Numbers is only offering the American date orders, not European ones.

New MacBook Air (late 2024) with Sequoia 15.1.1


Problem: Numbers is only offering American style date numbering - with the month in the middle - and all the versions of that.

I am in Ireland, and we use the European method of DD/MM/YYY and versions of that.

Even when I type it in correctly Numbers is "correcting" my dates to the American version.

It happens in numbers documents that I brought over from my old Mac, that I use regularly.

It also happens to newly created documents.

It is extremely annoying and very confusing.


I have changed the System Setting / General / Language & Region to Ireland and 19/08/2025

I have also tried fixing it in the individual numbers documents: File / Advanced / Language & Region where it appears as I would expect the dates to appear for a European document.


Then I enter a new date in a cell and it reverts to 02/13/2025, even though I just typed it in as 13/02/2025.

I'm so frustrated that I am considering paying for excel!


Apparently looking at the related issues here. This has been a problem for a couple of years.

Does anyone know a permanent fix, or if there is a fix on the way, or should I just abandon Numbers?


Hopefully,

Claire - Small business owner in Ireland


MacBook Air 15″, macOS 15.1

Posted on Feb 14, 2025 4:38 AM

Reply

Similar questions

2 replies

Feb 14, 2025 6:59 AM in response to MannaOrganic

Hi Claire,

MannaOrganic wrote:

I enter a new date in a cell and it reverts to 02/13/2025, even though I just typed it in as 13/02/2025.

Tested on a MacBook Air 2024 macOS Sequoia 15.2


My Region is Australia and my Language is English (Australia)

If I type 13/02/2025, it displays as...



And these are my Date display options...



I saved that Numbers document and changed my System Settings > General > Language & Region to Ireland,

also the document, Menu > Numbers > File > Advanced > English Ireland...


Same result...



I do not know what is going on with your document.


The usual advice:

  • Save your work;
  • Quit Numbers;
  • Restart Numbers and hold down the shift key (to prevent Numbers reloading the previous state);
  • Open that document.


Any improvement? if not,

  • Restart your Mac and launch Numbers.
  • Open that document.


Any improvement? if not, format your Date column as Text. More information on your overall aim may help us to help you with Text formatted Dates.


Last thought, I say bugga the seppos. I type dates in the European method as 13 feb and press return. Numbers adds the current year and formats it as 13 February 2025.


Regards,

Ian.


P.S. bugga the seppos is Australian slang.


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Numbers is only offering the American date orders, not European ones.

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