---
title: "What's the difference between Dashboard Duration and Reload Duration?"
slug: "what-s-the-difference-between-dashboard-duration-and-reload-duration"
updated: 2026-10-30T19:39:50Z
published: 2026-10-30T19:39:50Z
canonical: "support.skykit.com/what-s-the-difference-between-dashboard-duration-and-reload-duration"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.skykit.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What's the difference between Dashboard Duration and Reload Duration?

Dashboards have two settings with similar names but very different purposes: Duration and Reload Duration.

These two settings operate independently, so understanding how they interact is key to ensuring your Dashboards display up-to-date information smoothly without interrupting your viewers’ experience.

### Duration vs. Reload Duration

**Duration:** Controls **playback timing**. This sets how long the Dashboard appears on the screen before advancing to the next item in your Playlist or Collection.

**Reload Duration:** Controls **page freshness**. It sets the maximum amount of time the Dashboard is allowed to stay open in memory before forcing a full browser reload to pull down updated data.

See [this page](/v1/docs/managing-dashboard-connections) for instructions on configuring these two settings.

### How do these two timers work together?

To prevent jarring visual cuts or interrupted data streams while a Dashboard is playing, reloads only occur at the moment a Duration cycle ends.

When the **Reload Duration** timer expires, the player marks the page as “stale.” However, it will wait until the current **Duration** timer expires before performing the actual browser reload.

> [!NOTE]
> When Reloads Occur
> 
> The actual time between page reloads will always be the **Reload Duration**, rounded up to the next multiple of your **Duration**.

### Real World Examples

Here are two common scenarios illustrating how the two timers interact:

#### Scenario A: Short Duration, Short Reload

- **Duration:** 2 minutes
- **Reload Duration:** 5 minutes
- **What happens:** The Dashboard stays on screen for 2 minutes before advancing to the next Playlist or Collection entry. Once the 5 minute reload duration passes, the page is marked stale. After the next time the Dashboard plays through for 2 minutes, the browser reloads the page.

#### Scenario B: Long Duration, Short Reload

- **Duration:** 45 minutes
- **Reload Duration:** 5 minutes
- **What happens:** The Dashboard stays on screen for 45 minutes before advancing to the next Playlist or Collection entry. Although the page becomes “stale” after 5 minutes, the browser will **not** reload mid-playback. It waits for the 45 minute duration to finish, meaning the page will only reload every 45 minutes.