# Timestamps not lining up

**URL:** <https://community.graylog.org/t/timestamps-not-lining-up/30161>\
**Category:** Graylog Central (peer support)\
**Tags:** time-stamp-issuespl\
**Created:** [September 21, 2023, 1:32am UTC](https://community.graylog.org/t/timestamps-not-lining-up/30161 "2023-09-21T01:32:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![gsmith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.graylog.org/gsmith/32/1222_2.png) [@gsmith](https://community.graylog.org/u/gsmith)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 3:24am UTC](https://community.graylog.org/t/timestamps-not-lining-up/30161/4 "2023-09-22T03:24:00Z")

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Hey @potvinp

Yeah that is strange,  
Have you seen this?

> **[Time Zones: A Logger's Worst Nightmare](https://graylog.org/post/time-zones-a-loggers-worst-nightmare/#:~:text=If%20the%20server%20timezone%20is,sudo%20timedatectl%20set%2Dtimezone%20UTC)**
>
> When working with log messages, the log message's timestamp must be accurate.

I havent had any issue with timezones but I also havent used UTC. it seams you hit all the timezone spots but what I dont under stand is the Server config shows UTC -4 and the web browser.  
UTC -4 is the east coast of USA. kind of odd because Opensearch/Elasticsearch uses UTC by default and the other configurations are within the configuration file.

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/graylog/original/2X/b/b8a756a2ae9a975fd31bdfcdd6322dc0cf12d1ec.png)

> [@potvinp](#):
>
> What I can’t understand is why the graylog server thinks it is in UTC-4 and not UTC like it’s supposed to be, and I have a feeling that it’s what is causing the timestamps to be out-of-sync and resulting in having to set an absolute date in order to view recent logs.

Something wasnt configured correctly and it hard to see from here. You are correct this is the reason why you have this issue its with timezone out of sync 100%

EDIT: I came across this old post

> [@TimeZone in Graylog](https://community.graylog.org/t/timezone-in-graylog/9515/4):
>
> On the Graylog-server in the file /etc/graylog/server/server.conf the TimeZone was not set and the default is UTC. Default is UTC #root\_timezone = UTC I changed this to: Default is UTC root\_timezone = CET Then I restart Graylog systemctl restart graylog-server.service The problem is solved now. Thanks for your reactions.

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