'Pokemon Go' Releases New Update to Fix a Bug Introduced in Last Update

Pokemon Go is putting out a new update to fix a frustrating bug involving time zones.

Earlier this week, Pokemon Go put out a new update for Android Phones (0.93.3) dedicated to "bug fixes." While players who got their hands on the update early reported improvements in how the game links up to the Pokemon Go Plus, they also noticed that all times in the game were now displayed in UTC instead of their local time.

Some players thought that changing Pokemon Go to function off of UTC was a response to players switching time zones on their phone to trigger daily bonuses and free items early, but the unexpected time zone switch represented another problem. Because Pokemon Go didn't advertise they were switching how the game displays time, players were getting confused as to why they were getting EX Raid Passes for raids that were set to take place at 1 AM in the morning.

Early this morning, Pokemon Go released a new update for Android (0.93.4) that fixes the time zone issue. Players who update from 0.93.3 to 0.93.4 should see times displayed in Pokemon Go based on their local times.

The good news is that most Pokemon Go players never saw the faulty 0.93.3 update hit their phones. Niantic uses a tiered rollout in which a small percentage of users gets the update first to act as an unofficial beta test to see if there are any performance issues with the new update. If any major bugs (like the time zone issue) are found, Pokemon Go can quickly make a fix and release a new update a few days later.

Pokemon Go developers also reverted several other code changes made in 0.93.3, although what exactly that code did is unclear. According to dataminers, the new update removed changes related to QR codes, code libraries, and errors related to Pokemon Trainers Club authentication.

As with 0.93.3, the new update does not contain any code related to new features or events. That includes code related to "quests," which Pokemon Go had added a few months ago and then pulled a couple of weeks later.

Expect to see the new Pokemon Go update hit app stores in the coming days.