# Filebeat timestamp not working
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-timestamp-not-working/339827
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [August 1, 2023, 4:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-timestamp-not-working/339827 "2023-08-01T16:00:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@McJava1967](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/McJava1967)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2023, 4:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-timestamp-not-working/339827/1 "2023-08-01T16:00:48Z")
Hi all. I'm trying to tell Filebeat to use my timestamp, rather than creating one. I'm getting this error:
"error": "failed parsing time field \_app.ACTUAL\_TIME='2023-08-01T11:49:09.386Z'", "errorCauses": [{"error": "failed using layout [2023-08-01T11:23:28.710Z] cannot parse [-08-01T11:49:09.386Z] as [3]"}]}
Could anybody help?
This is my filebeat.yml fragment:
```auto
processors:
- timestamp:
field: _app.ACTUAL_TIME
layouts:
- '2023-08-01T11:49:09.323Z'
```
The layout is copied direct from the value of \_app.ACTUAL\_TIME.
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@McJava1967](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/McJava1967)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2023, 6:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-timestamp-not-working/339827/2 "2023-08-01T18:05:53Z")
I'll answer my own question in case anybody's ever reading this.
🙂
Apparently, the layout MUST be for this EXACT 2006 date, adjusted for your format:
- timestamp:
field: \_app.ACTUAL\_TIME
layouts:
- '2006-01-02T15:04:05.000Z'
test:
- '2023-08-01T11:49:09.323Z'
Don't know why. Must be somebody's birthday.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2023, 6:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-timestamp-not-working/339827/3 "2023-08-29T18:06:36Z")
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