Idol 4S on T-Mobile time skew???

[StyxBoatman]

Hi all! Hopefully someone will have an idea about this out there.

I was setting up my TFA app on the phone (tried both Microsoft and LastPass) and I was noticing that the codes were always failing. I started up my old Sprint Arrive and did the same and codes were working fine. Odd thing is, the code numbers are the same but working when I use the code. Then I noticed something. My Arrive reminders are coming in earlier than the ones on my Idol 4S. I then compared the time of both phones with the Server Time at work and a "Atomic Clock" site and it does indeed verify that the Idol 4S is behind.

I tried going to the Time settings and "setting it manually" and then bringing back to automatic, but the skew is still there. I haven't had a chance just to manually set the time and test yet because I just figured it out today.

Anyone else having this issue? If you had and fixed it, how did you do so?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[nate0]

Hi there.

I am not familiar with TFA. Maybe you could add details there. What time zone do you reside in and how far behind NTP is the phone behind?

 

[StyxBoatman]

TFA = Two Factor Authentication apps. Like Microsoft Authenticator and LastPass Authenticator.

I'm Pacific Time and by a bit, actually. I just checked using time.gov. My phone changed from 3:58 PM to 3:59 PM, when time.gov read 3:59:51 PM.

 

[DLong4]

My IDOL 4S on TMO is 37 seconds behind official time. My iPhone6 without a SIM card or carrier service is about 6 seconds behind official time. The PC is about 4 seconds behind official time.

 

[nate0]

Wonder if it has something to do with TMO. I'm on an unlocked model on AT&T and checked time.gov and am almost exactly in sync with my phone's time.

 

[editguy]

My Idol and my L925 are both 20 seconds behind on Tmo. I wonder if it's a regional Tmo thing.

 

[mark233]

My Tmo Idol is 15 seconds behind.

 

[StyxBoatman]

Hi all... Have a quick update. I reached out to the T-Mobile Twitter support team and they have escalated the issue to the Engineering team. I did let them know that other folks seem to be having the same issue as I just not as extreme of a skew. I would say, that if any of you feels up to it and want to reach out to the Twitter support folks and share that you are seeing the issue, it may help them with the escalation.

The workaround currently is to manually set the time on your Idol (and any other handset).

I checked after setting it manually using time.gov and am only about a second behind. I hit the "checkmark" at the same time it went to 0 on time.gov but it probably took a little bit to commit. Afterwards I rebooted the phone, just to make sure that the TFA apps didn't have any issues with the changed time.

Good news, the TFA apps codes worked with the site that was giving me trouble. I was concerned because I've been under the impression that TFA apps don't work with manual time. So yay!

 

[nate0]

If the manual time is accurate then it should work I would think. Good to hear!

 

[DLong4]

Looking closer at the time.gov website, it has a label saying "Corrected for network delay". But I would still trust it because the TFA on the IDOL 4S is definitely lagging; in order to use it I have to keep refreshing the TFA key, and when it changes then I know I have a half a minute to enter the code, rather than a full minute. Will try StyxBoatman's fix.

 

[nate0]

TMO has some serious time drift across the US then. Has this been an issue before?