This error occurs due to a change in recent versions of the mysql-connector jdbc (version 8.0 and above, bundled with Geneious Prime 2020.2 and later), where it does not map the timezones specified by region/city to the time zone IDs such as CEST, PDT, etc.
You can fix this in two ways:
1. Specify the time zone in the connection details in Geneious:
Select the checkbox "Specify a custom connection URL" and for the Connection URL enter
jdbc:mysql://HOSTNAME:PORT/DBNAME?serverTimezone=Region/City
where you should substitute instead of HOSTNAME, DBNAME, and PORT whatever you had configured in the Host, Database Name, and Port fields in that dialog (those fields become grayed out when using a custom connection URL). Region/City should be taken from the TZ Database, for more information see below.
1. Specify the time zone in the connection details in Geneious:
Select the checkbox "Specify a custom connection URL" and for the Connection URL enter
jdbc:mysql://HOSTNAME:PORT/DBNAME?serverTimezone=Region/City
where you should substitute instead of HOSTNAME, DBNAME, and PORT whatever you had configured in the Host, Database Name, and Port fields in that dialog (those fields become grayed out when using a custom connection URL). Region/City should be taken from the TZ Database, for more information see below.
If you use this option you will have to configure each copy of Geneious that connects to the database in this way.
or 2. Configure the timezone on the MySQL server, so that you don't have to set it in the Geneious connection:(All commands should be run as root)
1. As root, run the shell command
mysql_tz_info_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u root mysql
2. In a mysql shell, i.e., in mysql -u root run the command
SET GLOBAL time_zone = 'Region/City';
3. Verify that the server time zone has been changed to the region/city you specified by looking at the output of
SELECT @@global.time_zone;
4. Exit the mysql shell
If you use this option each user will not have a set a custom URL in the Geneious connection settings.
Setting Region/City Timezones
The table below shows the Region/City you should use for common time zones:
| Timezone | Region/City to use |
| CET or CEST | Europe/Berlin |
| GMT or BST | Europe/London |
| PST or PDT | America/Los_Angeles |
| CST or CDT | America/Chicago |
| EST or EDT | America/New_York |
A full list of database timezones is at this link