Incorrect time in Basecamp tracks

I just had a look into my tracks from a tour to south east Asia, and opened the tracks in Basecamp on a computer set to Central European time, where I live. The name of the files were date and time, and they showed the correct local time in Asia. But when I opened the file Basecamp used the European time on all the tracks.
My idea was to geotag phtoos taken, but without correct time, I had to give that idea up.

Have I messed up the settings somehow?
Are there any ways to correct this issue?
  • GPS uses its own time standard (GPS time). Your device converts this to UTC time for storage. File names convert UTC time to the local timezone setting of the device. The advantage of UTC time is that it occurs at the same moment everywhere on earth. This way, programmers do not have to deal with issues like changing time zones within a track. It would have been wise for camera software to have used UTC time as their standard.

    Your computer uses UTC as well, but converts it to the time setting of the computer for display. BaseCamp does the same thing - it converts the stored UTC times to the time setting of the computer. You can change get the displayed times in BaseCamp to match the local time by changing the region of your computer to one with the same offset as when the data was collect (you will need to take daylight savings into account). You will need administrator privileges to do this. The setting can be accessed via the control panel or right clicking on the time in the task bar.

    I don't geotag, so I do not know if this will solve your issue.
  • Thank you, to know what's going on is always a good start. I tried to adjust my computer to the actual time zone, but the track data in Basecamp stayed the same. Perhaps I have to set the time on the computer to the same time zone as where the tracks was made before I download the tracks from the unit, next time I'll try that.


    GPS uses its own time standard (GPS time). Your device converts this to UTC time for storage. File names convert UTC time to the local timezone setting of the device. The advantage of UTC time is that it occurs at the same moment everywhere on earth. This way, programmers do not have to deal with issues like changing time zones within a track. It would have been wise for camera software to have used UTC time as their standard.

    Your computer uses UTC as well, but converts it to the time setting of the computer for display. BaseCamp does the same thing - it converts the stored UTC times to the time setting of the computer. You can change get the displayed times in BaseCamp to match the local time by changing the region of your computer to one with the same offset as when the data was collect (you will need to take daylight savings into account). You will need administrator privileges to do this. The setting can be accessed via the control panel or right clicking on the time in the task bar.

    I don't geotag, so I do not know if this will solve your issue.
  • I would think that BaseCamp would grab the time offset value on start-up. If so, the time zone will need to be changed before starting BaseCamp, otherwise no change will be seen in BaseCamp.

    I doubt that a system restart would be required, but if changing the time zone before starting BaseCamp fails, you might want to give that a try.
  • GeoSetter

    You might want to try the free app GeoSetter. It lets you set the time offset to the same setting that your camera was set to. I found it very easy to use. I just copied my Garmin track file to the same folder as the photos, adjusted the time zone offset and let it run. Afterwards, you can manually tweak any photo location and even the direction.

    http://freegeographytools.com/2007/geosetter-the-best-free-photo-geotagging-app
  • A separate app is probably the best way to go. Ideally, you would want one that would allow offset adjustments that could take into account differences in between the GPS and camera clocks (local time) or manually tweak the photo/track link.

    Keep in ming that there may be a few instances where changing only changing the time zone of your computer may not be sufficient - there are locations where local time is not an integer offset and if the location also employs daylight savings things could become trickier.