# Feature Request: Allow ISO 8601 Formatting for Date & time Properties Regardless of Locale **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature archive\ **Created:** [August 12, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/feature-request-allow-iso-8601-formatting-for-date-time-properties-regardless-of-locale/103969 "2025-08-12T17:00:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jkoppel](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/jkoppel/32/83400_2.png) [@jkoppel](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/jkoppel)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/feature-request-allow-iso-8601-formatting-for-date-time-properties-regardless-of-locale/103969/1 "2025-08-12T17:00:47Z")
# Use case or problem In Linux (Kubuntu 25.04), the datetime display format seems to be hardcoded in the Properties metadata, defaulting to `MM/DD/YYYY, hh:mm a` for `en-US`. This behavior ignores ISO 8601 standards and creates inconsistency across platforms and workflows (e.g. breaking templates). Users should be able to choose a custom date format (e.g. `YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm`) for metadata fields, or Obsidian should honor locale overrides such as `LC_TIME=en_DK.UTF-8`. This displays correctly in macOS. - ISO 8601 is the international standard for representing Gregorian dates and times. It is unambiguous, sortable, and widely used in technical, scientific, and global contexts. - Obsidian users often rely on consistent date formatting for automation, scripting, and interoperability with other tools. - The current behavior is hardcoded and ignores environment variables—even when Obsidian is launched with `LANG=en_DK.UTF-8 LC_TIME=en_DK.UTF-8` from the terminal, the app still formats dates using `en-US` conventions. - You can verify this in the Developer’s Console by executing: `Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().locale`, which returns `en-US` regardless of the OS settings. # Proposed solution - Allow users to define custom date formats for `Date & time` properties in the Properties UI or settings. - Honor system locale overrides such as `LC_TIME` and `LANG` when formatting metadata fields. - Expose a setting or plugin API to control how dates are rendered in the UI and metadata. # Current workaround (optional) None that I could find other than to set the `Property type` to `Text`, which is sub-optimal. ---
**Author:** ![Pch](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/pch/32/8496_2.png) [@Pch](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/Pch)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 6:40pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/feature-request-allow-iso-8601-formatting-for-date-time-properties-regardless-of-locale/103969/2 "2025-08-12T18:40:25Z")
I could be wrong but think this is similar to this existing one: [Properties: let the user customize the way Dates/Times are displayed (independently from OS)](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-let-the-user-customize-the-way-dates-times-are-displayed-independently-from-os/64139) 😊 ---
**Author:** ![jkoppel](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/jkoppel/32/83400_2.png) [@jkoppel](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/jkoppel)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 12:54pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/feature-request-allow-iso-8601-formatting-for-date-time-properties-regardless-of-locale/103969/3 "2025-08-19T12:54:22Z")
That would actually be an acceptable solution as well. In my case, however, Obsidian seems not to acknowledge the OS settings at all. My Kubuntu system is configured to use ISO 8601, and everything is working _except_ Obsidian, which is hard-coded. ---
**Author:** ![WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/whitenoise/32/11_2.png) [@WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/WhiteNoise)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 1:09pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/feature-request-allow-iso-8601-formatting-for-date-time-properties-regardless-of-locale/103969/4 "2025-08-19T13:09:41Z")
Obsidian isn’t hard coded. The problem with Linux is that there are multiple places where the language and locale are defined, so I don’t know which one it is picking up. On top of this, modern packaging system on linux, like snap and flatpak, insulate the app from the rest of the system. ---
**Author:** ![WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/whitenoise/32/11_2.png) [@WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/WhiteNoise)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 1:11pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/feature-request-allow-iso-8601-formatting-for-date-time-properties-regardless-of-locale/103969/5 "2025-08-19T13:11:02Z")
> [@Properties: Date format not following system settings on Linux](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/properties-date-format-not-following-system-settings-on-linux/103498): > > Iʼm here on Linux (Kubuntu derivate “Tuxedo OS”) and set the OS date explicitely to German style and it does not adjust in view mode. The format in source mode is 2023-10-29: Operating System: TUXEDO OS 2 KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.8 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.111.0 Qt Version: 5.15.11 Kernel Version: 6.5.0-10006-tuxedo (64-bit) Graphics Platform: X11 I already restarted the OS multiple times. I would expect Obsidian to take either the system format or a custom styl… ---
**Author:** ![jkoppel](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/jkoppel/32/83400_2.png) [@jkoppel](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/jkoppel)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 10:39pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/feature-request-allow-iso-8601-formatting-for-date-time-properties-regardless-of-locale/103969/6 "2025-08-19T22:39:40Z")
Yes, I have tried that, and also: ```auto LANG=en_US.UTF-8@ISO LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8@ISO LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8@ISO ``` I should also have stated earlier that I’m not using the package manager; I’ve installed the latest .deb from the site. I’ll update my original post. ---
**Author:** ![jkoppel](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/jkoppel/32/83400_2.png) [@jkoppel](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/jkoppel)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 4:36pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/feature-request-allow-iso-8601-formatting-for-date-time-properties-regardless-of-locale/103969/7 "2025-09-14T16:36:25Z")
It doesn’t look like I can update my original post, but is this something we can get on the roadmap? ---
**Author:** ![WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/whitenoise/32/11_2.png) [@WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/WhiteNoise)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 8:24pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/feature-request-allow-iso-8601-formatting-for-date-time-properties-regardless-of-locale/103969/8 "2025-09-14T20:24:06Z")
There is already a feature request for this. It’s in the second post. Continue there. ---
**Author:** ![yahbluez](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/yahbluez/32/97152_2.png) [@yahbluez](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/yahbluez)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 8:12am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/feature-request-allow-iso-8601-formatting-for-date-time-properties-regardless-of-locale/103969/9 "2026-10-09T08:12:48Z")
Why is this in 2026 since years of requests still an issue? While all my other app use the system settings only obsidian didn’t there is no way to blame linux for that. This is a home made obsidian issue and it get ignored for years no matter how many users ask to fix that. The solution is very easy just use the env variables. “Obsidian isn’t hard coded.” =\> “On top of this, modern packaging system on linux, like snap and flatpak, insulate the app from the rest of the system.” Where the developer of the package hardcoded this bug. Any other app using snap or flatpak recognized the settings but obsidian, so this is 100% a home made obsidian bug and not a linux or user bug.