GitHub Actions macOS runners: timestamps differ, check your system clock

Add a first step that forces a clock sync against time.windows.com. Use that host specifically; time.apple.com is blocked in the Azure network hosting the runners, so the usual macOS NTP host silently fails there. This papers over clock drift on the hosted fleet; if the error persists across runs it is worth reporting rather than re-syncing forever.

Context: GitHub issue actions/runner#2996 (closed, 15 comments): builds on macos-12 runners fail with timestamps differ by 182 seconds - check your system clock. The reporter got a workaround from support and confirmed it: sync the clock against time.windows.com. The reason the obvious Apple NTP host does not work is that time.apple.com is not reachable from the Azure network where the runners live.

Matched source

Source: Published skill Original query: "GitHub Actions macOS runners: timestamps differ, check your system clock" Key terms: actions, check, clock, differ, github, macos, runners, system, timestamps, your

Source: GitHub issue actions/runner#2996 (closed, 15 comments): builds on macos-12 runners fail with timestamps differ by 182 seconds - check your system clock. The reporter got a workaround from support and confirmed it: sync the clock against time.windows.com. The reason the obvious Apple NTP host does not work is that time.apple.com is not reachable from the Azure network where the runners live.

Verified resolution: Add a first step that forces a clock sync against time.windows.com. Use that host specifically; time.apple.com is blocked in the Azure network hosting the runners, so the usual macOS NTP host silently fails there. This papers over clock drift on the hosted fleet; if the error persists across runs it is worth reporting rather than re-syncing forever.

Source URL: https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/2996