Date and time incorrect on KDS machines: issue unresolved due to customer disengagement — contact Esper Support

Android

If date and time are displaying incorrectly on your Kitchen Display System (KDS) or other managed Android devices, this article walks you through diagnosing and fixing the issue using Esper's Blueprint configuration and network settings.

Before you begin

Date and time problems on managed devices typically occur when:

• Automatic date and time synchronization is disabled in your Blueprint
• Your network blocks NTP (Network Time Protocol) traffic on port 123
• The device's time zone is misconfigured
• The device has been offline for an extended period
• The device has a hardware Real-Time Clock (RTC) issue

Have your affected device IDs or serial numbers ready before you start.

Step 1: Identify affected devices

1. In the Esper Console, navigate to Devices & Groups
2. Select the device group containing your KDS machines
3. Review the device list and note the serial numbers or Esper device IDs of any devices showing incorrect time
4. You can also check Devices & Groups → [Device Name] → Device Info → Local Time to see the current time on each device

Step 2: Check your Blueprint time settings

1. In the Esper Console, navigate to Blueprints
2. Select the Blueprint applied to your affected devices
3. Go to System → Date & Time
4. Verify the following settings:
   • Automatic date & time is set to ON (enforced)
   • Automatic time zone is set to ON (enforced)
   • The correct time zone for your device location is selected (for example, America/Los_Angeles for California)

Step 3: Re-apply your Blueprint if needed

If any time settings are incorrect, update and re-apply the Blueprint to your device group:

1. In Blueprints, select your Blueprint and click Edit
2. Correct the date and time settings as described in Step 2
3. Click Save
4. Navigate to Apply to Group and select the group containing your affected devices
5. Confirm the deployment

Wait 5–10 minutes for the Blueprint to apply to your devices. Then check Devices & Groups → [Device Name] → Device Info → Local Time to confirm the time is now correct.

Step 4: Verify NTP settings on the device (if the Blueprint fix didn't work)

If your devices still show incorrect time after re-applying the Blueprint, verify that NTP synchronization is enabled on the device:

1. In the Esper Console, open a Remote ADB session to one of the affected devices
2. Run the following commands:

   adb shell settings get global auto_time
   adb shell settings get global auto_time_zone

3. Both commands should return 1. If either returns 0, automatic time synchronization is disabled on that device, which indicates a policy enforcement issue
4. Also check the device's time zone:

   adb shell getprop persist.sys.timezone

5. The output should match your expected time zone (for example, America/Los_Angeles)

Step 5: Force NTP resync (temporary workaround)

If you need an immediate fix while troubleshooting policy enforcement, use Remote ADB to manually refresh NTP synchronization:

adb shell cmd network_time_update_service force_refresh

This is a temporary workaround and should not replace fixing the Blueprint settings.

Troubleshooting: When time is still incorrect

If the time is still wrong after completing the steps above, use this guide to narrow down the cause:

• Only certain devices in the group are affected: The issue may be a hardware Real-Time Clock (RTC) problem on those specific devices. Try power cycling the affected device. If the time resets to a default or very old date, the device may have a faulty battery or clock and may need replacement.
• All devices show correct settings but time is still wrong: Your network may be blocking NTP traffic on UDP port 123. Contact your IT or network team and ask them to whitelist outbound UDP port 123 traffic to time.android.com. This is especially common in restaurant POS or isolated kitchen networks.
• Time continues to drift after reboots: Even though the policy is correctly applied, the device may have a hardware RTC issue. Contact Esper Support with your device model, firmware version, and the Esper Agent version (visible in Devices & Groups → Device Details → Agent Info).

Still need help?

If you've completed these steps and your devices still show incorrect time, submit a support ticket. include:

• The affected device IDs or serial numbers
• Your Blueprint name and its date/time configuration
• The output of the ADB commands from Step 4
• Your device model and Android version
• Whether the issue affects all devices in the group or only specific ones