Local timezone not showing correctly in Airtable date formatting function

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1

Hi everyone,

I’m having trouble with timezone handling in my Airtable base. I have a datetime column that stores 25/07/2025 08:15 with timezone +08 (which equals UTC 25/07/2025 00:15).

I’m trying to display only the date part using this formula:

DATETIME_FORMAT({MyDateTime}, "DD/MM/YYYY")

But it’s showing 24/07/2025 instead of the local date. The formula seems to be converting everything to UTC first before formatting, which gives me the wrong date.

I need the formula to respect the local timezone and show the actual local date (25/07/2025 in this case). Has anyone dealt with this timezone issue before? What’s the best way to make Airtable display the local date instead of the UTC converted one?

Thanks for any help!

2

Yeah, classic Airtable timezone headache. I’ve been burned by this exact thing multiple times.

DATETIME_FORMAT always works in GMT/UTC, no matter what timezone you set for your base. It’s honestly one of Airtable’s most annoying “features”.

Here’s what actually works:

DATETIME_FORMAT(DATEADD({MyDateTime}, 8, 'hours'), "DD/MM/YYYY")

Your data is +08, so you add 8 hours to compensate for the UTC conversion. This forces the date back to your local timezone before formatting.

Catch is - this only works if ALL your data is in the same timezone. Mixed timezones? You’ll need separate formulas or additional timezone offset fields.

Learned this the hard way building a global scheduling system. Had to create a separate “Timezone Offset” field and use that in the formula instead of hardcoding the +8.

Formula becomes:

DATETIME_FORMAT(DATEADD({MyDateTime}, {TimezoneOffset}, 'hours'), "DD/MM/YYYY")

Way more reliable for production use.