How to Change the Date Format in SharePoint Online (Site, Friendly and JSON)

A few years ago, I set up an onboarding list for a client whose team was split between London and Chicago. On the first day, the UK manager asked why a new starter was joining on the 3rd of January when they’d been told March. Nobody had entered anything wrong: the site was using the default US format, so 01/03/2026 meant January 3 to SharePoint and 1 March to everyone in the team.

Date formats in SharePoint Online are controlled in a few different places, and knowing which one to use saves that kind of confusion. In this tutorial, I’ll show you all three: the site’s regional settings, the Friendly format on a column, and JSON column formatting for full control.

Quick answer: To change the date format for a whole site, go to Settings (gear) > Site information > View all site settings > Regional settings, choose a Locale such as English (United Kingdom), and select OK. To show dates like “Today” or “March 1” in one column, turn on Friendly format in the column’s settings. For a custom display, use JSON column formatting with functions such as toLocaleDateString().

The default date format in SharePoint Online

New sites use the regional settings they were created with, and for many tenants that means English (United States). Dates then appear as month/day/year, for example 3/1/2026 for the 1st of March. That’s natural for US teams but easy to misread in the UK, Australia and many other countries, where the day comes first.

Here’s the onboarding list with the default format:

The good news is that you don’t need any code to change it. Which method you choose depends on whether you want to change every date on the site, the display of one column, or build something custom.

Method 1: Change the date format for the whole site (regional settings)

Regional settings control how dates, times and numbers are shown across the entire site, so this is where I start. You need to be a site owner or site collection administrator to change them. Microsoft describes the steps in Change regional settings for a site.

Open the site and select Settings, the gear icon at the top right. In the panel, select Site information.

In the Site information panel, select View all site settings. On the Site Settings page, under Site Administration, select Regional settings.

The Regional Settings page has several options. The one that changes the date format is Locale, which controls how dates, numbers and times are displayed. For example, English (United States) shows month first, English (United Kingdom) shows day/month/year, and English (Australia) shows the day first as well. Pick the locale that matches your team.

While you’re here, check the other settings too. Time Zone decides the local time shown for dates, and Time Format switches between 12-hour and 24-hour clocks. You can also set the sort order, the calendar type (including an alternate calendar such as Hijri) and the work week, which calendar views use.

Select OK to save. The date columns on the site now follow the new locale:

Why some people still see the old format

Regional settings are the default for everyone on the site, but people can choose their own. If a user has selected Always use my personal settings in their profile, SharePoint shows dates in their personal locale and time zone instead.

They set this from their profile picture > My Microsoft 365 profile > Update your profile, and then Language and Region (personal language and region settings). So if one person reports a different format from everyone else, their personal settings are the first thing to check.

Method 2: Use the Friendly date format

Sometimes the exact date matters less than how recent it is. For a task list or a request tracker, “Today” or “Yesterday” is easier to take in at a glance than 26/09/2026. That’s what the Friendly format option on a date column does.

Open the list, select the date column’s header and choose Column settings > Edit.

In the Edit column panel, turn on Friendly format and select Save.

Now the column shows dates in a more natural way. In my lists, dates close to today appear as relative text, such as “Today” or “Yesterday” (Microsoft’s own example is “today at 3:00 PM” for columns that include the time), while dates further away appear as a short month and day. In the onboarding list, the joining dates now read “March 1”, “April 1” and “May 1”:

Friendly format is great for activity-style lists, but for dates people need to plan around, such as contract end dates, I’d stick with the standard format so there’s no doubt about the year.

Method 3: Customize the date display with JSON column formatting

When neither option gives you what you need, JSON column formatting lets you decide exactly how a date column looks: which parts of the date to show, extra text, colors and more. It only changes the display, not the stored value.

Select the column header, then Column settings > Format this column.

At the bottom of the Format column panel, select Advanced mode to open the JSON editor.

Replace the existing code with the JSON below. It shows the date using toLocaleDateString(), which formats it for the person viewing the list:

{
  "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/column-formatting.schema.json",
  "elmType": "div",
  "txtContent": "=toLocaleDateString(@currentField)"
}

Select Save, and the column shows the formatted date:

Microsoft lists every function you can use in its formatting syntax reference. For dates, the useful ones are toLocaleDateString(), toLocaleString(), toLocaleTimeString(), getDate(), getMonth(), getYear() and addDays(), plus @now for the current date and time. You’ll find examples online that use text() or today(), but those functions don’t exist in SharePoint column formatting, so the JSON won’t work.

JSON examples for date columns

Show the date and time

toLocaleString() includes the time as well as the date, in the viewer’s format:

{
  "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/column-formatting.schema.json",
  "elmType": "div",
  "txtContent": "=toLocaleString(@currentField)"
}

Highlight dates due within 7 days

This version shows dates due in the next seven days, or already overdue, in red, and later dates in green. addDays(@now, 7) works out the date a week from now:

{
  "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/column-formatting.schema.json",
  "elmType": "div",
  "txtContent": "=toLocaleDateString(@currentField)",
  "style": {
    "color": "=if(@currentField <= addDays(@now, 7), '#a4262c', '#107c10')",
    "font-weight": "600"
  }
}

I use this on deadline columns, so the urgent items stand out without anyone having to sort the list.

Show only the month and year

There’s no built-in month-name function, so this example takes the three-letter month from a string. getMonth() counts from 0 for January, which is why it’s multiplied by 3 to find the right position. The result looks like “Mar 2026”:

{
  "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/column-formatting.schema.json",
  "elmType": "div",
  "txtContent": "=substring('JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec', getMonth(@currentField) * 3, getMonth(@currentField) * 3 + 3) + ' ' + getYear(@currentField)"
}

Add text before the date

A short label can make a column clearer, especially in a compact view:

{
  "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/column-formatting.schema.json",
  "elmType": "div",
  "txtContent": "='Due: ' + toLocaleDateString(@currentField)"
}

Troubleshooting

If dates don’t change after you update the regional settings, first check the person’s own settings, as described above. Otherwise, refresh the list or open it in a private browser window; the change sometimes takes a few minutes to show.

If your JSON isn’t applied, the editor usually points to the problem, such as a missing bracket or quote. Also check that you’re formatting a Date and Time column and that every function you use appears in Microsoft’s syntax reference.

For more ideas, see SharePoint modern list column formatting and SharePoint calculated column date examples.

These SharePoint list formatting guides go well with this one:

• How to Format a SharePoint Online List Column using JSON (Step‑by‑Step Guide)
• How to Add SharePoint Column Formatting with JSON?
• SharePoint Calculated Column Date Examples
• How to Validate Dates in SharePoint to Choose WeekEnds?(Saturdays & Sundays)
• SharePoint List Conditional Formatting [With Examples]
• SharePoint List View Formatting by JSON Using Lookup Value

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