# Working with timestamps in ignition

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/working-with-timestamps-in-ignition/113240>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** perspective\
**Created:** [January 13, 2026, 10:53am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/working-with-timestamps-in-ignition/113240 "2026-01-13T10:53:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed8c4c/32.png) [@mcl](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mcl)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 10:53am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/working-with-timestamps-in-ignition/113240/1 "2026-01-13T10:53:50Z")

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I have a little headache to understand timestamps in ignition and how to get around it to not translate timestamps into sessions timezone.

I have some data that is logged in UTC and I would like to control which timezone offset the timestamp should be shown as. I know that the session props timeZoneID is used to translate the data into the sessions timezone, but I would like to be able to control that, cause the timestamp the user should see should be shown from a sites timezone, since it could be in a different timezone than the user is logged in as.

Like i have this timestamp 2026-01-12T23:00:00Z given in UTC, but when i use dateformating to format it to UTC it will see the timestamp that was given as in the sessions local timezone and show a wrong timestamp.

I hope it all made sense

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**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 1:50pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/working-with-timestamps-in-ignition/113240/2 "2026-01-13T13:50:43Z")

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Topics describing how to use Java's `ZonedDateTime` for explicit rendering:

> [@Gateway Timezones and Script function behavior](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/gateway-timezones-and-script-function-behavior/107050):
>
> Hello, I have some questions about time functions and timezones. We are using Ignition version 8.1.37 and MES OEE Downtime 3.81.10. We have our frontend and backend gateways located in the UK. They are serving a packaging line in US/Central, and will also serve equipment in other timezones eventually. I'm trying to understand how some of the functions work with regard to timezones and display of time data from the MES database using the MESAnalysisController component. Here is a screenshot…

> [@Ignition Perspective Page to show the client System date and time](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-perspective-page-to-show-the-client-system-date-and-time/73265):
>
> Is it possible to display the client computer/system date and time on perspective web page? dateFormat(now(60000), "yyyy-MMM-dd HH:mm:ss a") showing the Gateway Server system date and time. Under Browse Tags-\> System -\> Client Tags are not available for Perspective sessions.