Traffic chart
The Network Monitor’s traffic chart: spans from a minute to a year, paging back, period totals, bar size, the readout and selecting a time window.
Inside the Network Monitor, the traffic chart is a strip of columns below the list. Toggle it with the chart button or View › Show Traffic Chart (⌥⌘C). It is hidden in the compact window, and when the map sits above the list it appears only if the pane is at least 860 points tall.
What it plots
Section titled “What it plots”Time runs left to right. Upload rises from the centre in the upload colour. Download falls below in the download colour. Both follow Traffic colours. The default pair is Orange and Blue. Each half has its own scale, so compare heights within one half and use the readout for the amounts. Blocked connections are drawn too while Show blocked traffic is on, which it is by default.
With a selected app, the chart plots that app (or the app that owns a selected destination). A search plots the matching apps instead of the whole Mac. With neither, it plots the whole Mac.
Above the columns, two totals give what was Sent and Received in the period on screen. VoiceOver reads the period with its sent, received and blocked totals.
While the first figures load, the chart says Measuring Traffic. A period with no traffic says “No traffic in this period”.
From a minute to a year
Section titled “From a minute to a year”The span on screen runs from 1 minute to 1 year: 1 minute, 5 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month or 1 year. Change it with Zoom out (⌘−) and Zoom in (⌘+), or from the chart’s menu under Visible span. The chart starts at the span that fits the monitor’s Range.
- Previous period and Next period page through time. Now returns to the present.
- The label between them names the period. A live period reads like “Last hour” or “Last 7 days”. A period you paged back to shows its dates.
- Follow now keeps the chart on the present as time passes. Paging back turns it off.
- Snap to periods makes scrolling stop on whole periods.
Fine-grained samples are kept for recent traffic only. When a period is older than that, the chart says “Byte samples are no longer retained for this period. Zoom out to view hourly totals.”
The chart keeps its history when you quit or restart Outbound, so the last hour is still there when you open it again.
Bar size
Section titled “Bar size”Each column is one bar of time. Bar size in the chart’s menu chooses it: Automatic, or 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month or 1 year. A size that would not fit the period or the chart’s width is dimmed.
Following the period
Section titled “Following the period”Show only connections in the visible period (the filter button beside the zoom buttons) narrows the list, the map and the inspector to the period on the chart. While it is on, paging the chart moves them with it, so everything stays on the period you chose. Turn it off to see the whole Range again.
Reading it
Section titled “Reading it”Point at a column and the readout gives that slice’s time and the rates up and down. Arrow keys move the readout. Escape clears the readout, any selection and the visible-period filter. The chart follows Reduce Motion.
Selecting a time window
Section titled “Selecting a time window”Drag across the chart to show only connections from that time. A click clears that selection. The list below narrows to the overlap of that drag and From Now when From Now is also on.
VoiceOver actions are Filter to Visible Period, Clear Selection and Now.