# Changing the time range or time zone format of a CloudWatch dashboard
Changing the time range or time zone format

You can change the time range to display dashboard data over minutes, hours, days, or weeks. You also can change the time zone format to display dashboard data in UTC or local time. Local time is the time zone that's specified in your computer's operating system. 

**Note**  
If you create a dashboard with graphs that contain 100 or more high-resolution metrics, we recommend that you don't set the time range to longer than 1 hour. For more information, see [High-resolution metrics](publishingMetrics.md#high-resolution-metrics). 

**Note**  
If the time range of a dashboard is shorter than the period used for a widget on the dashboard, the following happens:  
 The widget is modified to display the amount of data corresponding one complete period for that widget, even though this is longer than the dashboard time range. This ensures that there is at least one data point on the graph. 
 The start time of the period for this data point is adjusted backwards to ensure that at least one data point can be displayed.

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#### [ New console ]

**To change the dashboard time range**

1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/).

1.  In the navigation pane, choose **Dashboards**, and then choose a dashboard.

1.  From the dashboard screen, do one of the following: 
   + In the upper area of the dashboard, select one of the predefined time ranges. These span from 1 hour to 1 week (**1h**, **3h**, **12h**, **1d**, or **1w**).
   + Alternatively, you can choose one of the following custom time range options:
     + Choose **Custom**, and then choose the **Relative** tab. Choose a time range from 1 minute to 15 months. 
     + Choose **Custom**, and then choose the **Absolute** tab. Use the calendar or text fields to specify your time range. 

**Tip**  
If the aggregation period is set to **Auto** when you change the time range of a graph, CloudWatch might change the period. To set the period manually, choose the **Actions** dropdown, and then choose **Period override**. 

**To change the dashboard time zone format**

1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/).

1.  In the navigation pane, choose **Dashboards**, and then choose a dashboard.

1. In the upper area of the dashboard, choose **Custom**.

1. In the upper-right corner of the box that appears, select **UTC** or **Local time** from the dropdown. 

1.  Choose **Apply**. 

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#### [ Old console ]

**To change the dashboard time range**

1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Dashboards**, and then choose a dashboard.

1.  From the dashboard screen, do one of the following: 
   + In the upper area of the dashboard, select one of the predefined time ranges. These span from 1 hour to 1 week (**1h**, **3h**, **12h**, **1d**, **3d**, or **1w**).
   + Alternatively, you can choose one of the following custom time range options:
     + Choose the **custom** dropdown, and then choose the **Relative** tab. Select one of the predefined ranges, which span from 1 minute to 15 months. 
     + Choose the **custom** dropdown, and then choose the **Absolute** tab. Use the calendar or text fields to specify your time range. 

**Tip**  
If the aggregation period is set to **Auto** when you change the time range of a graph, CloudWatch might change the period. To set the period manually, choose the **Actions** dropdown, and then choose **Period override**. 

**To change the dashboard time zone format**

1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Dashboards**, and then choose a dashboard.

1. In the upper-right corner of the dashboard screen, choose the **Custom** dropdown.

1. In the upper-right corner of the box that appears, select **UTC** or **Local timezone** from the dropdown.

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