---
title: "Select timeframes to visualize"
description: "Netdata's dashboard features a rich timeframe selector, with useful defaults and rich customization, to help you narrow your focus when troubleshooting issues or anomalies."
type: how-to
custom_edit_url: https://github.com/netdata/netdata/edit/master/docs/dashboard/select-timeframes.mdx
---

# Pick timeframes to visualize

While [panning through time and zooming in/out](/docs/dashboard/interact-charts.mdx) from charts is helpful when
you're looking a recent history, or want to do granular troubleshooting, what if you want to see metrics from 6 hours
ago? Or 6 days?

Netdata's dashboard features a **timeframe selector** to help you visualize specific timeframes in a few helpful ways.
By default, it shows a certain number of minutes of historical metrics based on the your browser's viewport to ensure
it's always showing per-second granularity.

## Open the timeframe selector

To visualize a new timeframe, you need to open the picker, which appears just above the menu, near the top-right cover
of the dashboard.

![The timeframe selector in the local Agent
dashboard](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/101507784-2c585080-3934-11eb-9d6e-eff30b8553e4.png)

The **Clear** button resets the dashboard back to its default state based on your browser viewport, and **Apply** closes
the picker and shifts all charts to the selected timeframe.

## Use the Quick Selector

Click any of the following options in the **Quick Selector** to choose a commonly-used timeframe.

- Last 5 minutes
- Last 15 minutes
- Last 2 hours
- Last 6 hours
- Last 12 hours

Click **Apply** to see metrics from your selected timeframe.

## Choose a specific interval

Beneath the Quick Selector is an input field and dropdown you use in combination to select a specific timeframe of
minutes, hours, days, or months. Enter a number and choose the appropriate unit of time, then click **Apply**.

## Choose multiple days

Use the calendar to select multiple days. Click on a date to begin the timeframe selection, then an ending date. The
timeframe begins at noon on the beginning and end dates. Click **Apply** to see your selected multi-day timeframe.

## Caveats and considerations

**Longer timeframes will decrease metrics granularity**. At the default timeframe, based on your browser viewport, each
"tick" on charts represents one second. If you select a timeframe of 6 hours, each tick represents the _average_ value
across a larger period of time.

**You can only see metrics as far back in history as your metrics retention policy allows**. Netdata uses an internal
time-series database (TSDB) to store as many metrics as it can within a specific amount of disk space. The default
storage is 256 MiB, which should be enough for 1-3 days of historical metrics. If you navigate back to a timeframe
beyond stored historical metrics, you'll see this message:

![Screenshot of reaching the end of historical metrics
storage](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1153921/114207597-63a23280-9911-11eb-863d-4d2f75b030b4.png)

At any time, [configure the internal TSDB's storage capacity](/docs/store/change-metrics-storage.md) to expand your
depth of historical metrics.

## What's next?

One useful next step after selecting a timeframe is [exporting the
metrics](/docs/dashboard/import-export-print-snapshot.mdx) into a snapshot file, which can then be shared and imported
into any other Netdata dashboard.

There are also many ways to [customize](/docs/dashboard/customize.mdx) the standard dashboard experience, from changing
the theme to editing the text that accompanies every section of charts.

### Further reading & related information

- Dashboard
  - [How the dashboard works](/docs/dashboard/how-dashboard-works.mdx)
  - [Interact with charts](/docs/dashboard/interact-charts.mdx)
  - [Chart dimensions, contexts, and families](/docs/dashboard/dimensions-contexts-families.mdx)
  - **[Select timeframes to visualize](/docs/dashboard/select-timeframes.mdx)**
  - [Import, export, and print a snapshot](/docs/dashboard/import-export-print-snapshot.mdx)
  - [Customize the standard dashboard](/docs/dashboard/customize.mdx)
