Just had the battery in my LG-6 replaced and was unable to reach any websites even though my Wi-Fi connection was good. Same for LTE.

When I showed that to the tech who replaced the battery he realized he had not checked the date and time. (Neither had I)

Once set, all was well.

I find it odd that if the date and time are slightly off, the phone will automatically sync....but if it's off by several years...it will not.

philo <philo@news.novabbs.com> wrote:
> Just had the battery in my LG-6 replaced and was unable to reach any websites even though my Wi-Fi connection was good. Same for LTE.
>
> When I showed that to the tech who replaced the battery he realized he had not checked the date and time. (Neither had I)
>
> Once set, all was well.
>
>
> I find it odd that if the date and time are slightly off, the phone will automatically sync....but if it's off by several years...it will not.

That is actually quite common and sensible. Your Windows PC will
do the same thing!

The reason to do that is to cover the case where the time service it
uses is (temporarily) defective and provides the wrong time. You would
not want your phone to jump to Jan 1st, 1970 because of such a defect.

That said, it would be possible to code it in such a way that a big
time jump *is* accepted when the date on the phone is still the initial
date that it resets to after powerloss. Apparently that is not done
in your phone.

Good point .
I now recall that happening on a computer after I replaced the cmos battery.
Time sync failed. I had to set the month and year before it would do so.

On 31/08/2021 08.09, philo wrote:
> Just had the battery in my LG-6 replaced and was unable to reach any
> websites even though my Wi-Fi connection was good. Same for LTE.
>
> When I showed that to the tech who replaced the battery he realized he
> had not checked the date and time. (Neither had I)
>
> Once set, all was well.
>
>
> I find it odd that if the date and time are slightly off, the phone will
> automatically sync....but if it's off by several years...it will not.

That happens on any computer when using https (http will work fine). The
encryption method requires time sync - I don't know what error it tolerates.

I had fun once with a windows laptop with a dead battery: I could not
download anything, or google for information, till I realized the time
was years off. Apparently, network sync also failed or was absent.

Initially, I thought the download problems came from the browser being
way obsolete, so I installed firefox from a usb stick. Nay, it wasn't
that, but at least I got a meaningful error this time.

Curious that your phone failed to sync time automatically.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
> That happens on any computer when using https (http will work fine). The
> encryption method requires time sync - I don't know what error it tolerates.

It's not time sync as such, but that you're connecting to an HTTPS server
where the certificate has either expired (according to your clock) or in the
future.

That will depend on what date range the certificate is valid for and whether
your clock is within the range. Given the prevalence of Let's Encrypt certs
these days, which are only issued for 3 months at a time, it's not
surprising that if your clock is months or years out this will fail.

There's no time sync on the HTTPS transaction itself - the response will
tell you the date of the page you're asking for so you get told a date in
the past, but no idea how long ago that was.

> I had fun once with a windows laptop with a dead battery: I could not
> download anything, or google for information, till I realized the time
> was years off. Apparently, network sync also failed or was absent.

I don't believe network time sync should be affected by the above problem,
although I don't know when Windows does (or doesn't) it.

Theo

On 31/08/2021 15.32, Theo wrote:
> Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>> That happens on any computer when using https (http will work fine). The
>> encryption method requires time sync - I don't know what error it tolerates.
>
> It's not time sync as such, but that you're connecting to an HTTPS server
> where the certificate has either expired (according to your clock) or in the
> future.
>
> That will depend on what date range the certificate is valid for and whether
> your clock is within the range. Given the prevalence of Let's Encrypt certs
> these days, which are only issued for 3 months at a time, it's not
> surprising that if your clock is months or years out this will fail.
>
> There's no time sync on the HTTPS transaction itself - the response will
> tell you the date of the page you're asking for so you get told a date in
> the past, but no idea how long ago that was.

Yes, that explanation fits.

>
>> I had fun once with a windows laptop with a dead battery: I could not
>> download anything, or google for information, till I realized the time
>> was years off. Apparently, network sync also failed or was absent.
>
> I don't believe network time sync should be affected by the above problem,
> although I don't know when Windows does (or doesn't) it.

No, it is a different protocol. I only know that Windows could not sync
the time.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
> No, it is a different protocol. I only know that Windows could not sync
> the time.

Windows has, just like most systems, a maximum time jump for "automatic
sync" of the date/time. When your clock is totally wrong, it will not
sync until you set it approximately correctly.

The maximum jump can be configured somewhere in the registry.

On 8/31/21 10:12 AM, Rob wrote:
> Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>> No, it is a different protocol. I only know that Windows could not sync
>> the time.
>
> Windows has, just like most systems, a maximum time jump for "automatic
> sync" of the date/time. When your clock is totally wrong, it will not
> sync until you set it approximately correctly.
>
> The maximum jump can be configured somewhere in the registry.
>

Thanks folks for all the good replies