Why did I receive a timezone error with my PHP website?

If you use a custom PHP initialization file file with your Linux hosting account running PHP 5.3.x or later without setting the date.timezone or use the date_default_timezone_set() function, you might receive the following warning:

Warning: phpinfo() [function.phpinfo]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier.

To resolve this issue, in your PHP initialization file file, set the date.timezone. For example:

date.timezone=America/Phoenix

For more information, see php.ini/.user.ini Changes Not Taking Effect