TheHomebridge Raspberry Pi Image automatically sets time using an NTP server usingsystemd-timesyncd.

Not having the correct date and time on your device can cause many issues:

• Inability to install or update plugins as the remote server SSL certificate can't be verified.
• Plugins may not to be able to talk to remote servers as SSL certificate can't be verified.
• Logs will show incorrect timestamp.

The date / time not automatically being set may be a symptom of a bigger issue:

• No internet access. The Homebridge Raspberry Pi Image requires access to the internet to get the correct time from the NTP server.
• Cannot resolve DNS. Make sure your device is being assigned valid DNS servers:
  • Try runningping 0.debian.pool.ntp.org and make sure you get a response.
  • Check your current DNS server by runningcat /etc/resolv.conf
  • If you have an Eero router, the security settings may be blocking DNS requests seeHow To Fix Eero Router Internet and DNS Connectivity Issues for more information.
  • If you need to manually configure the DNS server settings runsudo nmtui and edit your network connection
• Network Firewall Blocking Traffic. Make sure your network is configured to allow connections to the Debian NTP servers:
  • 0.debian.pool.ntp.org
  • 1.debian.pool.ntp.org
  • 2.debian.pool.ntp.org
  • 3.debian.pool.ntp.org
• Checksystemd-timesyncd logs. Runsudo journalctl -u systemd-timesyncd and look for any errors.

You can restart thesystemd-timesyncd to trigger a date/time sync:

sudo systemctl restart  systemd-timesyncd

If you need to use a different NTP server, you can set them in the/etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf file.