A complete guide to rock is dusty.

Rock Is Dusty

The dashboard preview thumbnail for your rock may show visual dust accumulation over time. This article explains what causes it, how to clear it, and confirms that the appearance has no functional impact.

What you may be seeing

In the dashboard preview tile, you may notice:

  • A grayish texture overlay on the rock thumbnail
  • Reduced contrast on the rock outline
  • Small particle artifacts near the base of the rock image

This is the platform's simulated weathering effect, applied to the preview thumbnail based on the time elapsed since the last dashboard interaction with that rock.

Step 1: Refresh the dashboard

The thumbnail is generated client-side. A hard refresh often resolves the appearance:

  • macOS: Cmd + Shift + R
  • Windows / Linux: Ctrl + Shift + R

If the dust persists, continue to Step 2.

Step 2: Clear browser cache for petrock.cloud

  1. Open your browser's developer tools.
  2. Right-click the refresh button and select Empty Cache and Hard Reload (Chrome and Edge).
  3. In Firefox, use Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data → Manage Data and remove petrock.cloud.

Step 3: Disable simulated weathering

If you would prefer not to see the weathering effect at all:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Preferences → Display.
  2. Toggle Simulated Weathering off.
  3. Save preferences.

The thumbnail will render in its provisioned-day appearance regardless of dashboard interaction history.

Step 4: Trigger a thumbnail regeneration

If the cached thumbnail does not update after the steps above:

  1. Open the rock detail page.
  2. Click the overflow menu (three dots) next to the rock name.
  3. Select Regenerate Thumbnail.

Regeneration takes 5-10 seconds. The new thumbnail will reflect current preference settings.

Functional impact

Note: The simulated weathering effect is purely cosmetic. It is rendered in the browser based on the rock's metadata timestamps and does not reflect any change to the rock itself, its hosting environment, or its billing status.

A rock with maximum simulated weathering performs identically to a rock provisioned moments ago. Both will be inert.

Why this exists

Simulated weathering was introduced in our March 2024 release based on customer feedback that long-running rocks felt static in the dashboard. The effect provides a visual indicator of how long a rock has been Idle without altering any underlying behavior. The setting is on by default and can be toggled off at any time.

When to contact support

Contact support if:

  • The thumbnail fails to render at all (shows a broken image icon)
  • Toggling the preference has no effect after a hard refresh
  • The dust appears outside the thumbnail tile (e.g., in the rock detail page header)