How to Change TimeZone on Debian 13

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In this wiki article, we will learn how to change the TimeZone in Debian 13 using the timedatectl command.

Check your current TimeZone

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To get detailed information on your Debian date, time, and timezone you use the timedatectl command.

timedatectl

Output:

root@server:~# timedatectl
               Local time: Fri 2025-08-01 09:10:29 EDT
           Universal time: Fri 2025-08-01 13:10:29 UTC
                 RTC time: Fri 2025-08-01 13:10:29
                Time zone: America/New_York (EDT, -0400)
System clock synchronized: yes
              NTP service: active
          RTC in local TZ: no

Listing TimeZones

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Using timedatectl command to list TimeZones,

timedatectl list-timezones

Output:

root@server:~# timedatectl list-timezones
Africa/Abidjan
Africa/Accra
Africa/Addis_Ababa
Africa/Algiers
Africa/Asmara
Africa/Asmera
Africa/Bamako
Africa/Bangui
Africa/Banjul
Africa/Bissau
Africa/Blantyre
....

Set your Preferred TimeZone

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Once you have the list of timezones, you can set the one you prefer.

timedatectl set-timezone your_time_zone

Example:

root@server:~# timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Kolkata

Replace Asia/Kolkata with your actual TimeZone

To confirm your changes were applied by running the timedatactl command.

timedatectl

Output

root@server:~# timedatectl
               Local time: Fri 2025-08-01 18:55:21 IST
           Universal time: Fri 2025-08-01 13:25:21 UTC
                 RTC time: Fri 2025-08-01 13:25:21
                Time zone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)
System clock synchronized: yes
              NTP service: active
          RTC in local TZ: no

Done!