# Importing data without a timezone is not UTC

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/importing-data-without-a-timezone-is-not-utc/382076>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Created:** [September 19, 2025, 9:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/importing-data-without-a-timezone-is-not-utc/382076 "2025-09-19T09:26:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2025, 9:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/importing-data-without-a-timezone-is-not-utc/382076/1 "2025-09-19T09:26:11Z")

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Hey,

I am using the CSV upload to import a data file with roughly 300k entries. Import works fine, but I have some questions about time zones.

I have a field looking like this `2022-11-04 00:09:09` that does not contain a timezone. My expectation was, that this is imported as UTC, but apparently Kibana tries to be smart and somehow takes my local timezone into account, which then offsets my queries by that timezone.

Is this a feature I can disable - or mentioned in the docs? I couldn’t see this with a quick search. I also cannot seem to set a default timezone in the import or I was blind. 🙂

Thanks for any help!

–Alex

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Musab\_Dogan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/musab_dogan/32/70691_2.png) [@Musab\_Dogan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Musab_Dogan)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2025, 12:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/importing-data-without-a-timezone-is-not-utc/382076/2 "2025-09-19T12:45:02Z")

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Hey @spinscale

> The default time zone for @timestamp field in kibana import is `event.timezone`.

By default, **Ingest pipeline** parse the CSV file and add your browser timezone thanks to `event.timezone`. You can update it from “Advanced“ settings just before push the data. Please note that It’ll affect the `timestamp` not `@timestamp`

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/8/18efbe6cc74c9df4b78298f6e0c756a9613e7d8a.jpeg)

The `@timestamp` field must be preserved as is. You should see two data fields `@timestamp` and `timestamp`. Kibana discover sort by original time value by default.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/e/9/e90c7494ff630fb77365ed91a3e5278bc57dd787.jpeg)

* * *

**Curl request and Dev Tools:**

The is like the following:

```auto
GET timestamp-test/_search     
     {
        "_index": "timestamp-test",
        "_id": "sL7fYZkBR8-_xqjxHdE5",
        "_score": 1,
        "_source": {
          "amount": 115.15,
          "@timestamp": "2022-11-04T00:09:09.000+03:00",
          "order_id": "ORD1000",
          "timestamp": "2022-11-04 00:09:09"
        }
      }

```

If you are using a curl request, use `timestamp` field instead of `@timestamp`

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/3/a/3a8625cfa234c4cfba37a9cccdba8faea78805a7.jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2025, 9:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/importing-data-without-a-timezone-is-not-utc/382076/3 "2025-09-23T09:57:38Z")

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Nice, that helps definitely.. thanks for pointing out that option in Kibana, missed it!