diff --git a/packages/grafana-data/src/datetime/durationutil.test.ts b/packages/grafana-data/src/datetime/durationutil.test.ts
index c5b861191a2..8320527fbdf 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-data/src/datetime/durationutil.test.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-data/src/datetime/durationutil.test.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,12 @@ describe('Duration util', () => {
       const endDate = addDurationToDate(startDate, { months: 1, weeks: 1, days: 1, hours: 1, minutes: 1, seconds: 1 });
       expect(intervalToAbbreviatedDurationString({ start: startDate, end: endDate })).toEqual('1M 8d 1h 1m 1s');
     });
+
+    it('should return an empty string if start date is after end date', () => {
+      const endDate = new Date();
+      const startDate = addDurationToDate(endDate, { minutes: 1 });
+      expect(intervalToAbbreviatedDurationString({ start: startDate, end: endDate })).toEqual('');
+    });
   });
 
   describe('parseDuration', () => {
diff --git a/packages/grafana-data/src/datetime/durationutil.ts b/packages/grafana-data/src/datetime/durationutil.ts
index 372144fd6cf..b71adaf600a 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-data/src/datetime/durationutil.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-data/src/datetime/durationutil.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { Duration, Interval } from 'date-fns';
+import { Duration, Interval, isAfter } from 'date-fns';
 import add from 'date-fns/add';
 import intervalToDuration from 'date-fns/intervalToDuration';
 
@@ -21,6 +21,12 @@ const durationMap: { [key in Required<keyof Duration>]: string[] } = {
  * @public
  */
 export function intervalToAbbreviatedDurationString(interval: Interval, includeSeconds = true): string {
+  // An edge case that causes the app to crash (e.g. browser's clock behind the rule/alert date)
+  // The code will again return a proper duration when the browser's clock >= rule/alert date
+  if (isAfter(interval.start, interval.end)) {
+    return '';
+  }
+
   const duration = intervalToDuration(interval);
   return (Object.entries(duration) as Array<[keyof Duration, number | undefined]>).reduce((str, [unit, value]) => {
     if (value && value !== 0 && !(unit === 'seconds' && !includeSeconds && str)) {