Tutor: TIME_ZONE setting not being applied (LMS container remains in UTC)

Edwin75206 · August 22, 2025, 4:20pm

Hello community,

I’m having a critical issue where the TIME_ZONE setting in Tutor is not being applied to my Open edX platform. My goal is for student-facing deadlines to be displayed correctly in our local timezone (CST), but they are showing incorrect times.

What I’ve Done:

Set TIME_ZONE: "America/Mexico_City" in my config.yml using tutor config save.
Forced a complete image rebuild with tutor images build --no-cache openedx to make sure the setting was applied without using old layers.
Relaunched the entire platform using tutor local launch.
Tested a course deadline with a student account, and the time displayed to the student is incorrect.

Diagnostic Check: The root cause seems to be that the container itself is not adopting the timezone. When I run tutor local run lms date, the output is still in UTC, not in CST as it should be.

My Question: Why would the LMS container remain in UTC after the TIME_ZONE is correctly set in config.yml and the image is rebuilt with --no-cache?

Is there another configuration file, an environment variable, or a step I am missing to make the Tutor-built Docker container adopt the timezone from the configuration? Or is there a different, recommended method for changing the timezone that I should be using instead?

Thank you for your help.

sarina · August 26, 2025, 1:14pm

Hi @Edwin75206 , I’m unfamiliar with this. Could you please specify which version of Tutor you are running?

joel.edwards · August 26, 2025, 2:08pm

i wonder if this might be a likely culprit?
TIME_ZONE_DISPLAYED_FOR_DEADLINES = 'UTC'

github.com/openedx/edx-platform

lms/envs/common.py

master


      
          # .. setting_name: MAX_FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS_LOCKOUT_PERIOD_SECS
          # .. setting_default: 30 * 60
          # .. setting_description: Specifies the lockout period in seconds for consecutive failed login attempts. Once the user
          #   reaches the threshold of the login failure, then the account will be locked for the given amount of seconds
          #   (30 minutes) which will prevent additional login attempts until this time period has passed. This setting is
          #   related with MAX_FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS_ALLOWED and only used when ENABLE_MAX_FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS is enabled.
          MAX_FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS_LOCKOUT_PERIOD_SECS = 30 * 60
          
          
          ##### LMS DEADLINE DISPLAY TIME_ZONE #######
          TIME_ZONE_DISPLAYED_FOR_DEADLINES = 'UTC'
          
          
          ########################## VIDEO IMAGE STORAGE ############################
          
          VIDEO_IMAGE_SETTINGS = dict(
              VIDEO_IMAGE_MAX_BYTES=2 * 1024 * 1024,    # 2 MB
              VIDEO_IMAGE_MIN_BYTES=2 * 1024,       # 2 KB
              # Backend storage
              # STORAGE_CLASS='storages.backends.s3boto3.S3Boto3Storage',
              # STORAGE_KWARGS=dict(bucket='video-image-bucket'),

Anh_Vu_Nguy_n · August 27, 2025, 10:05am

I believe the timezone used by LMS is the user’s timezone, which users select on their Account page.

It might use UTC if that value is null (I’m not quite sure).

Edwin75206 · August 27, 2025, 4:08pm

Sure, I’m using tutor, version 19.0.2

sbernesto · August 27, 2025, 11:10pm

Hi,
The time zone section of OpenX has always been a problem.

Some parts of the course show the time zone, while others say UTC or another zone.

And it doesn’t matter if you use the correct time zone in your profile.

I’ve attached screenshots of my profile, the courseline, and the content. All with different times displayed.

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Tutor: TIME_ZONE setting not being applied (LMS container remains in UTC)

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