How to Fix Date/Time Wrong on WordPress Posts (Complete Guide)

Seeing the wrong date or time on your WordPress posts can be frustrating, confusing, and even harmful to your site’s credibility. Visitors may think your content is outdated, search engines may misinterpret freshness, and scheduled posts may go live at the wrong time.

This problem is more common than you think. Even experienced WordPress users run into it after migrating a website, changing hosting providers, switching timezones, enabling caching, or installing certain plugins.

The good news is: This issue is 100% fixable. In this complete guide, you’ll learn every possible reason why WordPress shows incorrect dates or times, and exact step-by-step solutions to fix it permanently.

Whether your issue is:

• Posts publishing at the wrong time. If you’re still seeing incorrect publish dates, missed scheduled posts, or time mismatches even after fixing timezone and server settings, it usually means there’s a deeper WordPress configuration or plugin conflict involved. In such cases, getting expert help can save hours of trial and error. You can get fast, professional assistance through emergency WordPress support, where critical issues like date/time errors, cron failures, and server-level problems are fixed without risking your live site.

• Old posts suddenly showing today’s date

• Time mismatch between frontend and admin panel

• Scheduled posts missing their publish time

• Google showing a different date than WordPress

This guide covers it all.

Why WordPress Shows the Wrong Date or Time

Before fixing the problem, it’s important to understand where WordPress gets its time from.

WordPress time depends on four different layers:

1. WordPress timezone settings

2. PHP server timezone

3. Hosting server configuration

4. Theme or plugin overrides

If even one layer is misconfigured, WordPress dates can go wrong.

Let’s fix them one by one.

1. Check WordPress Timezone Settings (Most Common Cause)

This is the number one reason WordPress posts show the wrong date or time.

How to Fix

1. Go to WordPress Dashboard

2. Navigate to Settings → General

3. Find the Timezone option

You will see two choices:

• UTC offset (not recommended)

• City-based timezone (recommended)

Correct Setup Example

If you are in India:

If you are in the UK:

If you are in the USA:

Important Rule

Always select a city-based timezone, not UTC offsets like UTC+5 or UTC-4.

Save Changes

Click Save Changes, then refresh your site and check the post date again.

2. WordPress Date and Time Format Settings

Sometimes WordPress is showing the correct time, but the format makes it look wrong.

Fix Date & Time Format

Go to:
Settings → General

Check:

• Date Format

• Time Format

Recommended:

This makes the date and time human-readable and avoids confusion.

3. Check Post Status and Publish Time Manually

Another overlooked issue is manual publish time.

Common Scenario

• You edited an old post

• WordPress automatically updated the timestamp

• The post now shows today’s date

How to Fix

1. Edit the post

2. On the right sidebar, find Publish

3. Click the date next to Published on

4. Set the correct date and time

5. Click Update

This locks the correct timestamp.

4. Scheduled Posts Publishing at the Wrong Time

If your scheduled posts are publishing early, late, or not at all, WordPress Cron is likely the culprit. If scheduled posts are publishing late or not at all, the root cause is often a broken or disabled WordPress cron system. This directly affects post dates, publish times, and automated tasks. You can follow this detailed guide on WordPress cron jobs not working to diagnose cron failures, replace WP-Cron with a real server cron, and permanently fix scheduling and timing issues.

Why This Happens

WordPress uses WP-Cron, which depends on site traffic.
Low traffic sites often face timing issues.

Fix: Replace WP-Cron with Real Cron Job

Add this to wp-config.php:

Now set up a real cron job in your hosting panel:

This ensures scheduled posts publish exactly on time.

5. Hosting Server Timezone Mismatch

Even if WordPress settings are correct, your server timezone may be wrong.

How to Check Server Time

Create a file called time.php and upload it to your site root.

Visit:

Compare this time with your local time.

If it’s wrong, contact your hosting provider and ask them to set the correct server timezone.

6. PHP Timezone Not Set Properly

If PHP timezone is not defined, WordPress may fall back to UTC.

Fix PHP Timezone via wp-config.php

Add this line above /* That's all, stop editing! */:

Replace with your actual timezone.

7. Theme Displaying Wrong Date

Some themes hardcode the date, ignoring WordPress settings.

Example of Problematic Code

This uses server time, not WordPress time.

Correct Way

or

If you’re using a custom theme, check:

• single.php

• content.php

• archive.php

8. Cache Plugins Showing Old Dates

Caching plugins can display outdated timestamps. Caching can sometimes cause WordPress to display outdated post dates and times, especially after timezone or server-level changes. If clearing cache doesn’t fully resolve the issue, choosing the right caching solution becomes important. This comparison of best WordPress caching plugins helps you understand which plugins handle cache invalidation properly and avoid date and time inconsistencies on WordPress sites.

Fix

Clear cache from:

• WP Rocket

• W3 Total Cache

• WP Super Cache

• LiteSpeed Cache

Also clear:

• Hosting cache

• CDN cache (Cloudflare)

9. CDN (Cloudflare) Timezone Issues

Cloudflare may cache pages with old dates.

Fix in Cloudflare

1. Go to Cloudflare Dashboard

2. Caching → Configuration

3. Purge Everything

4. Enable Auto Minify cautiously

10. Database Timezone Issues

Rare but possible.

Check Database Timezone

Run this query in phpMyAdmin:

If it shows incorrect time, your MySQL timezone is wrong.

Ask your hosting provider to fix MySQL timezone settings.

11. REST API and Gutenberg Time Mismatch

If Gutenberg editor shows a different time than frontend, REST API timezone might be off.

Fix

Add this to functions.php:

12. Google Showing Wrong Date for WordPress Posts

Sometimes WordPress is correct, but Google shows a different date.

Reasons

• Theme not using proper schema

• Modified date overriding publish date

• Cached structured data

Fix

Ensure your theme outputs:

• datePublished

• dateModified

Example schema:

13. Plugin Conflicts

Plugins that commonly cause date/time issues:

• Backup plugins

• Migration plugins

• LMS plugins

• Event calendar plugins

Fix

Deactivate plugins one by one and check the date. When date or time issues are caused by plugin conflicts and you’re locked out of the WordPress admin area, disabling plugins becomes tricky. In such situations, this guide on how to disable WordPress plugins without admin access explains safe methods to turn off problematic plugins using FTP, file manager, or the database without breaking your site.

14. WordPress Multisite Date Issues

In multisite, each site may have its own timezone.

Check:
Dashboard → Settings → General for each site.

15. Fix Date Showing Wrong in RSS Feed

Add this filter:

Best Practices to Avoid Date/Time Issues in WordPress

• Always use city-based timezone

• Avoid UTC offsets

• Use proper cron jobs

• Avoid hardcoded PHP date functions

• Clear cache after changes

• Use updated themes and plugins

FAQs

Why is WordPress showing the wrong publish date?

This usually happens due to incorrect timezone settings, server timezone mismatch, or manual post date changes.

Why do scheduled posts publish late?

WordPress relies on WP-Cron, which depends on traffic. Replacing it with a real cron job fixes this issue.

Can plugins change WordPress time?

Yes, certain plugins override time settings or use server time instead of WordPress time.

Why does Google show a different date than WordPress?

This happens when schema markup is missing or the theme outputs modified date instead of published date.

Should I use UTC offset or city-based timezone?

Always use city-based timezone for accurate daylight saving handling.

Does changing timezone affect old posts?

No, it only affects future timestamps unless you manually edit posts.