Outlook Time Zone Changes for Alberta and British Columbia

The Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta announced that they will stay on permanent Daylight Saving Time (DST) and stop observing DST changes effective November 1, 2026. Users will need to change their time zone settings to ensure scheduled events and meetings on the calendar are at the right time.

Microsoft has released Windows time zone updates and service changes that introduce the following new time zones for these regions:

  • (UTC-06:00) Mountain Time (Alberta)
  • (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (British Columbia)

Outlook users impacted by the time zone change must adopt the new time zone in their calendar and migrate upcoming events to use the new time zones.

It is especially important that users look for and update events that have been scheduled in advance (for example, a doctor's appointment) and recurring meetings that continue beyond November 1.

New Outlook, Outlook on the web, or Outlook.com

Note

If the steps under this section don't work, you may not be using New Outlook, Outlook on the web, or Outlook.com. See Classic Outlook instead.

Change your time zone in new Outlook, Outlook on the web, or Outlook.com

Updating your time zone in Outlook ensures your calendar displays events correctly and sets the default time zone for newly created events and meetings.

  1. Open Calendar settings and then select Calendar > View.
  2. Under View > Time zones, select the Display my calendar in time zone dropdown, and then select the option you want for your time zone.
    • (UTC-06:00) Mountain Time (Alberta)
    • (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (British Columbia)
  3. In the Label field, add a name for your time zone.
  4. If you want to update your time zone when traveling across different zones, select the checkbox When I travel across time zones, ask me if I want to update my time zone.
  5. Select Save.

Update upcoming events and meetings in new Outlook, Outlook on the web, or Outlook.com

Updating the time zone on upcoming events and meetings ensures they are not off by 1 hour starting November 1 when DST is observed in the Mountain Time (US & Canada) and Pacific Time (US & Canada) time zones.

  1. Open the event. For meetings with attendees, only the Organizer can make the change.
  2. For recurring meetings, click the Edit Series button.
  3. Click the time block to show the event start and end time settings.
  4. Click the globe time zone icon to show the event time zone settings.
  5. Change the time zone settings to the new time zone.
  6. Save or Send the updated event. For meetings with attendees, attendees will receive an updated meeting invitation.

Tip

When updating the time zone settings for a recurring meeting series, any exceptions in the meeting series (for example, a meeting instance moved to a new time) will be reset. Re-create meeting exceptions after changing the time zone.

Classic Outlook

Change your time zone in classic Outlook

Updating your time zone in Outlook ensures your calendar displays events correctly and sets the default time zone for newly created events and meetings.

  1. Select File > Options and then select the Calendar tab.
  2. Under Time zones, select the Time zone dropdown, and then select the option you want for your time zone.
    • (UTC-06:00) Mountain Time (Alberta)
    • (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (British Columbia)
  3. In the Label field, add a name for your time zone.
  4. Select OK.

Update upcoming events and meetings in classic Outlook

Updating the time zone on upcoming events and meetings ensures they are not off by 1 hour starting November 1 when DST is observed in the Mountain Time (US & Canada) and Pacific Time (US & Canada) time zones.

  1. Open the event. For meetings with attendees, only the Organizer can make the change.
  2. For non-recurring events, click the Time zones checkbox to show the time zone settings. Change the time zone settings to the new time zone.
  3. For recurring events, click Edit Recurrence to show the start and end time settings. Change the time zone settings to the new time zone. If the time zone settings do not display in the Appoinment Recurrence dialog box, open a new event and select the Time zones checkbox first.
  4. Save or Send the updated event. For meetings with attendees, attendees will receive an updated meeting invitation.

Tip

When updating the time zone settings for a recurring meeting series, any exceptions in the meeting series (for example, a meeting instance moved to a new time) will be reset. Re-create meeting exceptions after changing the time zone.

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