Performance recorder in Tableau - Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction

Performance recorder helps you see how fast your Tableau workbook runs. It records what happens when you open or interact with dashboards. This helps find slow parts so you can make your reports faster.

When your dashboard takes too long to load and you want to find the slow steps

When you add new calculations and want to check if they slow down your workbook

When you want to compare performance before and after changes in your workbook

When you want to share performance details with a teammate or support

When you want to learn which actions in your workbook use the most time

Steps

Step 1: Click

- Help menu in Tableau Desktop

A dropdown menu appears with options including Performance Recorder

Step 2: Select

- Start Performance Recording in the Help menu

Performance recording starts and Tableau tracks workbook actions

Step 3: Interact

- Your workbook (open dashboards, filter data, etc.)

Tableau records the time taken for each action you perform

Step 4: Click

- Help menu

Dropdown menu appears again

Step 5: Select

- Stop Performance Recording

Tableau stops recording and opens a new workbook showing performance details

Step 6: Review

- Performance workbook tabs (Events, Timings, Summary)

You see detailed timings and charts showing slow and fast parts of your workbook

💡 Look for long bars or high times to find slow actions

Before vs After

Before

Workbook runs normally without performance data; slow dashboard load times are unknown

After

Performance workbook opens showing detailed timing charts and event logs for each action

Settings Reference

Start Performance Recording

📍 Help menu

Begin recording workbook actions to analyze performance

Default: Not recording

Stop Performance Recording

📍 Help menu

End recording and generate performance report workbook

Default: Recording active

Common Mistakes

Not stopping the performance recorder after testing

Recording continues and may slow down Tableau or create large logs

Always stop recording from the Help menu when done

Interacting with unrelated dashboards during recording

Performance data includes unrelated actions making analysis confusing

Only perform the actions you want to test while recording

Summary

Performance recorder tracks how long workbook actions take to help find slow parts

Start and stop recording from the Help menu in Tableau Desktop

Review the generated performance workbook to see detailed timing charts and event logs