Popular fields are not persistent or shared across users in Kibana (popularity count resets after reload)

Elastic Stack Kibana
1

Hello Elasticsearch community,

I'm currently facing an issue where "popular fields" in Kibana are not persistent or consistent across users.
When I reload the Discover view or log in as a different user, the popularity counts disappear, and the ordering of fields resets.

:light_bulb: What I’ve observed

  • Each user seems to have their own “popular fields” state.

  • The popularity count increases when I select fields in the Discover panel.

  • However, after refreshing the browser or reopening Kibana, all counts are reset to zero.

  • Even if I check the .kibana_* system index, I can’t find any clear document that tracks the popularity values per field.

What I’d like to understand

  1. How is the popularity count mechanism implemented?

    • Where is the popularity information stored (e.g., .kibana index, browser local storage, session, etc.)?

    • Is it updated automatically when users select fields in Discover, or only when saving a data view?

  2. Why might popularity not persist or synchronize across users?

    • Is this expected behavior (user-local preference)?

    • Or could it be a misconfiguration or permission issue (e.g., lacking write access to data views in .kibana_*)?

  3. Is there a way to make popularity counts persistent and shared among users?

    • For example, to make the “popular fields” ranking organization-wide rather than per user/session.

Environment

  • Elasticsearch: 8.13.0

  • Kibana: 8.13.0

  • Security: enabled (xpack.security.enabled=true)

  • Cluster type: self-managed (3-node Elasticsearch cluster on Docker: 1 coordinator, 2 data nodes)

  • Authentication: via kibana_system and organization users with kibana_admin role

:white_check_mark: What I’ve tried

  • Checked the .kibana_* indices for documents containing field popularity info

  • Verified user roles have kibana_admin and superuser permissions

  • Cleared browser cache and tested with different accounts

  • Restarted Kibana and reloaded the data view

Despite all these, popularity counts still reset or are isolated per user.

:folded_hands: Question

Could someone explain:

  • How the “popular fields” mechanism actually works internally?

  • What conditions are required for popularity data to be written and persisted in Elasticsearch?

  • Possible reasons why the counts disappear or are not shared?

Any pointers to the relevant source code or documentation would also be greatly appreciated.