How to Change Mac Date and Time using Terminal Command

If you want to display the date and time on your Mac Terminal, you can make use of the date command.

Example:

% date

Thu Sep 6 11:56:15 EST 2023

If you wish to change the date and time of your Mac device, you can make use of the same date command with elevated privileges as follows,

Change Date and Time

% sudo date 090712002023.30

Password:
Thu Sep  7 12:00:30 EST 2023

The date/time format string: mmddHHMMyyyy.ss

Format	Description	Valid Values
mm	Month (01-12)	01 to 12
dd	Day (01-31)	01 to 31
HH	Hour (00-23)	00 to 23
MM	Minute (00-59)	00 to 59
yyyy	Year (e.g., 2021)	Any valid year
ss	Second (00-61)	00 to 61 (allowing for leap seconds)