# Find out what happened while you were away.

Canonical page: https://vitalsmac.com/features/history

Activity Monitor only knows about right now. Vitals keeps CPU, memory, energy, disk and network from the last hour back to the last year, with the apps that used the most ranked hour by hour, so a Mac that was slow at three can still be asked why at five.

## Over Time: Any range from the last hour to the last year.

CPU, memory, energy, disk and network, for the Mac and for every app, in one chart where the range is a tap. For recent days you also get the apps that used the most, ranked hour by hour, so you can find out what was running during the call.

- CPU, memory, energy, disk and network
- The Mac as a whole, and every app
- The last hour, 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, 6 months or a year
- The apps that used the most, by the hour

## Peaks: The worst moment, and when it was.

A Peaks card under Over Time shows the highest CPU, memory pressure, temperature and power in the range you chose, the moment each happened, and how long your Mac spent at a limit, so you know whether Tuesday was a blip or a pattern.

- The highest CPU, memory pressure, temperature and power
- When each one happened
- The stretches at a limit, and how long they lasted
- From a reading every five minutes

## Memory: See when the Mac started running short.

The Memory tab charts memory pressure under its memory chart, and swap used beside it once your Mac needs swap, so a week of running short is one picture instead of a hunch.

- Memory pressure, charted over time
- Swap used beside it, once the Mac needs swap
- Red in the menu bar while memory is under pressure
- An assistant can ask how much memory and swap is in use

## Your file: One file on your Mac, and it is yours.

Keep 30 days, 90 days, 6 months or a year. Export it as three CSV files, open the file yourself, or let an assistant ask about it over MCP. Nothing leaves your Mac.

- 30 days, 90 days, 6 months or a year
- CSV: your apps by day, your Mac by hour, the readings every five minutes
- The file itself, with its tables documented
- An assistant can ask about a day, a week or a year

## Why it matters: history on a Mac

Activity Monitor is a window onto this second. Its graphs scroll off the right edge in a minute or two, and the one long view it keeps, twelve hours of energy, is a single column. If the Mac was slow at three and you opened Activity Monitor at five, there is nothing to look at.

The questions worth answering are about the past: what was running when the fans came on during the call, which app used the battery between nine and one, whether the Mac has been short of memory all week or only today.

Vitals keeps CPU, memory, energy, disk and network, for the Mac and for every app, from the last hour to the last year. Over Time shows any range with the apps that used the most, ranked by the hour for recent days, and a Peaks card with the highest CPU, memory pressure, temperature and power in the range and when each was. It is one file on your Mac. Export it as CSV, open it yourself, or ask an assistant about it.

## How to use it

1. **Open Over Time.** From the window, choose the range: the last hour, 12 or 24 hours, 7 or 30 days, 90 days, 6 months or a year, with a tab for each metric. Memory pressure and swap are charted on the Memory tab, under the memory chart.
2. **Choose how much to keep.** Settings → General → Keep History For: 30 days, 90 days, 6 months or a year. Delete History… is beside it. The history is one small file on your Mac and nothing leaves it.
3. **Read the peaks.** The Peaks card under Over Time shows the highest CPU, memory pressure, temperature and power in the range you chose, when each was, and the stretches your Mac spent at a limit. Vitals keeps a reading every five minutes for it.
4. **Take it with you.** Export CSV from Over Time, from File → Export History as CSV, or from Settings → General: your apps by day, your Mac by hour, and the readings every five minutes. The file's own tables, and some queries to start from, are on the history data page. Over MCP, an assistant can ask the same questions.

## Compared with Activity Monitor

| | Activity Monitor | Vitals |
| --- | --- | --- |
| How far back | A minute or two of graphs, 12 hours of energy | The last hour to the last year |
| Per app | Right now | The apps that used the most, by the hour |
| Peaks | None | Highest CPU, memory pressure, temperature and power, and when |
| Memory pressure and swap | Right now | Charted over time |
| Export | None | CSV, three files, and the file itself |

## The words behind it

- [Memory pressure](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/memory-pressure): Memory pressure is Activity Monitor's graph of how well the Mac's RAM is meeting current demand.
- [Swap Used](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/swap-used): Swap Used is the amount of space on the startup disk that macOS is using to move memory out of RAM and back again.
- [Energy Impact](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/energy-impact): Energy Impact is a relative measure of how much energy an app is using right now, shown in the Energy tab of Activity Monitor.
- [Thermal throttling](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/thermal-throttling): Thermal throttling is when a computer lowers its processor speed to keep temperatures in a safe range.
- [Uptime](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/uptime): Uptime is how long a Mac has been running since it last started up.
- [Load average](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/load-average): Load average is the average amount of work that is running or waiting to run on the CPU, usually shown as three numbers for the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes.

## Questions

### How much history does Vitals keep?

Up to a year. You choose 30 days, 90 days, 6 months or a year in Settings, and it lives in one small file on your Mac.

### Does the history leave my Mac?

No. It stays in a file on your Mac. Vitals goes online only to check for updates and to check your license.

### Can I see which app was busy at a given time?

For the last two days, yes, hour by hour: the apps that used the most in each hour. Further back, the Mac's own readings are kept for each metric.

### What does Activity Monitor keep?

Live graphs, and twelve hours of energy. Everything else is this second only.

### How often does Vitals save a reading?

Every five minutes, for the peaks and the stretches at a limit, plus your apps by the hour and by the day for the rankings.

### Can I export the history?

Yes, as CSV: three files, your apps by day, your Mac by hour, and the readings every five minutes. From Over Time, from the File menu, or from Settings → General.

### Can I open the history file myself?

Yes. It is one file on your Mac, and the history data page describes its tables and gives some queries to start from.

### Does it chart memory pressure and swap over time?

Yes. The Memory tab charts memory pressure under its memory chart, and swap used beside it once your Mac needs swap.

## Read on

- [Why is my Mac so slow? How to find the cause, and fix it](https://vitalsmac.com/why-is-my-mac-so-slow)
- [What’s draining my Mac’s battery? How to find it, and what helps](https://vitalsmac.com/mac-battery-draining-fast)
- [How to check CPU and memory usage on a Mac, app by app](https://vitalsmac.com/check-cpu-memory-usage-mac)
- [Vitals vs Activity Monitor](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/activity-monitor)
- [Vitals vs iStat Menus](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/istat-menus)
- [Vitals vs Stats](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/stats)

## More of Vitals

Every feature is at [vitalsmac.com/features](https://vitalsmac.com/features). Vitals is one payment, with every update for life: [pricing](https://vitalsmac.com/pricing).