Automatic timezone off and greyed out, related to Location policy?

[ak47uk]

I have an issue where onboarded Windows 11 devices have automatic timezone off and greyed out. It is likely linked with the Location privacy setting.

The OIB policies both look really permissive, I wonder whether another app need to be added to "Let Apps Access Location Force Allow These Apps"? Otherwise, maybe the issue is the "Change Time Zone (Windows Insiders only)" setting.

Just wanted to see if others have the auto timezone setting off and grey?

[SkipToTheEndpoint]

Hey!

So I was actually doing some testing on this earlier this week for a different reason because I noticed that despite the policies in place, the "Let apps access your location" in Privacy & Security > Location is greyed out, and as such all the other settings are too, even though the policy allows user control.
I'm not actually sure the "Change Time Zone" setting is required, because a standard user can already change the time zone themselves, at least on Win11.

Annoyingly, I think the only actual fix for this is the deployment of a PS script to change the following reg keys:

HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CapabilityAccessManager\ConsentStore\location\Value - Value "Allow"
HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tzautoupdate\start - Value "3"
HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Sensor\Overrides\{BFA794E4-F964-4FDB-90F6-51056BFE4B44}\SensorPermissionState - Value "1"

So I wouldn't call this a bug with the policies, more that there's a disconnect to how they work, and no control to enable the tzautoupdate reg key. I'll continue to feed this back to MS.

[Michael-eit]

Same issue here with time. Luckily all our clients are in a single time zone and travel isn't very often. But we do still need a work around so it either auto changes or users can do it manually.

[SirHopsy]

We're seeing this too - Surface Pro with W11 24H2 and the Time Zone section is completely missing.

Luckily we don't have too many of Surface devices, but it would be nice to know what is causing this.

[jamiehallghs]

This is now a known issue with MS - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/status-windows-11-24h2#1631msgdesc

[incedIT]

This is now a known issue with MS - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/status-windows-11-24h2#1631msgdesc

When I click the "Change time zone" button using the CP method, there is a pop-up "Unable to continue" "You do not have permission to perform this task". If I run CMD as admin, then timedate.cpl, I get the same. I have checked my Applocker logs and there are no blocks.

If I open secpol.msc, I see that "Change the time zone" only has "LOCAL SERVICE" assigned. If I add "Everyone" and reboot, I can then change it using CP.

[GittyKitty89]

This is now a known issue with MS - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/status-windows-11-24h2#1631msgdesc

When I click the "Change time zone" button using the CP method, there is a pop-up "Unable to continue" "You do not have permission to perform this task". If I run CMD as admin, then timedate.cpl, I get the same. I have checked my Applocker logs and there are no blocks.

If I open secpol.msc, I see that "Change the time zone" only has "LOCAL SERVICE" assigned. If I add "Everyone" and reboot, I can then change it using CP.

I am seeing this behavior as well. I removed the Change Time zone user right from the baseline policy, and added in Users via secpol.msc. However, after sync/refresh it reverts back to only LOCAL SERVICE.

I think this is a separate issue that what Microsoft has documented as the workaround to use control panel seems to work on fresh installs that never received any policies.

I have a handful of devices I am trying to resolve the issue on. Any help would be appreciated.