efialttes, actually I don't include the timestamp on the email.

My flow actions sends the email and then it updates the list item with a timestamp of when the flow was initialized. ( Or maybe there is another way?) .

The timestamp written into the SP List is wrong from the start. It is 3 hours ahead. What I read looking for answers is that irregardless of where you are, the timestamp used for when flow has been initaiizedis the same for everyone and why some people add modifiers to add or subtract hours or convert time which I am not familiar with  but had tried.
And a few who responded had said "just update the list item to the timestamp", well it's the same thing. It is 3 hours behind. I had checked my timezone throughout my tenant and it as it should be, EST.
Thank you again. @efialttes !!

[Gristy · Accepted solution]

do you want to do a remote zoom now and i can take a look?

Just done a test on my side and all is working as expected.

[MikeRooker]

@Gristy, super grateful and amazed for the kind offer! Thank you.

It made me even more determined to look deeper into it since it works just right for you albeit I did see a few others out there with the same issue.

So I decided to blanket all the date fields with updates, using timestamps, utcnow(),

convertTimeZone(utcnow(),'UTC','Eastern Standard Time','dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm') and see what sticks and then go from there. the odd thing is that the list view says "updates seconds ago" but when you look open the row, the hours are off by 3 hours behind.

BTW, Is there a chance you are hailing from the West Coast and why you don't get the issue?
Anyway, after the "all guns" aforementioned, I got an error about one of the strings and lo and behold the code it displayed the correct EST time in the code.

Made me scratch my head.

So I figured seeing from others use convert time and "add hours" in an expression as a 'fix"
I simply used the action "Add Hours", chose 3 hours and then used the new "Calculated Time" to update the field.

Gosh I miss SPD. And that was the tonic! LOL

So thanks all. Hope this helps someone else and I hope I can still redeem a one time rain check for your help if I was stuck. 🙂

[Gristy]

No I am from Australia and and as mentioneded all times stored in datefields as UTC so god owswhat is going on with yours 🙂

Glad you got it sorted. I working flow all day long now so if you ever need consultancy support feel free to reach out if you get fed up with it hahs