Incorrect Timestamp in Email Preview in FYI

The key test is to compare the same reply in Outlook on the web and FYI: if Outlook shows local time but FYI shows UTC, the message is correct and FYI’s preview is failing to convert the timestamp for display.

1. Verify Outlook’s display time zone

In Outlook.com or Outlook on the web:

1. Select Settings.
2. Go to Calendar → View.
3. Under Time zones, set Display my calendar in time zone to your actual local time zone.
4. Select Save.
5. Refresh the browser or sign out and back in.

This is Microsoft’s documented path for Outlook on the web and Outlook.com time-zone settings.^1^

If this is a work mailbox and General → Language and time is available, check the mailbox time zone there as well. Exchange mailbox settings do not necessarily follow the Windows time zone.^2^

2. Isolate Outlook from FYI

Send a new test reply, then compare that exact message in:

• Outlook on the web: Sent Items → open the reply.
• FYI: open the saved email preview.
• The attached/original email: compare its displayed time with the quoted reply time.

Interpret the result as follows:

• Correct in Outlook, UTC only in FYI: Outlook and the mailbox data are working; report this to FYI as an email-preview time-zone conversion issue. Include the FYI screenshot, your local time zone, the expected and displayed times, and whether the difference matches your UTC offset.
• Incorrect in both Outlook and FYI: the mailbox time-zone configuration or message timestamp needs further investigation.
• Correct message time, but wrong only inside the quoted reply/forward header: this matches reported Outlook reply/forward display discrepancies, including one-hour daylight-saving differences.^3^

3. Check the timestamp actually carried by the message

In Outlook on the web:

1. Open the affected reply.
2. Select More actions (…).
3. Select View → View message details or View message source, depending on the interface.
4. Find the Date: header and note its UTC offset, for example:

Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2026 16:46:48 +1100

The numeric suffix is the sender’s offset from UTC. If that header represents the correct instant but FYI displays the unconverted UTC value, changing or resending the email is unnecessary—the fault is in FYI’s rendering layer.

Do not assume the email itself was “saved incorrectly as UTC.” UTC is commonly used as a normalized representation, but the preview should convert the instant to the configured local time zone. Microsoft explicitly documents UTC storage for Outlook calendar items, not enough here to conclude that FYI stores email timestamps the same way.^1^

Conditional Exchange Server case

If this is an organization-hosted, on-premises Exchange mailbox—and users are in a non-DST region while the Exchange server is in a DST-observing region—Microsoft documents incorrect Outlook-on-the-web sent timestamps under that specific configuration. An Exchange administrator must align the server and Outlook Web App regional time-zone settings.^4^

References

1. Manage time zone settings in Outlook | Microsoft Support
2. Incorrect Timezone Returned from Graph API - Microsoft Q&A
3. Outlook: Incorrect time is shown when forwarding/replying email
4. The Sent time stamp on email messages is incorrect in Outlook on the ...