Unable to view older pod logs in Lens

Lens Support & Troubleshooting Feature Requests
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#1

Hi everyone :wave:

I’m facing an issue with Lens regarding pod logs.

Lens only shows logs for a very recent time window.
For example:

  • Current time is 11:50
  • I can only see logs from around 11:07 to 11:50
  • I’m unable to scroll back or access older logs

Is this a known limitation of Lens?
Is there any setting to adjust (log buffer, tail size, retention, etc.)?
Or does Lens strictly rely on the cluster’s logging configuration (container runtime, log rotation, etc.)?

Any insight or workaround would be appreciated
Thanks!

#2

If you keep scrolling back, what happens? Lens should load more logs from the past if you reach the top of the logs window.

Can you use the date picker to jump back in time?

Do you see more logs with kubectl?

#3

When I scroll up, it’s the same behavior.
For example, if the current time is 11:50, I can only scroll back to around 11:07 and it doesn’t go any further.

Using the date picker has the same issue: even when selecting an earlier date, Lens snaps back to the current time window instead of showing older logs.

Also, testing with kubectl logs shows the same behavior: I can only see logs from the previous day up to today. Logs older than that do not appear.

It seems that neither Lens nor kubectl can access logs older than this range, likely due to log rotation or retention on the node.

#4

Hello @mytestomailer,

Thanks for the report — if kubectl logs hits the same cutoff, Lens is most likely just seeing what the cluster still has. Older pod logs are probably already rotated/expired on the node, so neither kubectl nor Lens can fetch them.

1 Like
#5

I have a follow-up question:
Is there a way to configure Kubernetes (or the node / kubelet / container runtime) so that kubectl logs can retain logs over a longer time window?

Also, from your experience, does increasing log retention have any significant negative impact (disk usage, performance, node stability)?
What would you recommend as a good balance, or best practice, in this case?

Thanks again for the guidance, really appreciated.

#6

Thanks for the clarification, that makes sense
I confirmed the same cutoff with kubectl logs, so it’s clear now that Lens is just reflecting what’s still available on the node.
Appreciate the help!