I am going on a trip soon to a different time zone, and I just want to ensure a few things regarding Anki. I did take a look at the time zone page in the Anki manual as well as some forum posts but have some more specific questions:
Is it correct that I should sync my computer time settings to the local time zone of where I will be at? Rather than keeping them in my normal time zone?
I plan to do anki on the plane, but won’t have internet to sync at the time. Would there be any issue with doing anki in my home time zone while on the plane, and then once I enter the new time zone and my computer time zone updates, doing a sync? Would that cause any problems?
Thanks for any help on this! This has been stressing me out more than it probably should so I appreciate the assistance.
Hi, I agree you don’t need to worry about it. Many years ago, I traveled a long way with AnkiDroid and the app still used my original timezone so a new day in AnkiDroid started afternoon. No issue.
There isn’t a preference to where you sync, just sync like usual
Not really, like mentioned in the quote above
UTC = Coordinated Universal Time, its the reference for the current time: “0”, so if you are -4, anki will shift your due dates/daily cutoff by -4, and if you change to -3, then it will change accordially
Does this mean that I could just leave my timezone set to what it is normally is at if I want to avoid the offset? I think it would be simpler in that case, I just thought I read somewhere that you have to adjust it or Anki could give you an error. If I could just keep it at my normal timezone without issue, that would be preferred.
If you decide to keep your device set on your home time zone (which you’ll probably have to do manually since most devices update when they connect to the internet) – it’s likely you won’t be able to sync with AnkiWeb while you’re on your trip. But it’s also possible that Anki itself will recognize the discrepancy and not let you access your database. Anki says my clock is wrong - Anki FAQs
I think you’re better off allowing your device to switch to local time. Remember that the dates/times you see in Anki are mostly about how Anki displays the information to you (i.e. in your current time zone), while the underlying dates/times don’t change.
But there are some thing to consider –
If you are travelling across the international date line, your Reviews that are due on a particular day should show up differently for you. E.g., if you travel to “tomorrow” then tomorrow’s Reviews will come due, if you travel to “yesterday” then today’s Reviews won’t be due yet. Whatever happens on the trip there – the opposite will happen on the trip back. Keep in mind that nothing is actually changing – it’s the same cards due on the same timeline. This is just something to think about when you are deciding when/where you want to do your studying on those travel days.
If your concern is about maintaining a Heatmap streak, make sure that you study at least once during every 24-clock-hours. When you return home, those times will shift, but that will ensure there is something on every “day.”
That shouldn’t be a problem. All of that review history on the plane will be recorded at the UTC when it occurred. In your travel time zone it will be displayed as happening at one time, in your home time zone, displayed at a different time.
Thank you for such a detailed answer, given this information I am going to take your advice and just let Anki handle the timezone change as it is designed.
I am wondering if I may ask a follow up question, as I also looked at the link you attached. I realized that when I have been internationally in the past (US to Japan), on at least one of those trips, my computer had stayed in CST time when I did anki. It did allow me to sync to Ankiweb and I did not receive the “clock is wrong” error, however I do see that the page you linked mentions the dangers of studying when the clock is wrong, and that issues that can arise when moving to a new machine (my computer broke recently, after my last international trip).
Is there a way to check if anything was negatively impacted, or messed up due to having done this?
Again, thank you for such a thorough answer, I really appreciate your time.