Time Zone Settings for O365 Groups SharePoint-Site

[Andreas Schlüter]

Hi everybody,

most of us know the different places where time zones are to set in O365 - SharePoint Sites, ODFB, Users, etc. This is a mess...

I (Owner & Member) tried to set the time zone for a O365 Group Site via website-settings, but I got an access denied. Can anybody help me out, why I am not able to set the time zone?

Or is it possible via Powershell to set the time zone for (all) O365-Groups (or SharePoint-Sites, Users, ODFB, etc.)?

For ODFB, there is already a PS script in the OneDrive community - see https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/OneDrive-for-Business/Timezone-setting-in-ODFB/m-p/7091#M153

Thanks!

[#2 · Accepted solution]

You can use the below script for this.

To Get the time zone index values 

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms912391(v=winembedded.11).aspx

 To get Locale ID

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms912047(v=winembedded.10).aspx

$cred= Get-Credential
$TimezoneValue= "(UTC+05:30) Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi"
$localeid = 5129
$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell -Credential $cred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection 
Import-PSSession $Session

#Add references to SharePoint client assemblies
Add-Type -Path ([System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint.Client").location)
Add-Type -Path ([System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.runtime").location)

$Groups =Get-UnifiedGroup |Where-Object {$_.SharePointSiteUrl -ne $null}|select SharePointSiteUrl

foreach($Group in $Groups.SharePointSiteUrl)
{
#Authenticate to Site
$Username =$cred.UserName.ToString()
$Password = $cred.GetNetworkCredential().Password 
$SecurePassword = $Password | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force
$Site = $Group
$Context = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($Site)
$Creds = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Username,$SecurePassword)
$Context.Credentials = $Creds


$TimeZones = $Context.Web.RegionalSettings.TimeZones
$Context.Load($TimeZones)
$Context.ExecuteQuery()

#Changing  the timezone
$RegionalSettings = $Context.Web.RegionalSettings
$Context.Load($RegionalSettings)
$Context.ExecuteQuery()
$TimeZone = $TimeZones | Where {$_.Description -eq $TimezoneValue}
$RegionalSettings.TimeZone = $TimeZone
$RegionalSettings.Localeid = $localeid
$Context.Web.Update()
$Context.ExecuteQuery()

Write-Host "Time Zone successfully updated for $($site) "
} 

[#3]

Great script @SanthoshB1

[#4]

Thanks Santosh, that worked like a Charme!

[#5]

Santosh

Thanks for the script - worked perfectly and solved the issue for me. Having trouble with adapting it to work for the Localeid. Could you point me in the right direction?

[#6]

Why, in first place, does one get access denied when trying to set the timezone for an Office 365 Group?

Does someone know the answer?

[#7]

I'm not having such access denied error

[#8]

Well, I am the Group owner (and tenant GA too...), I go to the Group, I go to Site Setting and then to International Settings, I change the Timezone, I click OK and I get Access denied. BTW in this case it is a private Group.

Can you reproduce this steps?

[#9]

I have just done over the same Group that was Public but I change to Private before making the changes in the regional settings

[#10]

@Gary Martin Thanks for letting me know this. I have edited the script accordingly. 

[#11]

Santhosh - That sorted my date format - thanks a lot for the quick response. Solved something that would have become a major irritation.

[#12]

For me it gives access denied if I try to change the timezone for both public and private groups.

Any ideas?

[#13]

Hi Santhosh. The script works perfectly. Thank you very much!

Nevertheless, some of my clients need to set the timezone interactively: do you know the reason behind the "Access denied" error and how to avoid it?

[#14]

Hi @Salvatore Biscari, can you please try to add yourself as site collection admin and try again? This is the only case where the error you have mentioned occurs. 

Set-SPOUser -Site https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/marketing -LoginName melissa.kerr@contoso.com -IsSiteCollectionAdmin $true 

[#15]

Thanks Santhosh, but unfortunately it doesn't work.

It looks like you cannot add a collection admin to a Group site...

[#16]

Ey @Salvatore Biscari I think something is wrong with this Group I have just executed a similar PS to the one provied by @SanthoshB1 and I worked perfectly...so perfectly that I was able to add as Group Site Administrator a user that it's not a member of the Groupe neither an owner

$sSiteCollectionAdmin="dave@nuberosnet.onmicrosoft.com"
$GroupUrl="https://nuberosnet.sharepoint.com/sites/minioms/"
Set-SPOUser -Site $GroupUrl -LoginName $sSiteCollectionAdmin -IsSiteCollectionAdmin $true

[#17]

Hi @jcgonzalezmartin.

What was exactly the output you got after executing the script? I mean, how did you confirm it worked?

I am under the impression that it appears to work but it doesn't actually work...

[#18]

Of course, see my screenshot :-). Fortunately I have not closed my PowerShell session 🙂

[#19]

Thank you very much!

I had the same output, but in practice I had no effect, meaning that I am still not able to change the timezone...

Also, Get-SPOUser doesn't work...

How can we confirm positively that Set-SPOUser worked?

[#20]

Mmmm...strange, no issues on my side with this Group...I might do some more further testing on other Groups or even other tenants