I also recommend using Joda as mentioned before.
Solving your problem using standard Java Date
objects only can be done as follows:
// **** YOUR CODE **** BEGIN ****
long ts = System.currentTimeMillis();
Date localTime = new Date(ts);
String format = "yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss";
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
// Convert Local Time to UTC (Works Fine)
sdf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
Date gmtTime = new Date(sdf.format(localTime));
System.out.println("Local:" + localTime.toString() + "," + localTime.getTime() + " --> UTC time:"
+ gmtTime.toString() + "," + gmtTime.getTime());
// **** YOUR CODE **** END ****
// Convert UTC to Local Time
Date fromGmt = new Date(gmtTime.getTime() + TimeZone.getDefault().getOffset(localTime.getTime()));
System.out.println("UTC time:" + gmtTime.toString() + "," + gmtTime.getTime() + " --> Local:"
+ fromGmt.toString() + "-" + fromGmt.getTime());
Output:
Local:Tue Oct 15 12:19:40 CEST 2013,1381832380522 --> UTC time:Tue Oct 15 10:19:40 CEST 2013,1381825180000
UTC time:Tue Oct 15 10:19:40 CEST 2013,1381825180000 --> Local:Tue Oct 15 12:19:40 CEST 2013-1381832380000