TZInfo::DataSourceNotFound error starting Rails v4.1.0 server on Windows

I have created a new application using Ruby on Rails v4.1.0. When attempting to start a server or console on Windows, I am encountering the following error:

$ rails server
Booting WEBrick
Rails 4.1.0 application starting in development on ....

Exiting
c:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.0.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/tzinfo-1.1.0/lib/tzinfo/data_source.rb:199:
in `rescue in create_default_data_source': 
No timezone data source could be found. To resolve this, either install 
TZInfo::Data (e.g. by running `gem install tzinfo-data`) or specify a zoneinfo 
directory using `TZInfo::DataSource.set(:zoneinfo, zoneinfo_path)`.
(TZInfo::DataSourceNotFound) 
from c:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.0.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/tzinfo-1.1.0/lib/tzinfo/data_source.rb:196:
in `create_default_data_source'

How can I resolve this error?

Resolving the Error

To resolve this error, you'll need to make sure that the tzinfo-data gem is being included in your Gemfile.

First of all, check your Gemfile to see if there is an existing reference to tzinfo-data. If there isn't already a reference, then add the following line:

gem 'tzinfo-data'

You may find that there is already a line like the following:

gem 'tzinfo-data', platforms: [:mingw, :mswin]

If you are using a 64-bit version of Ruby on Windows, then add :x64_mingw to the list of platforms as follows:

gem 'tzinfo-data', platforms: [:mingw, :mswin, :x64_mingw]

Alternatively, you can remove the platforms option altogether.

Note that there is a bug in Bundler that means there's currently no platform option that will match 64-bit Ruby 3.1 on Windows. The solution here to remove the platforms option.

After doing this, run bundle update at the command line to install the tzinfo-data gem and you'll then be able to start your Rails server or console.

Background

The TZInfo::DataSourceNotFound error is being raised by TZInfo, a dependency of the Active Support component of Rails. TZInfo is looking for a source of time zone data on your system, but failing to find one.

On many Unix-based systems (e.g. Linux), TZInfo is able to use the system zoneinfo directory as a source of data. However, Windows doesn't include such a directory, so the tzinfo-data gem needs to be installed instead. The tzinfo-data gem contains the same zoneinfo data, packaged as a set of Ruby modules.

Rails generates a default Gemfile when the application is first created. If the application is created on Windows, then a dependency for tzinfo-data will be included. However Rails (up to version 4.1.x) omitted :x64_mingw from the list of platforms and therefore didn't work correctly on 64-bit Windows versions of Ruby.

I had to add two gems to get the server to start..

gem 'tzinfo-data'
gem 'tzinfo'

Then bundle install.

I had that error when trying to install Redmine in a Docker container:

RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake db:migrate

gave me the error because package tzdata was not installed in my Ubuntu image.

apt-get update && apt-get install tzdata -y

did the trick.

Just put this in your app terminal :

gem install tzinfo-data

then change the gemfile line to :

gem 'tzinfo-data', platforms: [:x64_mingw, :mingw, :mswin]

then again in your terminal :

bundle update

That will solve the problem directly.

Add the following line to your Gem File

>gem 'tzinfo-data', platforms: [:x64_mingw,:mingw, :mswin]

Maybe tzinfo is not installed on your system, try to install it:

 gem install tzinfo
 gem install tzinfo-data

In Gemfile, I added this following line

#tzinfo-data
gem 'tzinfo-data', '~> 1.2021', '>= 1.2021.5'

and then, I commented out the following line

gem "tzinfo-data", platforms: %i[ mingw mswin x64_mingw jruby ]

and then I simply ran

rails server

and it worked for me successfully.

Here is my full Gemfile

source "https://rubygems.org"
git_source(:github) { |repo| "https://github.com/#{repo}.git" }

ruby "3.1.1"

#tzinfo-data
gem 'tzinfo-data', '~> 1.2021', '>= 1.2021.5'

# Bundle edge Rails instead: gem "rails", github: "rails/rails", branch: "main"
gem "rails", "~> 7.0.2", ">= 7.0.2.3"

# The original asset pipeline for Rails [https://github.com/rails/sprockets-rails]
gem "sprockets-rails"

# Use sqlite3 as the database for Active Record
gem "sqlite3", "~> 1.4"

# Use the Puma web server [https://github.com/puma/puma]
gem "puma", "~> 5.0"

# Use JavaScript with ESM import maps [https://github.com/rails/importmap-rails]
gem "importmap-rails"

# Hotwire's SPA-like page accelerator [https://turbo.hotwired.dev]
gem "turbo-rails"

# Hotwire's modest JavaScript framework [https://stimulus.hotwired.dev]
gem "stimulus-rails"

# Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder]
gem "jbuilder"

# Use Redis adapter to run Action Cable in production
# gem "redis", "~> 4.0"

# Use Kredis to get higher-level data types in Redis [https://github.com/rails/kredis]
# gem "kredis"

# Use Active Model has_secure_password [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_model_basics.html#securepassword]
# gem "bcrypt", "~> 3.1.7"

# Windows does not include zoneinfo files, so bundle the tzinfo-data gem
# gem "tzinfo-data", platforms: %i[ mingw mswin x64_mingw jruby ]

# Reduces boot times through caching; required in config/boot.rb
gem "bootsnap", require: false

# Use Sass to process CSS
# gem "sassc-rails"

# Use Active Storage variants [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_storage_overview.html#transforming-images]
# gem "image_processing", "~> 1.2"

group :development, :test do
  # See https://guides.rubyonrails.org/debugging_rails_applications.html#debugging-with-the-debug-gem
  gem "debug", platforms: %i[ mri mingw x64_mingw ]
end

group :development do
  # Use console on exceptions pages [https://github.com/rails/web-console]
  gem "web-console"

  # Add speed badges [https://github.com/MiniProfiler/rack-mini-profiler]
  # gem "rack-mini-profiler"

  # Speed up commands on slow machines / big apps [https://github.com/rails/spring]
  # gem "spring"
end

group :test do
  # Use system testing [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/testing.html#system-testing]
  gem "capybara"
  gem "selenium-webdriver"
  gem "webdrivers"
end

I had this problem too and fixed it by adding BOTH the :x64_mingw to the list of platforms for tzinfo-data, AND the gem 'tzinfo' to the gemfile. Then bundle install.

I ran into this issue on macOs Mojave 10.14.5 and I found out that it was something with how my symlink in macOs wasn't reading the correct provided zone info files.

I was able to track this down with where the files should be using the command TZInfo::ZoneinfoDataSource.search_path and that provided the output of ["/usr/share/zoneinfo", "/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo", "/etc/zoneinfo"].

I began looking into /usr/share/zoneinfo and there were files available to read. However rails still wasn't finding them, reading them, executing them..? So I then created a symlink from the other file in /usr/share/zoneinfo.default/ to /etc/zoneinfo (the last path TZInfo looks up)

So finally the command that worked for me to fix this issue was ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo.default /etc/zoneinfo

Hopefully this information is helpful to someone in the future.

I am using windows and for several days I was not able to solve this problem. So the solution for our 64 bit platform is to type the following in the terminal:

gem install tzinfo
gem install tzinfo-data

Then afterwards go navigate back to your gem file. In case if you haven't created one create it with rails new xyznameofyours on the terminal.

Then replace the line of code which states something like: gem 'tzinfo-data', platforms: [:mingw, :mswin, :x64_mingw] or gem "tzinfo-data", platforms: %i[ mingw mswin x64_mingw jruby ] to this:

gem 'tzinfo-data'
gem 'tzinfo'

Only then after your code will work!

It is possible that installing the gem directly via cmd might not solve the issue on Windows OS. Here is how it did work for me step-by-step;

1. Inside the Gemfile folder "ctrl-F" and type "platforms"

2. Find the line gem "tzinfo-data", platforms: %i[ mingw mswin x64_mingw jruby ]

3. Remove everything after "tzinfo-data" (comma included)

4. Final view should be just gem "tzinfo-data" add also gem "tzinfo"

5. On the terminal, type "bundler update" or "bundle update"

6. Once it is completed, type "rails s"

Notice: Even after this, if your server starts but can not resolve the default page (additionally ctrl-c / ctrl-pause/break doesn't work), then add webrick instead of puma by adding the gem gem 'webrick', '~> 1.3', '>= 1.3.1'. After that, to run the webrick server you need to type rails s -u webrick

so, the gems didn't quite seem to install properly, i had to do the following

gem 'tzinfo-data' gem 'tzinfo'

then >bundle show to see all gems

>bundle gem tzinfo will get you the gem's directory

then, go to that directory. you will need to splice tzinfo-data into tzinfo. in the tzinfo-data file, go to.. local_pathname/tzinfo-data-1.2014.5/lib/tzinfo copy all the contents of this directory into... local_pathname/tzinfo-1.2.1/lib/tzinfo (for me this meant copying 'data' the file and 'data' the directory)

then go to local_pathname/tzinfo-1.2.1/lib and open the file, tzinfo, (not the directory) and add this line require 'tzinfo/data'

this was such a pain to figure out