Guide
Events calendar shows the wrong time or an old event
Facts checked Oct 8, 2026
Your website's events calendar shows the wrong time, or a meeting that's over? It's usually the time zone, a repeating event, or a copy kept somewhere else.
Which one is it?
| What you see | The usual cause | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Every event is off by the same number of hours | The website's time zone | Part 1 |
| Every event moved by one hour when the clocks changed | A time zone set as a number (UTC-5), not a city | Part 1 |
| One meeting is wrong, the rest are right | A repeating event edited the wrong way | Part 2 |
| Right on the calendar page, wrong or old on the home page | The home page list comes from somewhere else, or a saved copy | Part 3 |
| A meeting that's over still shows as coming up | A saved copy of the page, or a missing end date | Part 3 |
1. Every time is off: the time zone
A website has its own time zone setting, separate from your computer's. A new WordPress site starts on UTC (the time in London in winter), so a 7pm meeting can show as 2pm or 3pm. In WordPress:
- In your dashboard, go to Settings, then General.
- Find Timezone and choose a city in your time zone, not a number like UTC-5. A city follows daylight saving time by itself; a number doesn't, so your times jump an hour twice a year. For the US: New York (Eastern), Chicago (Central), Denver (Mountain), Phoenix (most of Arizona, no daylight saving), Los Angeles (Pacific), Anchorage, Honolulu.
- Press Save Changes. WordPress then shows the "Local time" under the setting: check it matches your clock.
- Open three or four upcoming events and check their times. Depending on the calendar, events already saved may move with the new setting or keep the time they were saved with.
Still wrong? Some calendar add-ons have their own time zone setting, in the calendar's settings or on each event. A calendar shown from outside your website (one your office shares online, for example) has its own time zone in that calendar's settings. All of them should say the same place. Other website builders keep the time zone in the site's settings; look for Time zone there.
2. One meeting is wrong: repeating events
A meeting on the second Tuesday of every month is usually one repeating event (a series). When you edit one date, most calendars ask which ones to change. Pick carefully:
- One meeting moves (for a holiday or an election): change this event only.
- The regular time changes from next month: change this and following events, not all of them, so past meetings keep their real times.
- One meeting is canceled: delete or cancel that date only, or add "Canceled" to its title. Deleting the series removes every meeting.
- The series has ended (a committee that no longer meets): give it an end date, or it keeps going for years.
If you fixed the time zone and one series still shows the old time, open the series itself and save its time again.
3. The home page is different: it comes from somewhere else
The "Upcoming events" box on a home page often isn't the calendar itself. It can be:
- A list made from your calendar, by a block or widget. It should match; if it doesn't, it's usually a saved copy (below).
- A separate calendar shown on your site: one your office shares online, or the county's or school district's. Changing your website's calendar doesn't change it. Edit the event where it lives.
- A copy brought in from another calendar on a schedule (often through a calendar feed, an address ending in .ics). It refreshes every hour, few hours or day, depending on its settings. Look for a sync, refresh or import now button in the calendar's settings.
- Text someone typed into the home page. It never updates by itself: change it, or swap it for a list made from your calendar.
To see which, edit the home page and click the box: its settings say where its events come from. Not sure? Ask your web person (the message below).
A meeting that's over still shows as coming up? Check the event has the right end date and time. If it does, the page is probably a saved copy made before the meeting: many websites keep ready-made copies of their pages so they load fast, and a list of "upcoming" events freezes until that copy is refreshed. My website still shows the old version explains how to tell and what to do.
Send this to your web person
Not sure what to say? Copy this into an email, add your website's address, and send it.
Hi, Our events calendar on [your website address] is showing [the wrong time / an event that's over / a meeting I changed]. For example: [the event] on [the date] should say [the right time], but [the page's address] shows [what it shows]. Could you check: 1. The website's time zone (in WordPress: Settings, General, Timezone) and the calendar's own time zone are both set to our city. 2. Where the home page's events list gets its events from, and how often it refreshes. 3. Whether the site keeps a saved copy (cache) of the home page that stops the list updating, and if so, whether it can clear when an event changes. Thanks
Catch it next time
After you change an event, open the calendar and the home page in a private window and check both. That's what your visitors see. Then add the event to your own phone's calendar from the website, if it offers that, and check the time there too.