Timezone Settings - Display Timestamps in Your Timezone

Overview

The SigNoz UI shows timestamps in one timezone. The default is the timezone of your browser. You can select a different timezone from the time range picker.

The timezone changes only the display of time. SigNoz stores all telemetry in UTC. A timezone change does not modify your data, and it does not change the result of a query.

The selected timezone applies to every view in the SigNoz UI, not only to the view where you select it. SigNoz keeps the selection in the local storage of your browser.

Change the timezone

Open a view that has a time range picker, such as the Logs Explorer or a dashboard. Then select the picker in the top-right corner.

The footer of the picker shows the active timezone and its offset from UTC.

Time range picker in the SigNoz Logs Explorer with the active timezone and its UTC offset in the footer — *The footer of the time range picker shows the active timezone and its offset from UTC.*

Select Change Timezone in the footer.
Type a city, a region, or an offset in the search box. For example, type New_York, Europe, or 5:30.
Select the timezone that you want.

Timezone picker in SigNoz with a search box, browser time, and UTC at the top of the list — *The timezone picker lists browser time and UTC first, and then all other timezones.*

The picker closes, and the SigNoz UI applies the new timezone. The offset next to the time range picker shows the offset of the new timezone.

To close the picker without a change, press esc.

The two entries at the top of the list are shortcuts. Browser time uses the timezone of your browser. Coordinated Universal Time uses UTC.

Turn timezone adaptation on or off

The Adapt to my timezone switch controls the timezone adaptation for the SigNoz UI.

Go to Settings and select the Account tab.
Find Adapt to my timezone in the User Preferences section.

User Preferences section of the SigNoz account settings with the Adapt to my timezone switch — *The Adapt to my timezone switch in the User Preferences section of the account settings.*

Set the switch to off to show the time range picker and the charts in UTC.

If the selected timezone is different from the timezone of your browser, this section shows the offset of the selected timezone and a Clear override button. Select Clear override to go back to the timezone of your browser.

The switch has two limits. SigNoz does not save the state of the switch, so the switch is on again after you reload the page. Tables and lists, such as the log list, also keep the selected timezone when the switch is off. To show UTC in the whole SigNoz UI, select Coordinated Universal Time in the time range picker.

Where the timezone applies

The selected timezone applies to the timestamps in these places:

The time range picker, and the start time and the end time of a custom time range
The timestamp column in the Logs Explorer and the Traces Explorer
The time axis and the tooltip of a chart, in dashboards and in the explorers
List panels and table panels in dashboards
The alert rules list, the triggered alerts list, and the alert history timeline
The exceptions list and the exception details
The Metrics Explorer, saved views, and logs pipelines
Settings tables, such as ingestion keys, members, roles, and service accounts

Where the timezone does not apply

Some times in SigNoz have their own timezone, or always use UTC:

Planned maintenance windows. Each window has its own timezone field. For more information, see Planned Maintenance.
ClickHouse queries. Time functions use the timezone of the server, which is UTC. To convert a timestamp in a query, give the timezone as a parameter to the function. The function that you use depends on the result that you want:
- To keep the time of day, use toTimeZone. This function returns a full timestamp.
- To group rows by calendar day, use toDate. This function returns only the date.
The column type is different for each signal. In the traces tables, timestamp is a DateTime64(9) column, so use toTimeZone(timestamp, 'Asia/Kolkata'). In the logs tables, timestamp is a UInt64 column of nanoseconds. Convert this column first, with toTimeZone(fromUnixTimestamp64Nano(timestamp), 'Asia/Kolkata'). For more information, see the query FAQs.
Alert notifications. The SigNoz server generates the timestamps in your notifications.

Limitations

The selected timezone is stored in the local storage of your browser. A different browser, a different device, or a new private window falls back to the timezone of the browser.
A table that is already on the screen keeps the previous timezone after you select a new one. Reload the page to show the new timezone in the table.
The trace detail page shows the start time of the trace in the timezone of your browser. This page ignores the selected timezone.

Troubleshooting

Timestamps are earlier or later than you expect

The SigNoz UI shows a timezone that is different from your local timezone.

Open the time range picker and read the timezone in the footer.
If the timezone is not correct, select Change Timezone and select the timezone that you want.

Timestamps did not change after a new selection

The table on the screen was rendered with the previous timezone.

Reload the page. The timestamps in the table then use the new timezone.

The timezone is correct in one browser but not in another

Each browser keeps its own timezone selection.

Select the timezone again in the browser that shows the wrong timestamps.

Next steps

Get Help

If you need help with the steps in this topic, please reach out to us on SigNoz Community Slack. If you are a SigNoz Cloud user, please use in product chat support located at the bottom right corner of your SigNoz instance or contact us at cloud-support@signoz.io.