My transaction date gets converted to ??? time zone

[PAS-BC]

I couldn't find a similar topic...

If I enter the date of a transaction using the 'real' date and time for my Time Zone (GMT+10), the date recorded in Firefly shows it has been converted to ???.

This often results in the displayed date being 'out' by a day.

An example, I enter a Withdrawal as 15/8/2026 at 17:00 where I use Australia/Sydney
However, this is recorded, and displayed everywhere in Firefly, as 16/8/2026 03:00

This seems to be 20 hrs ahead of my local time zone.

I have this environment variable in my compose.yaml:
TZ: Australia/Sydney

What am I missing, and what do I need to change, so that my entered 'local' date/time is maintained after data entry?

My current work-around is to use '12:00' for the Time field in every transaction - this is 'translated' to '23:00', but at least the date is correct.

TIA

[thomasdehertog]

The value is moving by 10 hours, not 20: 17:00 + 10h = 03:00 on the following day. That exact offset strongly suggests that the wall-clock value is being interpreted as UTC once and then converted to Sydney time.

TZ is the correct Firefly III setting. The current application config reads TZ directly and otherwise defaults to UTC, so first check what the running application actually loaded:

1. Open Firefly III's /debug page.
2. Under Firefly III information, inspect Timezone. It should show Australia/Sydney + Australia/Sydney.
3. You can also check the app container directly:

docker compose exec app php -r 'echo "env TZ: ", getenv("TZ"), PHP_EOL, "PHP TZ: ", date_default_timezone_get(), PHP_EOL;'

If either value is UTC or empty, make sure the variable is under the app service (or in the .env file referenced by that service), then recreate the app container rather than merely restarting it:

services:
  app:
    environment:
      TZ: Australia/Sydney

docker compose up -d --force-recreate app
docker compose exec app php artisan optimize:clear

Then repeat the /debug check before entering another transaction.

If /debug already reports Australia/Sydney + Australia/Sydney, your configuration is correct and this is likely a version-specific date-handling bug rather than a missing setting. In that case, please add the Firefly III version and the non-sensitive /debug timezone line; the 15/8/2026 17:00 -> 16/8/2026 03:00 reproduction is especially useful because it identifies a naive timestamp being treated as UTC.

Source references:

• TZ is used for app.timezone
• Official Docker Compose example loads the app environment
• Official environment example documents TZ

[PAS-BC]

Thank you for your feedback.

Debug on current installation shows:
Timezone</td><td>Australia/Sydney + Australia/Sydney - which is what you anticipated?

Version is currently 6.6.6, but this situation has existed as long as I've been using Firefly (May 2024)

[JC5]

I'm getting the impression you're using AI to generate your reply. Please use AI sparingly. You've posted a very long and verbose reply that amounts to "check TZ".

[PAS-BC]

Absolutely not the case for me.
I replied to the questions posed by thomasdehertog - maybe he used AI?

[JC5]

I replied to the questions posed by thomasdehertog - maybe he used AI?

Oh I know it wasn't the case for you, apologies for the misunderstanding.

[JC5]

Where exactly is the date displayed wrong?

[PAS-BC]

If I enter a new transaction with my local time zone date and time eg as shown on a store receipt:
Then, after the transaction is saved,

1. The date and time shown in a listing of the transaction will have been 'modified'
2. If I edit the actual transaction, I see the date and time have been 'modified' (as displayed in listings)

Hence, after saving the transaction, the date and time I originally entered have 'gone'.

[PAS-BC]

This is a screenshot prior to saving a new transaction entry - date and time are auto entered (correctly) by FF according to my local time zone:

This is the same transaction after being saved in FF and then opened for Edit - date and time have clearly changed since my original entry (above):

Hope this helps :)

[PAS-BC]

Should I raise a Bug for this, so it is considered for 6.6.7 if required?

[JC5]

No, that's not necessary. It's on my list but I was unable to reproduce this so far.

Could you share the info from the /debugpage please?

[PAS-BC]

Thank you...

Debug information generated at 2026-08-31 15:58:03 for Firefly III version v6.6.6.

System information
Item	Value
Firefly III	v6.6.6
Build time	2026-07-01 21:08:40 Europe/Amsterdam (1782932920)
PHP version	8.5.7 (64bits) / fpm-fcgi / Linux x86_64
BCscale	12
Error reporting	Display: Off, reporting: ALL errors
Max upload	104857600 (100 MB)
Database drivers	mysql, *pgsql*, sqlite,

Firefly III information
Item	Value
Timezone	Australia/Sydney + Australia/Sydney
App environment	production, debug: false
Layout	v1
Logging	notice, stack / audit_daily, audit_stdout
Cache driver, session driver	file, file
Default language and locale	en_GB + equal
Trusted proxies	**
Login provider & user guard	eloquent / web
Login headers	N/A + N/A
Stateful domains
Last cron job	2026-08-30 14:00:00 (15 hours ago)
Mailer	smtp
Exchange rates	Disabled, downloads disabled
RB-column	Enabled

User-specific information
Item	Value
User	#1 of 1
User flags	🐷 🔧 🕜 📑 📧
Primary currency	AUD
Convert to primary currency?	Disabled
Session start	2026-08-01 00:00:00
Session end	2026-08-31 23:59:59
View range	MTD
User language	en_GB
User locale	en_GB
Locale(s) supported	en_GB.utf8: ✅ en_GB.UTF-8: ✅
User agent	Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/152.0.0.0 Safari/537.36