DataGrip date-time display and session time zone synchronization

Short answer

There is no single "priority" toggle in DataGrip. Display is resolved in layers, and the per-data-source setting always beats the global IDE setting. To make the server's session offset take precedence, you set the per-data-source Time zone (Data Source Properties → Options → Time zone) to the server's zone — or to a fixed zone such as UTC — and you set the matching JDBC driver parameter in the connection URL so the server actually returns values in that zone. The global IDE preference (Settings → Tools → Database → Data Views → Time zone) only applies when the data source is left on "Default".

How the layers resolve

1. Per-data-source Time zone — highest precedence. Any explicit value here (including UTC) overrides the global setting for that connection's result grid and Value Editor.
2. Global IDE Time zone — used only when the data source is set to "Default".
3. JDBC driver properties — these don't control display formatting; they control what offset the server session uses and therefore what values reach DataGrip in the first place.

So "server offset takes precedence" is really achieved by aligning layer 1 with layer 3: pick the display zone explicitly at the data-source level, and make the driver negotiate the same zone with the server.

Driver-level parameters

Yes — these are required if you want the server session to stop applying its own default. Common examples (verify against your driver version, since defaults have changed across releases):

• MySQL Connector/J 8+: serverTimezone=UTC (alias connectionTimeZone) plus forceConnectionTimeZoneToSession=true to push it into the server session.
• PostgreSQL: the timezone connection parameter sets the client zone; the session otherwise follows the server's TimeZone setting.
• Oracle: behavior is influenced by oracle.jdbc.timezoneAsRegion and the JVM user.timezone fallback.

Add these to the URL under Data Source Properties → General, e.g. jdbc:mysql://host/db?serverTimezone=UTC&forceConnectionTimeZoneToSession=true.

The Value Editor question

There is no driver-level "do not convert" switch for the Value Editor. It formats using the same active display zone (per-data-source → global). One important distinction:

• TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE / TIMESTAMPTZ: the stored offset travels with the value, so the editor renders the real offset — no IDE conversion of the underlying instant.
• TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE / DATETIME: the database stores no offset. DataGrip interprets the wall-clock value using the active display zone. Here the "server regional setting" is only meaningful if the driver/session applies that zone on read — which is exactly what the URL parameters above control.

Note that custom Data Formats patterns only change rendering after zone interpretation; they never affect conversion.

Verification

1. Confirm the server session zone: SELECT @@session.time_zone (MySQL), SHOW TIME ZONE (PostgreSQL), or SELECT SESSIONTIMEZONE FROM DUAL (Oracle).
2. Set Data Source Properties → Options → Time zone to that zone, apply, and reconnect — open consoles keep the old zone until reconnection.
3. Check the JDBC URL for the parameters above.
4. In the Value Editor, view a timestamp as ISO 8601 with offset to see the raw value DataGrip received.

If timestamps still shift unexpectedly, the missing diagnostic is the exact column type (TIMESTAMP vs TIMESTAMPTZ) and the JDBC driver version — both change which layer is doing the conversion, so confirm those before changing more settings.