Clock doesn't show AM/PM anymore

Question

My new install of 16.04 doesn't have AM/PM anymore in the clock on the top right. 12 hour time is checked in System Settings. How do I get AM/PM back?

Answer 1

Probably the effective locale for the LC_TIME locale category is one which misses AM/PM specification. To fix it you can change the Regional Formats setting. If you change it to e.g. English (United States) or English (United Kingdom), AM/PM will show up next time you log in.

Answer 2

It is reasonably straightforward to toggle this setting from the clock settings. (Note: I realise that you have already followed this path but best to check.)

Follow this path:

Click on the clock > Time & date settings... > Clock

And from here select 12 hour time as illustrated in this screenshot:

If this is not enough and the clock is still not obeying your needs try running the following commands:

1. Reinstall the clock

   sudo apt-get --reinstall install indicator-datetime
   

2. Reconfigure the date/time

   sudo dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata
   

3. Reset the 'unity-panel-service'

   killall unity-panel-service
   

And this may be enough to reload the offending clock and tweak it into obeying your preferred settings..

Note: These tips will have no effect if your current locale does not support AM/PM as Gunnar Hjalmarsson has pointed out...

References:

• https://askubuntu.com/a/399178/57576