5 Best Ways to Change Timezone in Microsoft Teams

If your Microsoft Teams meetings are showing up at the wrong time, it’s likely your time zone isn’t set correctly. It’s one of those things that quietly causes chaos – you schedule a call for 3 PM, and your colleague on the other side thinks it’s 5 PM. Not ideal.

The good news? It’s an easy fix. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through every method to change Timezone in Microsoft Teams – whether you’re on Windows, Mac, or the web. I’ll also cover how to set a timezone for individual meetings and what to do when the timezone just refuses to update.

Let’s get into it.

Why Teams Doesn’t Have Its Own Timezone Setting

Here’s something a lot of people don’t realize: Microsoft Teams doesn’t have a standalone timezone setting buried somewhere inside the app. Instead, it follows your device’s system timezone by default.

So if your Windows PC says you’re in UTC, Teams will believe you’re in UTC too. If your Mac shows you’re in IST, Teams will use that.

This is actually pretty sensible once you know it — but it means the fix happens outside Teams, not inside it. There is one exception, though: Outlook’s time zone setting also affects how Teams displays calendar events and meeting times. I’ll cover both.

Change Timezone in Microsoft Teams

Let’s discuss the 5 best ways to change your time zone in Microsoft Teams.

Method 1: Change Timezone on Windows (for Teams Desktop App)

This is the most common fix, and it works for the vast majority of users on Windows 10 or 11.

Steps:

1. Click the Start menu and open Settings (the gear icon).
2. Go to Time & language → Date & time.
3. Under the Time zone dropdown, select your correct timezone from the list.
4. Once done, restart Microsoft Teams completely — close it from the system tray and reopen it.

That’s it. Teams will now pick up the updated timezone, and your calendar events, meeting times, and notifications will all reflect the right time.

A quick tip:

If you want Windows to set your timezone automatically based on your location, you can toggle on Set time zone automatically on that same page. Just make sure location services are enabled on your PC for this to work accurately.

Method 2: Change Timezone on Mac (for Teams Desktop App)

If you’re on a Mac, the process is just slightly different but equally simple.

Steps:

1. Click the Apple menu (top-left) and go to System Settings.
2. Select General → Date & Time.
3. If “Set time zone automatically using your current location” is turned on, your time zone updates automatically. If it’s showing the wrong one, turn this toggle off.
4. In the Closest city field, type the name of the nearest city in your timezone.
5. Confirm the change (you may need to use Touch ID or your admin password).
6. Restart Microsoft Teams to apply the changes.

The “Closest city” lookup is Mac’s way of finding your timezone — so if you’re in Bengaluru, for example, you’d type “Kolkata” or “Mumbai” since India Standard Time (IST) is listed under those cities.

Method 3: Change Timezone via Teams Settings (Language & Time)

In the newer version of Microsoft Teams, there’s a setting in the app itself that lets you control whether Teams follows your OS settings. This is useful if you want Teams to display a different time zone than your system.

Steps:

1. Open Microsoft Teams.
2. Click Settings and more (the three-dot icon near your profile picture, in the top-right corner).
3. Select Settings.
4. Go to General → scroll down to Language and regional formats.
5. Here you’ll see a toggle called Follow OS settings.
   • If this is ON, Teams automatically mirrors your device’s timezone — just update your system timezone (Methods 1 or 2 above), and you’re done.
   • If you turn this OFF, you can manually set your App language, Date format, and Time format within Teams itself.

This is handy if you’re a remote worker operating across multiple time zones and want Teams to display a specific format without changing your entire system language settings.

Method 4: Change Timezone via Outlook (for Calendar & Meeting Times)

This one surprises a lot of people. When it comes to the Teams calendar and meeting invites, Teams pulls timezone data from your Outlook settings—not just your device. So if your device’s time zone is correct but your meeting times still look off, Outlook is probably the culprit.

For Outlook on the Web (outlook.office.com):

1. Go to outlook.office.com and sign in with your Microsoft 365 account.
2. Click the Settings gear icon (top right).
3. Go to General → Language and time.
4. Under the Timezone section, select your correct timezone from the dropdown.
5. Click Save.
6. Go back to Teams and open your calendar — meeting times should now be updated.

Note: It might take a few minutes to sync across Teams. If it doesn’t update immediately, try restarting Teams or logging out and back in.

For Classic Outlook Desktop App:

1. Open Outlook and go to File → Options.
2. Click on Calendar.
3. Under Time zones, select your timezone from the dropdown.
4. Click OK to save.

Method 5: Set Timezone for a Specific Meeting in Teams

Sometimes you don’t want to change your overall timezone — you just want one particular meeting invite to show a different timezone. Teams lets you do this directly when creating a meeting.

Steps:

1. Open Teams and go to the Calendar section.
2. Click New Meeting in the top right corner.
3. At the top of the meeting creation form, you’ll see a Time zone dropdown right next to the meeting title.
4. Click that dropdown and select the timezone you want for this specific meeting.
5. Fill in the remaining details and send the invite.

This is super useful when you’re scheduling a call with colleagues in a different country and you want the invite to reflect their local time to avoid confusion.

What to Do When the Timezone Still Won’t Update

Sometimes, even after doing all of the above, Teams stubbornly shows the wrong time. Here are a few things to try:

• Clear the Teams cache. Teams stores a lot of data locally, and a stale cache can interfere with settings updates. On Windows, close Teams, navigate to %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams in File Explorer, and delete the contents of the Cache folder. Then reopen Teams.
• Sign out and sign back in. A fresh login often forces Teams to resync your account settings.
• Check your Microsoft account settings. Visit account.microsoft.com and confirm your account’s timezone is set correctly there, too.
• Update Teams. An outdated version of the app can sometimes cause display issues. Click Settings and more → Check for updates.
• Try the web version. Go to teams.microsoft.com in your browser and see if the timezone is correct there. If it is, the issue is with the desktop app specifically, and clearing the cache or reinstalling should help.

A Common Issue: Teams Defaulting to UTC

There’s a known issue (especially reported with the newer Teams client) where meeting timezone defaults to UTC Coordinated Time Zone even after you’ve set it correctly. If this happens:

• Open a meeting invite that’s showing UTC.
• Manually set the timezone to your correct one, then save the meeting.
• This seems to “reset” the default for future meetings.
• If it persists, clearing the Teams cache (as described above) has helped many users resolve this.

Quick Reference: Which Method to Use

Your Situation	Use This Method
Wrong time on Teams desktop (Windows)	Method 1 – Change Windows system timezone
Wrong time on Teams desktop (Mac)	Method 2 – Change Mac system timezone
Teams needs a different timezone than the OS	Method 3 – Toggle Follow OS settings in Teams
Meeting calendar times are off	Method 4 – Fix Outlook timezone setting
One meeting needs a different timezone	Method 5 – Set per-meeting timezone
Nothing works / Teams stuck on the wrong time	Clear cache, sign out, reinstall

Final Thoughts

I hope you found this article helpful. In this guide, I explain how to change the time zone in Microsoft Teams. I also showed how Teams works with your system and Outlook settings. These steps are simple and easy to follow.

If you are facing wrong meeting times, try the steps in this article. Check your device and Outlook timezone settings carefully. This will help you fix the issue quickly. Once everything is correct, your meetings will show the right time.

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