Why can’t I update my opening hours?

Usually you can update opening hours in your Business Profile – the change just doesn’t show yet, because Google reviews every edit, which normally takes up to 10 minutes and sometimes up to 30 days. If new hours appear and later change back, look for a Google update: Google may apply user suggestions, and your own website can count as evidence for them.

If your profile suddenly shows as closed instead, read why a Business Profile gets marked “Permanently closed”.

How do you update opening hours in your Business Profile?

1. Sign in with the Google Account that manages the profile. Open it at business.google.com or search for your business name on Google.
2. Select Edit profile → Hours, then the pencil icon next to “Hours”.
3. Choose Open with main hours. With “Open with no main hours”, Google shows no hours at all.
4. Tick each day you are open and set the times. For a lunch break, select Add hours and enter a second slot; for round-the-clock opening, choose 24 hours under “Opens at”.
5. Select Save.

These are the steps from Google’s help on business hours.

Why don’t your new hours show?

• The edit is pending. Every edit is reviewed and shows as Accepted, Pending or Not approved (Google’s help on edits). “Not approved” means Google couldn’t confirm the information; you can appeal.
• It hasn’t reached Search yet. Google says new information can take up to 3 days to appear (local ranking help).
• Google overwrote it. Google updates profiles based on user reports and licensed content. A field Google changed appears in blue in the editor, with a notification at the top. For user suggestions that need your review you have 4 days to accept or reject; after that Google may publish them if public information such as your website supports them (Google updates).
• An automated call changed it. Google may call or text your verified number to confirm details and use the answers to update your profile. You can see what it recorded under Edit profile → Collected info.
• The profile isn’t verified. You can edit hours on an unverified profile, but only verified businesses show their information on Maps and Search.

How do you set special hours for holidays and one-off closures?

Regular hours apply every week. For a public holiday, a stocktake or a single closed day, use special hours as described in How to set special hours:

1. Edit profile → Hours, then the pencil icon next to “Special hours”.
2. Select Review for a date Google suggests, or Add a date for your own.
3. Keep Closed ticked for a closed day, or untick it and enter the times. Then Save.

Special hours cover up to 6 days in a row; for 7 days or more, or an open-ended closure, mark the business as temporarily closed. Special hours only appear if the profile is set to “Open with main hours”. Google also recommends confirming public holidays when your hours don’t change, so customers know they are accurate.

What happens when your website says something else?

During an audit in early October 2026 we noticed that a retail client’s profile and website disagreed. The profile said Friday 10:00–16:00, the website Monday to Friday 10:00–18:00. The business confirmed that the profile was correct: Monday to Thursday 10–18, Friday 10–16, Saturday by appointment. So we changed the website, not Google: twelve landing pages, the footer, the contact page, the mobile menu and the structured data.

The sweep turned up a contact widget that still said 10:00–17:00, a leftover from an older version. The structured data we had added three days earlier had copied the website’s wrong hours too; we corrected it in the same step. The final check loaded 22 pages on desktop and mobile, each with and without cache: 88 of 88 page views showed the new hours. The same audit found one wrong digit in the profile’s phone number, which was corrected and checked in Maps.

As long as your website lists different hours, it is exactly the public information Google can use to confirm a user’s suggestion. A second client shows how long a review can take. A second retail client saved a name change in early October; on 19 October it was still pending, with a notice that processing was taking longer than expected.

Treat your hours as one record kept in several places. Change them in the profile first, then on every page of your website and in your structured data on the same day, and use special hours for every holiday and one-off closure. When profile and website agree, a wrong suggestion has much less to back it up.

What can you do if your hours keep changing back?

1. Open Edit profile and look for blue text or a notification about Google updates. Accept or reject suggestions within 4 days.
2. Check Collected info to see what Google recorded and when. Deleting an entry removes it from Google’s records but doesn’t change your profile, so correct the hours themselves as well.
3. Make every mention of your hours on the website identical to the profile, including widgets, structured data and PDFs.
4. If an edit is Not approved, appeal it; if it stays pending for weeks, contact Business Profile support.
5. Check the result on Search and in Maps in a private window.

Sources

• Business Profile Help: Business hours
• Business Profile Help: Edits to your Business Profile
• Business Profile Help: Google updates to your Business Profile

Want your hours to stay the way you set them? We compare your profile, website and structured data, remove conflicting hours in one pass and keep special hours up to date. Book a free initial call or see how we approach search engine optimisation for local businesses.