How to reset rtc in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald after battery change using PKHeX

[greyham45]

Hi, this is my first post here but after about a month of trying to get my in game events to work after a battery replacement in my copy of ruby I have finally figured out exactly what needs to be changed using pkhex.

My first attempt simply involved resetting the initial and elapsed time to zero in the rtc feature (photo 1) which did get berries growing again for me but all other time based events (berry master, lottery etc) were not resetting allowing me to do the daily events/receive the gifts

Photos two and three show the next step required to get all daily events working again. In the event flags you need to check the rtc reset feature then go to event constants and change both Reset rtc and days passed to custom. At this point enter whatever number of days your elapsed number of days is according to your rtc value in photo one (if reset to all zero these should also be zero)

This may be an old topic but I searched and searched and was only coming up with people who had ran into the same issue I was having with no real solution ever posted about getting all daily events working again. I hope this can help!

[AlamosIT]

When you install a new battery, the RTC (real time clock) restarts from 01/01/2000. The game keeps track of played hours, so if you (for example) have played for 10 years and then the battery died you should wait others 10 years to reach the "next day" in-game.

Glad to see that this can be fixed directly with PKHeX.

Personally I use this little homebrew software. That can be used either with a GBA/GBA SP with a GBA flashcart (like EZ Flash Omega) or with a DS/DS lite with a DS flashcart (like R4).
 

Spoiler

GBA VERSION:

• Download rtcread.zip
• Extract rtcread_mb.gba in the SD card of your GBA flashcart
• Start rtcread_mb.gba then remove the flashcart from the GBA when it's prompt (without turning it off)
• Insert your copy of Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (the software should recognize the game)
• Set date and time of today
• Save

NDS VERSION

• Download rtcread-ds.zip
• Extract and copy rtcread-ds.nds in the SD card of your R4
• Insert your Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald in SLOT-2 and your R4 in SLOT-1 of your DS
• Start rtcread-ds.nds from R4 menu and set date and time of today
• Save

Edited April 5 by AlamosIT

[greyham45]

I knew there were possibilities of fixing the issue using a DS and flash cart but for those without DS I figured this could help. I’m also sure in pkhex if you spent enough time adjusting the times you could get the date and time to match up with the real world date and time as well although I haven’t messed around with that part as much. I appreciate you posting another option for the fix here! Always love seeing more info

[AlamosIT]

Furthermore, people that own a GBxCart RW can read and fix the RTC directly with the FlashGBX software.

[greyham45]

This one I was unaware of. Feel free to share how when you get a chance