How to show seconds on the clock in GNOME 3?

Question

Is it possible to show the seconds on the clock in GNOME 3?

score 204 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 14 '13 at 20:51

204

Not sure when this path changed, but as of Ubuntu 13.04 the seconds display can be set in the terminal with:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface clock-show-seconds true

To turn seconds display off:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface clock-show-seconds false

and checked with:

gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface clock-show-seconds

answered Nov 14 '13 at 20:51

user215860

2,041

3

For those who prefer the GUI way, @MichelSamia gives another answer based on gnome-tweak-tool – Didier L Jun 16 '17 at 17:28
At first it did not work on my Debian 9. It gave: (process:23119): dconf-WARNING **: failed to commit changes to dconf: Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAY. I checked the value of $DISPLAY and it was blank! So I started a new terminal, $DISPLAY was :0 and this time it worked. – Gabriel Devillers Nov 14 '18 at 16:01
Works in Fedora 32 as well – Water May 01 '20 at 18:17
3

Works on ubuntu 20.04 – codename_47 Nov 27 '20 at 02:58
not working. Do I need to restart ? – Moon Jan 13 '21 at 04:08
Did not work on Ubuntu 18.04.5 w/ GNOME 3.28.2 but the Riki137's answer did. – Spiralwise May 26 '21 at 08:30
1

Worked for me on the beta of Ubuntu 22.04. – mpontillo Apr 05 '22 at 22:27
This option didn't work for me on Ubuntu 22.04 (at least without a restart), but using gnome-tweaks did (see Michel Samia's answer and JoyfulPanda's comment). – KBurchfiel Jun 21 '23 at 16:18
1

This still working on ubuntu 23.04 without reboot – Ramon Fincken Sep 19 '23 at 09:52

score 56 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 10 '15 at 10:30

56

GUI way:

launch gnome-tweak-tool, sometimes called Advanced Settings
click the Top Bar menu
enable Show seconds

answered Sep 10 '15 at 10:30

Michel Samia

901

2

I found this on my new RHEL 7 VM was called "Tweaks". It was a separate application from "Settings". – ArtOfWarfare May 18 '20 at 19:51
6

gnome-tweak-tool is changed to now gnome-tweaks. – JoyfulPanda Aug 24 '22 at 10:03
Worked great for me on Ubuntu 22.02 (using gnome-tweaks instead of gnome-tweak). – KBurchfiel Jun 21 '23 at 16:20

score 52 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 06 '23 at 03:09

52

The GUI way to do this, (on 22.04 LTS) seems to be:

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

Before 20.04 LTS the package name was different:

sudo apt install gnome-tweak-tool

and then launch "Tweaks" either by searching for it in Applications menu or launching gnome-tweaks from terminal.

From there you'll see something like this:

edited Jan 06 '23 at 03:09

Arpad Horvath

183

answered May 19 '20 at 13:14

Riki137

3,651

5

ugh. having to install a separate tool isn't "user-friendly" in my mind. – Michael Dec 02 '20 at 00:49
@Michael so you better want to put strange things on Terminal? – Máxima Alekz Mar 03 '22 at 14:27

score 17 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 11 '17 at 19:00

17

Yes, run this command in a Terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.clock show-seconds true

And you can verify with:

gsettings get org.gnome.shell.clock show-seconds

Or you can install dconf-tools and use dconf-editor to browse to org.gnome.shell.clock

edited Mar 11 '17 at 19:00

Community

1

answered May 02 '11 at 21:22

Jeremy Bicha

8,304

9

No such schema 'org.gnome.shell.clock' → gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface clock-show-seconds true – Dereckson Jun 04 '16 at 23:14

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 21 '19 at 16:43

3

For MATE Desktop (the continuation and fork of GNOME 2 with GTK+ 3 support), you can achieve this using the graphical user interface (GUI)!

Right-click on date and time:
Go to Preferences
Now enable the Show seconds

The end result:

Drink beer and Vote me up, cause it rocks!

edited Feb 21 '19 at 16:43

answered Feb 21 '18 at 14:26

Amir Hossein Baghernezad

257

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 25 '25 at 12:58

1

Ubuntu 24.01+ has changed the way to personalize the clock.

"Top Bar" is no longer present in gnome-tweaks tool, all of their settings are now present direct below built-in Settings > Date & Time menu.

answered Apr 25 '25 at 12:58

André M. Faria

7,494

A small explanation: I thought about adding this information directly to Riki137's post, but I don't know if it would be against the rules, and I also didn't think it was 'fair'. I only posted this information because I was looking for how to add the seconds and I wasn't finding it in gnome-tweaks. – André M. Faria Apr 25 '25 at 13:02

How to show seconds on the clock in GNOME 3?

6 Answers6