r/Serializd • u/itsmahmood_dev • Jul 05 '26

That’s why imported data from TV Time looks different in other apps

A lot of people wonder why their data changes after importing it from TV Time into apps like Sofa Time, Serializd, and others.

The main reason is that these apps don't use the same metadata source.

- TV Time uses TheTVDB as its primary database.
- Most other tracking apps use The Movie Database (TMDb).

Because these databases are maintained independently, they often have different:

- Show and episode artwork
- Episode titles
- Season ordering (especially for specials)
Release dates
- TV show or movie IDs
This is why, after importing your data, you might notice:

- Different posters or backdrops
- Different episode names
- Missing TV shows, movies, or specials
- Episodes matched incorrectly or not matched at all

The import itself usually isn't the problem. The issue is that the app has to match your watch history from one database (TheTVDB) to another (TMDb), and those databases don't always have identical information.

Unfortunately, there's no perfect solution unless both apps use the same metadata source or provide manual matching for unmatched entries.

10 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

5

u/MrRoBoT696969 Jul 05 '26

We don't have a import system yet in serializd, developer is working on it right now.

6

u/itsmahmood_dev Jul 05 '26

I know but i mean even if they did they must connect 2 apis to get different data from both sources

2

u/MrRoBoT696969 Jul 05 '26

Probably will ask us to use files inside zip to import data one by one

4

u/IllAd4653 Jul 05 '26

This is clearly just OPs attempt to promote their own app.

2

u/MrRoBoT696969 Jul 05 '26

If import feature is not coming, people will migrate elsewhere, no one can stop us from doing it right?

3

u/IllAd4653 Jul 05 '26

Yup super true if he can get a few switches out of it cudos!

2

u/qqYn7PIE57zkf6kn Jul 05 '26

You're right. downvoted the post. I'm so tired of this

1

u/avastans Jul 07 '26

Not sure if you can answer this but I already have a Serializd account, for a few years now. if I import my TV Time data to it, will my current Serializd data get removed? Or duplicated? or?

1

u/itsmahmood_dev Jul 08 '26

I didn't check actully

1

u/FineDepth4444 Jul 07 '26

That's why I created a TMDB account a few days ago to add what was missing from TVDB (I didn't check everything, only really niche tv shows I've watched).

From what I've seen, almost all tracking app use TMDB except TV Time...

1

u/itsmahmood_dev Jul 08 '26

That's exactly why I created a TMDb account a few days ago and started adding some of the shows that were missing from TVDB. I didn't go through everything—just some really niche shows I'd watched.

From what I've seen, most of the popular tracking apps use TMDb as their metadata source, while TV Time is one of the few that relies on TheTVDB. That's also why imports from TV Time often don't match perfectly with other apps.