When do the clocks fall back this year — and which of your devices will NOT change themselves?

Daylight saving time ends Sunday, November 1, 2026, at 2 a.m. local time, when clocks fall back to 1 a.m. Phones and internet-connected devices change themselves; wall clocks, ovens, microwaves, many car dashboards and older alarm clocks do not — set those back one hour before bed on Saturday, October 31, and test your smoke alarms while you walk the house.

Update for tonight — Saturday, October 31: Daylight saving time ends tomorrow, Sunday, November 1, 2026, at 2 a.m. local time, when clocks fall back to 1 a.m. Before bed tonight: 1) On iPhone, open Settings > General > Date & Time and confirm Set Automatically is on, and check Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services > Setting Time Zone if your zone looks wrong. 2) On Android, open Settings, search Date and time, and confirm automatic date, time, and time zone are on.

3) Install any pending phone update and restart the phone once, so it refreshes its network time. 4) Set manual clocks — car, microwave, oven, wall clocks — back one hour before bed. 5) Press the test button on every smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, replace removable batteries that need it, and check the manufacture date: smoke alarms are replaced 10 years after that date.

6) On Sunday morning, check smart-home schedules — thermostat, lights, sprinklers, and doorbell routines — because a schedule typed in as a fixed time can fire an hour off after the change. Special note for travellers: several Canadian provinces are staying on daylight time permanently this year, and Google and carrier Bell have both warned in the past week that some phones there, or phones travelling into those areas, may show the wrong time after Sunday — if your clock looks wrong after a restart, set the correct time zone by hand, then turn automatic time back on. It is Halloween night, you gain an extra hour, and next morning the oven clock, the car, and your alarm are all telling different stories.

Short answer: daylight saving time ends Sunday, November 1, 2026, at 2 a.m. local time — clocks fall back to 1 a.m. Phones, computers and most internet-connected devices change themselves overnight. Wall clocks, ovens, microwaves, many car dashboards and older alarm clocks do not — set those back one hour before bed on Saturday, October 31.

The shift is not just sleep. Sunrise and sunset both come about an hour earlier, so mornings get brighter and evenings get dark much sooner, which changes driving, dog walks, and smart-light schedules. Hawaii and most of Arizona stay on standard time year-round, as do Puerto Rico, the U.S.

Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, so a call across time zones can shift by an hour if you are not careful.1. On your phone, check Settings for Date & Time / Set Automatically and leave it ON (iPhone: Settings > General > Date & Time; Android: Settings > System > Date & time).2. Before bed on Oct.

31, walk the house: oven, microwave, wall clocks, car dashboard — set each back one hour.3. Check alarms for Sunday morning — phone alarms follow the phone, while stand-alone alarm clocks do not.4. Look at smart lights, thermostats and sprinkler timers: most app-based ones follow internet time, while older timer plugs follow the time you set on the plug.5.

Use the walk as a two-minute safety check too: press Test on smoke and carbon monoxide alarms while you are already going room to room.Pro tip: The classic mistake is fixing every clock except the one you actually wake up to. Set that alarm clock first, then do the kitchen.Ad’s take: That extra hour sounds like a gift until the microwave is an hour ahead all winter. I do the house walk on Halloween night — clocks, alarms, test the detectors — and Sunday morning just works.

Update for this weekend (Oct 29): Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2026 — the night after Halloween — when clocks fall back one hour to 1 a.m. and most people gain an hour of sleep. Phones, computers, and smart watches change themselves only if automatic date & time is on: on iPhone, check Settings > General > Date & Time > Set Automatically; on Android, check Settings > Date & time > Automatic date and time. Devices that will NOT change themselves — and need a hand before bed on Saturday, October 31 — include oven and microwave clocks, car dashboards, analog wall clocks, many alarm clocks, and some thermostats.

Before Sunday, confirm any Sunday-morning alarm still rings when you expect, and double-check early flights or overnight-shift times, because the 1 a.m. hour happens twice that night. Use the clock change as your twice-a-year reminder to test smoke and carbon-monoxide detector batteries while you walk the house. And remember: Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe daylight saving time, so they do not change at all.

Update for Sunday morning, November 1: Woke up and something in the house disagrees with your phone about what time it is? You are not alone — here is the fix order.

1. Phone an hour off: On iPhone, open Settings, then General, then Date & Time, and make sure Set Automatically is on — if it is already on and still wrong, toggle it off and back on, then restart the phone. On Android, open Settings, search "Date and time," and turn on automatic date, time, and time zone; install any pending update and restart if it stays wrong.

2. Apple Watch face stuck an hour off on the dim Always-On display: Raise your wrist or tap the screen and the right time returns, and alarms are not affected. To clear it for good, switch to a different watch face and back, or restart the watch; it also sorts itself out by the first midnight after the change.

3. Calendar events shifted an hour: Check the event's time zone first, especially for events created while traveling or for Canadian contacts — parts of Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories) stopped falling back this year, so a cross-border appointment can legitimately sit an hour apart from what you expected.

4. Still by hand: microwave, oven, basic alarm clocks, and many car dashboards do not change themselves — the microwave is usually Clock, type the new time, then Start.

Ad's take: "Do the phone first, because everything else in the house gets set from it. One restart fixes more clock arguments than any button-poking I have ever done."

Source: TechCheatCodes