If you want to know when messages or files have been sent to you on Dropbox, you’ll want to look at the timestamp. A timestamp is a piece of message metadata that indicates when a message was sent. To make these timestamps easier to understand, they are translated into your local time zone. To do so accurately, Dropbox needs to know what time zone you’re in.
By default, Dropbox defaults to using the system time to determine your time zone and then matches that. This will work just fine for most people, but some situations might not work so well. For example, if you have your computer set to use a time zone you’re not in because you generally want to use one time zone, but you want certain apps to be in other time zones.
This setup isn’t common but may be used by remote workers whose job is in a different time zone. This way, they can keep their device and most apps in the work time zone and have some personal apps configured to be in their home time zone.
How to Change Your Time Zone on Dropbox
To change your time zone in Dropbox, you need to open your account settings. To be able to get there, you first need to sign in to the Dropbox website. Once you’ve done so, click on your profile icon in the top-right corner, then click on “Settings.”
In the default “General” tab of your account settings, scroll down to the third entry in the “Preferences” section, labeled “Automatic time zone.” To switch to a manual time zone setting, click the slider to the “Off” position.
Disabling the slider will open a new setting entry labeled “Set timezone.” Select your country in the left-most dropdown box. Once you’ve done so, select from your country’s available time zones with the right-most dropdown box.
Timestamps are a useful feature to show how long ago something happened. They only work properly, however, when your time zone is configured correctly. By following the steps in this guide, you can manually set the time zone that Dropbox uses.
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