The Date and Time app of your Windows PC goes far beyond just displaying the date and time. There are a lot of Windows services that require the Date and Time settings to be correct, for instance Windows Update, without which you would miss some very important updates on time, or you may miss a Windows Store app download on time.
Microsoft introduced an Automatic clock synchronization service long time back that lets the Windows OS manage the Date and Time settings in tune with the time zone. This helped avoid any Windows services issues arising due to the Date and Time settings. Microsoft also advises users to sync the time settings using the time.windows.com which is an online server.
So, when the time.windows.com synchronization fails with the Windows OS, you encounter the “An Error Occurred While Windows Was Synchronizing” Issue in your Windows PC. It’s clearly the time service that’s affected and has stopped running for some reason.
However, it’s a pretty common issue and it can be resolved easily. Let’s see how.
Method 1: By Re-Starting Windows Time Service
Step 1: Press the Windows + R keys on your keyboard together to open the Run command.
Step 2: In the Run command search field, type services.msc.
Hit OK to to open the Service Manager window.
Step 3: In the Service Manager window, go to the right side of the pane. Now, under the Name column, look for Windows Time.
Right click and Restart the service.
Step 4: After that, Double-click on Windows Time service to open its Properties dialogue box. Under the General tab, go to Startup type and set it to Automatic.
Step 5: Now go to the Service status and see if it’s running already. If not, then click on the Start button to start the service.
Press the Apply and then the OK button to save the changes and exit.
Now, you can proceed with your Windows Update or an app download from the Microsoft Store. If you are still seeing the error, you can try the 2nd method.
Method 2: Using Command Prompt
Step 1: Navigate to the Start button and in the search box, type Command Prompt.
Step 2: Now, right-click on the result and select Run as administrator to run Command Prompt with admin rights.
Step 3: In the Command Prompt window (admin mode), execute the below commands one by one and hit Enter after each command:
net stop w32time
w32tm /unregister
w32tm /register
net start w32time
w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:pool.ntp.org /syncfromflags:manual /update
This will stop the Windows Time service, unregister it, register it back, and start the service again.
You can restart your computer and the error should be gone. You can easily update your Windows or download a Windows Store app.
Method 3 – Edit Update interval using regedit
1 – Open run by hitting Windows and R key
2 – Now, write regedit in the text box and click OK
3 – Now, go to the location written below in the registry editor. Just copy and paste the path to the navigation bar of registry editor window.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient
4 – Once you are there, in the right side, locate SpecialPoolInterval and double click on it
5 – Select Decimal
6 – Change the value data to 86400
7 – Click OK.
8 – Restart computer
Method 4 – Use VPN
Try to use VPN if you have VPN installed on your system and try again.
Method 5 – Sync Time Settings Using Time.Windows.Com
Before you go ahead to try any fix, make sure that you have synchronized the time settings with the time.windows.com online server. Here’s how to do it.
Step 1: Press Windows key and R key together to open RUN.
Step 2: Type Timedate.cpl and hit Enter key from keyboard
Step 5: Next, in the dialogue box, under the Date and Time tab, click on Change date and time.
Step 6: Now, select the Internet Time tab and press the Change settings button.
Step 7: In The Internet Time Settings dialogue box, check mark the box next to Synchronise with an Internet time server.
Now, click on Update now button next to the Server.
Press OK to save the changes. You will be back to the Date and Time dialogue box. Press the OK button here again to save the changes finally and exit.
Once you are done synchronizing the Windows with the time.windows.com online server, things should be fine, but if you still see an error message “An Error Occurred While Windows Was Synchronizing” issue in your Windows PC, you must then go ahead with the below solutions.