diff --git a/frontend/src/pages/projects/notebook/utils.ts b/frontend/src/pages/projects/notebook/utils.ts
index 4619b959f7..5a361cbe20 100644
--- a/frontend/src/pages/projects/notebook/utils.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/pages/projects/notebook/utils.ts
@@ -124,7 +124,11 @@ export const useNotebookStatus = (
   const events = useWatchNotebookEvents(notebook.metadata.namespace, podUid, spawnInProgress);
 
   const annotationTime = notebook?.metadata.annotations?.['notebooks.kubeflow.org/last-activity'];
-  const lastActivity = annotationTime ? new Date(annotationTime) : null;
+  const lastActivity = annotationTime
+    ? new Date(annotationTime)
+    : spawnInProgress || podUid
+    ? new Date(notebook.metadata.creationTimestamp ?? 0)
+    : null;
 
   if (!lastActivity) {
     // Notebook not started, we don't have a filter time, ignore
diff --git a/frontend/src/types.ts b/frontend/src/types.ts
index 75e6d1177a..4781bc9072 100644
--- a/frontend/src/types.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/types.ts
@@ -284,6 +284,7 @@ type K8sMetadata = {
   uid?: string;
   labels?: { [key: string]: string };
   annotations?: { [key: string]: string };
+  creationTimestamp?: string;
 };
 
 /**
diff --git a/frontend/src/utilities/notebookControllerUtils.ts b/frontend/src/utilities/notebookControllerUtils.ts
index 00cf4976c3..98ad8aa954 100644
--- a/frontend/src/utilities/notebookControllerUtils.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/utilities/notebookControllerUtils.ts
@@ -330,10 +330,15 @@ export const useNotebookStatus = (
       evt.involvedObject.uid === currentUserNotebookPodUID,
   );
 
-  const lastActivity = useLastActivity(
-    open,
-    notebook?.metadata.annotations?.['notebooks.kubeflow.org/last-activity'],
-  );
+  const lastActivity =
+    useLastActivity(
+      open,
+      notebook?.metadata.annotations?.['notebooks.kubeflow.org/last-activity'],
+    ) ||
+    (notebook && (spawnInProgress || isNotebookRunning)
+      ? new Date(notebook.metadata.creationTimestamp ?? 0)
+      : null);
+
   if (!lastActivity) {
     // Notebook not started, we don't have a filter time, ignore
     return [null, []];