One morning, while I was traveling to another state, I unlocked my Samsung phone and noticed that my lock screen clock style had changed on its own. When I tried switching it back, the phone showed an error: Can’t edit clock style while using roaming clock.
I soon figured out the error was happening because my phone was in a roaming area, but I still had no idea how to fix it. What made it even more frustrating is that the roaming clock was completely useless to me — India has only one time zone, so I was basically seeing the same time twice. If I were in a country like the U.S., which has four primary time zones, it would at least make some sense.
Anyway, I just wanted my original clock back. So I started digging through the Settings app and finally found the culprit. It wasn’t hard at all — just go to Settings > Lock screen and AOD and toggle off the Roaming clock option.
That’s it. My previous clock style instantly returned, and I was able to change it normally again.
What is a roaming clock, and why can’t you customize it
Samsung automatically switches to a roaming clock when it detects that you’re in a different time zone. It shows two clocks:
- one for your home time, and
- one for your local (roaming) time.
When this feature kicks in, Samsung prioritizes the dual-clock layout, which forces a fixed style to fit both clocks. Because of that, the phone temporarily locks your clock style settings so you can’t customize them.
