When you completely discharge a MacBook with an M1, M2 or M3 processor and the device runs out of power, it will lose the date and time on the next boot.

Normally there is a backup battery on a mainboard, which keeps the time and date in such a case. I cannot yet say what Apple has done here exactly and why the problem occurs. But I have a solution for you.

I recently faced the same problem and tried to set the Mac to automatic date and time setting via System Preferences > Date & Time.

Unfortunately, this does not seem to work under macOS Sonoma. I have received a workaround from Apple Support to set the time and date correctly again via the automatic adjustment.

How to fix wrong date and time on Apple ARM M1, M2, M3 MacBooks

  1. disable auto date and time in system settings
  2. open Finder and “Go to folder” /var/db
  3. find Folder timed right click and “Get Info”, set permissions to “Allow read write access to everyone”
  4. open timed folder and remove the following config file: com.apple.timed.plist
  5. reboot
  6. re-enable auto date and time in system settings

You should now have a correct and working auto date and time setting for your MacBook Pro.