I don’t know what planet some people live on but I know literally dozens of people who use EXCLUSIVELY the 24-hour format with a leading zero in everything they do including computers. But it seems I can no longer set this up so I went googling for solutions and I couldn’t believe what I saw in one comment somewhere to the effect that “the feature was removed because using a leading zero is superfluous” ..or words to that effect. The developer mandate is limited to providing tools and always excludes the user prerogative which on the contrary is the only administrative one in scope. Please restore this little option ASAP.
Setting the time format in the Region and Language section in System Settings to use “C” doesn’t do it?
You do need to log out for the change to take effect, and you also need to apply your desktop settings in the SDDM or Plasmalogin configuration to follow those settings, as the login manager is independent from the user.
for me the clock format lives under System Settings → Region & Language → Formats → Time
set Short / Long to something like HH:mm or HH:mm:ss (double H). single H drops the leading zero.
logout once if the panel clock doesnt flip right away. SDDM has its own formats too if u care about the login screen.
Not sure about your exact setup, so please treat this as a hint and not a sure fix. As far as I know, Plasma 5 and 6 take the time format from the Region & Language settings and no longer have a free-text field for it. A user blog post for Plasma 6 (CubicleNate, October 2024) describes this route: System Settings > Region & Language > Time > Modify, then choose the “C” format, which gives a 24-hour clock with a leading zero. You need to log out and back in for it to apply everywhere. I have not tested this on a current Plasma release, so it may look different on yours. Which Plasma version are you on?
If you are going to quote posts, please include a link to the source so anyone can follow the conversation fully. Simply saying “someone said” provides no context or ability to understand why something was done and just leads people to speculate not address an actual problem.
Tue, 06 Oct 2026 04:59:42 +0000
smash noreply@discuss.kde.org :
If you are going to quote posts, please include a link to the source so anyone can follow the conversation fully. Simply saying “someone said” provides no context or ability to understand why something was done and just leads people to speculate not address an actual problem.
It doesn’t always work that way. Weeks ago I came across that line and
never thought I would later quote it (I don’t necessarily bookmark
every sentence I find of interest). But it WAS very close to: “most
people don’t or no one wants to use a leading zero anymore”, I mean how
disconnected from the real world do you have to be? I was fuming and
none of the actual words in my thoughts were publishable. The world is
full of so called designers who source ideas only in their empty skulls,
totally unaware of what surrounds them. Another example, my Tundra and
Outback both sport wiper speed switching that ‘increases’
counterclockwise in opposition to the virtually universal interfacing
standard which suggests up, to right, and clockwise for positive and
down, to left or counterclockwise for negative input. It’s OK for
children or even adults not to be aware of such things but when you
claim to be a designer, especially of interfacing, then it it’s not.
Thank you all, I don’t know what the “C” option is but it worked. Don’t know how long it will keep working because I’ve had a leading zero set up many many times over the years but somehow it can’t be persistent.
At least with the “British English” settings I have leading 0.
I don’t appear to have needed to override any settings to have this JustWork™.
Must be a locale specific option I guess.