The timeline shows what your device did and why: each check-in, the screen it got, and what is expected to happen next. When your device seems stuck or shows something you did not expect, look here first.
Times on the timeline are in your account's time zone. Recorded activity is kept for 30 days.
Open the timeline
For a device: open your device settings and click Timeline. The Why? link next to the next check-in, under Device Info, opens it too. Or go straight to trmnl.com/devices/current/timeline.
For one playlist item: on your playlist, click the three dots on the item, then Timeline. This is the device's timeline filtered to that plugin or mashup. Click show everything to remove the filter, or this source on every device to see it across all your devices.
For a plugin or mashup: open its settings page and click Timeline. This shows where it was shown on every device, and where it will show next.
What's on the page
The day bar at the top. Click Older or Newer, or click a day. Taller bars mean busier days.
The last 24 hours (device only, today only). One band per screen the device fetched, lasting until its next fetch. Gray bands are sleep, and Renders markers show when the screen was rendered. Switch between 3h, 12h and 24h.
The recorded rows, oldest first. Each row is one check-in and what it caused.
Now, with when the next check-in is due. Click Jump to now at the top to get there.
The next 24 hours (device only). The same strip as above, for what is coming, shown above the Expected rows. It also switches between 3h, 12h and 24h.
Expected rows below Now. On a device page they cover the next 3 hours. On a plugin or mashup page they cover the next 24 hours, on every device.
Reading a row
Each row has a time, a label, the screen it is about (or the device, on a plugin or mashup page), and a short detail line. The label names the most important thing that happened at that check-in. Most rows say Delivered or Caught up. The detail line adds the rest: the firmware and battery, and what TRMNL scheduled next, for example "Refresh scheduled".
Delivered: a screen was sent to the device.
Caught up: there was nothing new to show, so the device got the "You're caught up!" screen.
Check-in: the device checked in but no screen was sent, for example a failed check-in.
Schedule: TRMNL planned a refresh.
Render (plugin and mashup timelines only): a new screen was made, or not. The detail says "Rendered", "Render skipped", "Render failed" or "Render timed out", with the reason.
A gray badge on the row says how the check-in ended, such as "Content returned", "Sleep response" or "Low battery screen". A red line on the left marks a failed check-in or a failed render.
Click Why? under a row to see each decision the server made for that check-in, in order. A check mark means the server acted on it.
Why isn't my device refreshing?
No new rows for hours.
The device is not reaching our servers, so nothing on the server side can change its screen. Look at the Now line: "Check-in overdue since" confirms it. Start with Troubleshooting an Unresponsive Device and Device WiFi Troubleshooting.
The device checks in, but the screen does not change.
Open the timeline of the plugin on that screen (its settings page, or this source on every device from a filtered timeline) and look at its Render rows. "Render skipped" with "no change in data" means the plugin's data was the same, so the screen stays the same. That is expected, see How refresh rates work.
On a plugin's timeline, a row has a red line and "Render failed".
The detail says why, for example "access token expired — reconnect the plugin". Click View logs on the row to open the device logs at that moment.
A row's detail line says "Paused after repeated failed refreshes".
The plugin stopped refreshing after too many failures. Fix the cause, then see Plugin in a Degraded State (Reset).
The device waits longer than its refresh rate.
Read the Expected row. It gives the reason, such as "waits for its plugin's next update" or "two hours is the longest a device waits". If the row also says the wait is longer than the refresh rate, turn off Wait for the next update under Battery & Sleep in your device settings to keep to the refresh rate.
An Expected row says "Asleep".
The device is inside its sleep window and will not refresh until it ends. See Sleep Mode.
Why did it show that screen?
Find the row at the time you saw the screen and click Why?. The steps show what the server checked, such as "Last displayed playlist item", "Next playlist item" and "Skipped an unavailable item", and which response it chose. The gray badge on the row tells you if the answer was something other than a playlist screen, like a sleep or low battery screen.
To see why a particular item did or did not show, open the three dots on that item in your playlist and click Timeline. What decides the next screen explains the order TRMNL picks screens in.
Device logs
The timeline tells you what happened. The logs page shows the raw error messages behind it. Open it with Device logs at the top of the timeline, or Logs in your device settings.
Filter by All, Device, Plugins, Private plugins or Mashups, and click Errors only to hide the rest.
Auto-refresh adds new logs as they arrive.
Times here are in UTC, not your time zone.
Logs are kept for two weeks.
When you contact support about a device that is not refreshing, include the link to its timeline. It saves a round of questions.
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