Chapter 1

Configuration

Suntimes needs to be configured for best results.

Welcome

Suntimes will display a welcome screen to assist with initial configuration.

Tip

The welcome screen is automatically displayed the first time the app is launched. It can be revisited later from Suntimes -> Settings -> General -> Welcome.

Appearance

Suntimes supports light and dark themes, and can switch between them to match the system. It also includes high contrast versions of these themes.

Suntimes supports larger text sizes (while also respecting the system’s text size settings). Choose a larger text size to improve readability.

Tip

Appearance settings can be changed later from Suntimes -> Settings -> User Interface -> Appearance.

User Interface

Suntimes can be customized to show or hide information. Choose the fields that should be displayed by the main screen (and hide others).

Tip

It is also possible to show custom events that occur when the sun is at a given angle.

User Interface settings can be changed later from Suntimes -> Settings -> User Interface.

Location

Select a place. Suntimes provides a locale specific default (and includes a large list of world places).

Use Add World Places to add all defaults to the list of places, or Import to import a previously saved list.

Use Get Location to add the device’s current location to the list.

Note

The location is manually configured by default; Suntimes does not require location permissions (optional).

Time Zone

Select a time zone. Suntimes displays information using the system time zone by default.

Tip

Choose a time zone within a couple hours of local mean time for best results.

Verify the time zone if reported times seem inaccurate or don’t make sense. A mismatch between the time zone and location is a common misconfiguration.

Alarms

Use Import to restore alarms from a previous installation of Suntimes.

Extra configuration may be required for alarms to work reliably. Please follow all recommendations if you intend to use alarm features.

Select a Place

Suntimes requires location data to configure dialogs, alarms, and widgets.

It is recommended to configure the app to some user-defined location (such as a local park, intersection, or city center). Suntimes can also periodically query and update using the current location.

User-Defined Location

Suntimes is configured to a user-defined location by default. The use of location permissions is optional.

Configure the location using:

Previous place: choose a previously used place from the drop-down list.
Places list: tap to open the places list, select an item, then tap to choose that place.
Manual input: Tap to edit the displayed place. Change the place’s coordinates and label, then tap to save. The modified label will be added as a new place.
Current location: Tap to edit the displayed place, then tap to query the device’s current location. Change the place’s label, then tap to save. The modified label will be added as a new place.

Tip

You can also use a separate app to pick the location. Sharing a location with Suntimes will open the location dialog to the selected coordinates.

Tip

Suntimes supports coordinates with meter accuracy but this level of detail is optional. For best results, specify coordinates within 60 miles of your current position.

Current (last known)

Suntimes can be configured to use the current (last known) location. Location permissions are required.

When configured to current (last known), the application will periodically query the current location whenever launched or resumed, and widgets will use the last known location when updated.

Change the place settings to configure current (last known) behavior.

Select a Time Zone

Suntimes can be configured to use a given time zone (or other time standards).

System Time Zone

Suntimes displays time using the system time zone by default.

User-Defined Time Zone

Suntimes can display time using a specific time zone.

Choose user-defined, tap to sort the list, then select a time zone from the drop-down.

Tap -> Recommend Time Zone to suggest a time zone closely matching local mean time.