diff --git a/src/app/partials/templating_editor.html b/src/app/partials/templating_editor.html
index afed151d616..8a3ea086eca 100644
--- a/src/app/partials/templating_editor.html
+++ b/src/app/partials/templating_editor.html
@@ -83,8 +83,8 @@
 								<input type="checkbox" ng-model="current.auto" ng-checked="current.auto" ng-change="runQuery()">
 							</div>
 							<div class="editor-option" ng-show="current.auto">
-								<label class="small">Auto interval steps <tip>The number of times the time range should be divided to calculate the interval<tip></label>
-								<select class="input-mini" ng-model="current.auto_count" ng-options="f for f in [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,13,15,16,20,25,30,35,40,50,100,200]" ng-change="runQuery()"></select>
+								<label class="small">Auto interval steps <tip>How many steps, roughly, the interval is rounded and will not always match this count<tip></label>
+								<select class="input-mini" ng-model="current.auto_count" ng-options="f for f in [3,5,10,30,50,100,200]" ng-change="runQuery()"></select>
 							</div>
 						</div>
 					</div>
diff --git a/src/app/services/graphite/graphiteDatasource.js b/src/app/services/graphite/graphiteDatasource.js
index 62f0bdabedb..20ef5cbfa3a 100644
--- a/src/app/services/graphite/graphiteDatasource.js
+++ b/src/app/services/graphite/graphiteDatasource.js
@@ -222,14 +222,24 @@ function (angular, _, $, config, kbn, moment) {
       var clean_options = [], targets = {};
       var target, targetValue, i;
       var regex = /(\#[A-Z])/g;
+      var intervalFormatFixRegex = /'(\d+)m'/gi;
 
       if (options.format !== 'png') {
         options['format'] = 'json';
       }
 
+      function fixIntervalFormat(match) {
+        return match.replace('m', 'min').replace('M', 'mon');
+      }
+
       for (i = 0; i < options.targets.length; i++) {
         target = options.targets[i];
+        if (!target.target) {
+          continue;
+        }
+
         targetValue = templateSrv.replace(target.target);
+        targetValue = targetValue.replace(intervalFormatFixRegex, fixIntervalFormat);
         targets[this._seriesRefLetters[i]] = targetValue;
       }
 
diff --git a/src/test/specs/graphiteDatasource-specs.js b/src/test/specs/graphiteDatasource-specs.js
index 49ebba9bebf..99270867266 100644
--- a/src/test/specs/graphiteDatasource-specs.js
+++ b/src/test/specs/graphiteDatasource-specs.js
@@ -74,6 +74,20 @@ define([
         expect(results[2]).to.be('target=asPercent(series1%2Cseries2)');
       });
 
+      it('should fix wrong minute interval parameters', function() {
+        var results = ctx.ds.buildGraphiteParams({
+          targets: [{target: "summarize(prod.25m.count, '25m', 'sum')" }]
+        });
+        expect(results[0]).to.be('target=' + encodeURIComponent("summarize(prod.25m.count, '25min', 'sum')"));
+      });
+
+      it('should fix wrong month interval parameters', function() {
+        var results = ctx.ds.buildGraphiteParams({
+          targets: [{target: "summarize(prod.5M.count, '5M', 'sum')" }]
+        });
+        expect(results[0]).to.be('target=' + encodeURIComponent("summarize(prod.5M.count, '5mon', 'sum')"));
+      });
+
       it('should ignore empty targets', function() {
         var results = ctx.ds.buildGraphiteParams({
           targets: [{target: 'series1'}, {target: ''}]
diff --git a/src/test/specs/templateValuesSrv-specs.js b/src/test/specs/templateValuesSrv-specs.js
index 4461d93faf2..abf44442db5 100644
--- a/src/test/specs/templateValuesSrv-specs.js
+++ b/src/test/specs/templateValuesSrv-specs.js
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 define([
   'mocks/dashboard-mock',
   './helpers',
+  'moment',
   'services/templateValuesSrv'
-], function(dashboardMock, helpers) {
+], function(dashboardMock, helpers, moment) {
   'use strict';
 
   describe('templateValuesSrv', function() {
@@ -12,7 +13,7 @@ define([
     beforeEach(ctx.providePhase(['datasourceSrv', 'timeSrv', 'templateSrv']));
     beforeEach(ctx.createService('templateValuesSrv'));
 
-    describe('update time period variable options', function() {
+    describe('update interval variable options', function() {
       var variable = { type: 'interval', query: 'auto,1s,2h,5h,1d', name: 'test' };
 
       beforeEach(function() {
@@ -47,15 +48,41 @@ define([
       });
     }
 
-    describeUpdateVariable('time period variable ', function(scenario) {
+    describeUpdateVariable('interval variable without auto', function(scenario) {
       scenario.setup(function() {
-        scenario.variable = { type: 'interval', query: 'auto,1s,2h,5h,1d', name: 'test' };
+        scenario.variable = { type: 'interval', query: '1s,2h,5h,1d', name: 'test' };
+      });
+
+      it('should update options array', function() {
+        expect(scenario.variable.options.length).to.be(4);
+        expect(scenario.variable.options[0].text).to.be('1s');
+        expect(scenario.variable.options[0].value).to.be('1s');
+      });
+    });
+
+    describeUpdateVariable('interval variable with auto', function(scenario) {
+      scenario.setup(function() {
+        scenario.variable = { type: 'interval', query: '1s,2h,5h,1d', name: 'test', auto: true, auto_count: 10 };
+
+        var range = {
+          from: moment(new Date()).subtract(7, 'days').toDate(),
+          to: new Date()
+        };
+
+        ctx.timeSrv.timeRange = sinon.stub().returns(range);
+        ctx.templateSrv.setGrafanaVariable = sinon.spy();
       });
 
       it('should update options array', function() {
         expect(scenario.variable.options.length).to.be(5);
-        expect(scenario.variable.options[1].text).to.be('1s');
-        expect(scenario.variable.options[1].value).to.be('1s');
+        expect(scenario.variable.options[0].text).to.be('auto');
+        expect(scenario.variable.options[0].value).to.be('$__auto_interval');
+      });
+
+      it('should set $__auto_interval', function() {
+        var call = ctx.templateSrv.setGrafanaVariable.getCall(0);
+        expect(call.args[0]).to.be('$__auto_interval');
+        expect(call.args[1]).to.be('12h');
       });
     });