When selecting time ranges on a TSVB time series visualisation, some ranges show "No data to display for the selected metrics"

[iamacpherson]

Kibana version: 7.9.3

Elasticsearch version: 7.9.3

Server OS version: Centos 7

Browser version: Chrome Version 86.0.4240.198

Browser OS version: Windows 10 Enterprise N Version 1809

Original install method (e.g. download page, yum, from source, etc.): Docker image

Describe the bug:
On a TSVB Time Series plot, some date-time selections, despite encompassing all documents in the index, result in a "No data to display for the selected metrics" message. The screenshots below show that the behaviour occurs even between small changes in time, with no apparent connection to the span of the time range.

Possible patterns I've noticed:

• When selecting on the graph area, selections that come close to the ends of the dataset seem most likely to show this issue.
• The issue does not seem to occur when the time selection starts or ends within the dataset (there are documents before the start date, and/or documents after the end date)
• The visualisation I encountered this issue with has two data series filtered for one value in a certain field. Each series is then grouped by terms on another field where the cardinality is high (a unique count of 60 and 72 for the two filtered values) and each unique value must be plotted, so naturally I've set the top count to a high number (100 currently for both). I was able to reproduce the issue with the sample data by grouping on high cardinality fields and setting the top count above 15. When there was no grouping or a low top count was selected, the issue did not occur.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a TSVB Time Series, where the data series is grouped by a high cardinality field and a large top count value is selected (I encountered on values >15).
2. Select multiple time ranges, using either the date picker or the graph area.

Expected behavior:
The data is correctly displayed for all time filters where there are documents.

Screenshots (if relevant):
Series of time selections encompassing the whole data range:

The number of documents over time:

Visualisation configuration:

Errors in browser console (if relevant):
No messages seen

Provide logs and/or server output (if relevant):
No messages seen

Any additional context:

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/kibana-app (Team:KibanaApp)

[alexwizp]

@dziyanadzeraviankina could you please have a look?

[stratoula]

@iamacpherson thank you for reporting this. I think that this is not a bug but has to do with the Drop Last value setting. I think if you go to Panel Options of your timeseries tab and switch this setting to No, the problem will be solved

Can you verify that? I have created another issue to change the default value to No, in order to not be so confusing #95756

[timductive]

Closing this based on comments, please re-open if issue persists.