Reading Incident Timelines

What are Incident Timelines?

Incident timelines provide a chronological view of a service outage from first detection to resolution. They help you:

Understand when an issue was first detected
Track how the incident evolved over time
See official updates from the service provider (when available)
Know when the incident was resolved
Assess the total duration of the outage

Timelines appear on service pages whenever there is an active incident or a recently resolved issue.

Timeline Components

Each incident timeline includes the following elements:

Incident Header

Title: Brief description of the incident
Current Status: The current state of the incident (Investigating, Identified, Monitoring, Resolved)
Started At: When the incident was first detected
Duration: How long the incident has been ongoing or lasted before resolution

Update Entries

Timestamp: When the update was posted
Status Indicator: Color-coded indicator showing the service status at that time
Update Message: Description of what's happening at this stage of the incident
Source: Where the update came from (DownStatus, Official Status Page, or User Reports)

Summary Section

Affected Components: Specific features or areas that were impacted
Geographical Impact: Regions that were affected by the outage
User Reports: Number of reports received during the incident
Resolution: Final status and explanation (for resolved incidents)

Understanding Timeline Progress

Incident timelines typically follow a progression through several stages:

Investigating

2025-05-17 08:15 AM

We're investigating reports of users unable to access streaming content. Our monitoring systems have detected elevated error rates.

Identified

2025-05-17 08:45 AM

We've identified the issue affecting content delivery systems in North America and Europe. Our engineers are working on a resolution.

Monitoring

2025-05-17 09:30 AM

A fix has been deployed and we're seeing gradual improvement. Some users may still experience degraded performance as systems recover.

Resolved

2025-05-17 10:15 AM

The issue has been fully resolved and service has been restored to normal operation. We apologize for the inconvenience.

This progression helps you understand the current phase of the incident and estimate when service might be restored.

Interpreting Update Sources

Updates in the timeline come from different sources, each with its own significance:

DownStatus Updates: Based on our automated monitoring and analysis of user reports
Official Updates: Directly from the service provider's status page, when available
User Report Summaries: Aggregated information from user-submitted reports

Pro Tip: Official updates tend to be the most accurate regarding technical details, but DownStatus updates are often faster at detecting the initial signs of an outage.

Incident Historical Data

Even after an incident is resolved, the timeline remains available:

Resolved incidents appear in the "Past Incidents" section of each service page
You can click on any past incident to view its complete timeline
Historical data helps establish patterns in service reliability

This historical record is valuable for understanding if a service has recurring issues and how quickly they typically get resolved.