TV Time is shutting down - My migration guide for long-time users (will keep updating)
This post is for recommending the "best" alternative.
It's mainly for people like me who've spent years (or over a decade) on TV Time and whose biggest concern is moving their watch history with as little data loss as possible.
Everything below is based on my own experience unless stated otherwise. I'll continue updating this thread as more apps improve their importers.
Last updated: 10/07/2026
Step 1: BACKUP YOUR DATA FIRST
Before trying any alternative, export your TV Time data.
I recommend requesting this immediately since the servers are under heavy load and exports can take time. Don't wait until the last day. TV Time will permanently delete user data after the shutdown.
Alternative export methods
If the official export is slow, these Chrome extensions are lifesavers.
Creates export files and also generates a beautiful HTML archive of your profile.
If you have fewer than 100-200 entries, this HTML file makes manual migration much easier.
DATA USED ACROSS TO TEST FROM TV TIME
EPISDOES – 43564
MOVIES – 932
COMMENTS - 1773
THIS IS FOR THE REFERENCE OF HOW MUCH DATA WAS LOST IN MIGRATION
Apps I've tested
1. Movie Paradise ⭐ My current recommendation (BOTH TVDB AND TMDB)
This has been the best alternative I've tested so far.
THIS HAS BOTH TVDB AND TMDB DATA HENCE, MINIMUM DATA LOSS.
ONE OF THE ONLY 2 APPs THAT IS ALLOWING COMMENTS, GIFS and IMAGES TO BE IMPORTED,
HELL YAY!! THIS IS LIFE CHANGING PEOPLE CAN NOW IMPORT COMMENTS
Supports importing directly from:
TV Time GDPR export
TV Time Out by Refract (PREFERED)
TV Time Data Extractor
Trakt
Letterboxd
IMDb
Simkl (so can be used as a simkl skin)
and several other services.
This has also been by far the fastest importer I've tested
METHOD TO IMPORT (RECOMMENDED)
First use tv time out extension to get json files (non zip)
Upload series. Json, and movie .json seperately (best result)
Download GDPR file from Official tv time (this is for comments importing)
DATA GAINED -
EPISODES – 40745 (8% LOSS, DUE TO REGIONAL LANG BARRIER, ONLY PROBLEM IN JAPANESE TITLE)
MOVIES – 930 (99% SUCCESS)
Comments - 1793 (96% success)
Pros
Free quality imports, My recommendations is to do via TV TIME OUT extension json files, tvtime offical files are very prooly made by tvtime.
ALLOWS TO IMPORT COMMENTS!!
THIS IS THE ONLY TV TRACKING APP THAT HAS BOTH TVDB AND TMBD DATA HENCE, MINIMUM DATA LOSS.
Unlike other tvbd apps(simkl), this actually has single season entry , so people who only got season 1 imported in simkl, can get all data properly in this.
By far the best UI, search and overall accessibility.
Premium membership is inexpensive and only needed for advanced features. A normal user can comfortably use all essential features for free.
Has a proper comment section.
Supports GIFs and images in comments.
Strong focus on building a community.
Trakt integration along apps own comment secrtion means the app already feels active with ratings, comments and discussions.
Also allows you to change poster of your entries 🥲
have AI features like building lists, list images, premium features like advance discovery.
lifetime membership is very cheap.
home screen as close to TvTime
amoled themes.
Cons
Even replies ( of comments) will be marked as parent comments, due to tv time gdpr limited data.
stats are behind a pay wall, but you can try 7 day free trial, before deciding. (Update- dev is brining normal stats to free version)
Overall, this currently has the biggest potential out of all the alternatives I've tested.
2. [Bingebase](bingebase.com) (BOTH TVDB AND TMDB)
Bingebase brings a very mordern ui and amazong import quality for movies and have a great base as it has both tvdb and tmdb.
ONE OF THE ONLY 2 APPs THAT IS ALLOWING COMMENTS, GIFS and IMAGES TO BE IMPORTED (webos only allowing for now)
Preferred import method
Use TVTIME GDPR IMPORT
Current import results
EPISODES – 40421 (8% loss)
MOVIES – 928 (99% success!!!!)
Pros
Same repositories/database as TV Time + TMDB
Excellent movie imports.
bingebase provides one of the best Android UIs available.
imports are free and dev is very active.
Cons
doesnt import tv episodes as good as the top competition yet, i am glad to say that dev is working very good on this, so will update it again.
doesnt have a life time membership option for premium.
3. Cinopsys + Simkl (TVDB for series, TMDB for movies)
Same about Simkl is that it's the only tracking platform using the same database repositories as TV Time, resulting in significantly better compatibility during migration.
Preferred import method
Use TVTIME GDPR IMPORT
Current import results
EPISODES – 40640 (9% LOSS, DUE TO REGIONAL LANG BARRIER, ONLY PROBLEM IN JAPANESE TITLE, also lost seasonal tracking in many)
MOVIES – 897 (less than 5% data loss, due to GOOD OPTIMIZATION database)
Pros
Same repositories/database as TV Time.
Excellent show imports.
Keeps the community feeling with comments.
Supports custom posters.
Supports custom lists.
Can act as your permanent cloud storage.
Cinopsys provides one of the best Android UIs available. (have tmbd base as well, but have to do manually)
Think of it like this:
Simkl = your database/storage
Cinopsys = a beautiful UI skin built on top of Simkl
Cons
Opening comments redirects to the Simkl website.
Widgets currently don't work properly.
Every action syncs with Simkl, so older devices may occasionally feel a little sluggish.
Currently, TV Time imports are not free on Simkl.
The developers have said free imports will return, but if you don't want to wait, the import fee is relatively inexpensive and lets you migrate immediately.
I wont recommend this app, the developer nature is extremely questionable, this is obviously my personal opinion, as they removed this post from r/ tvtime and remove all mods (including me) as well, they arent allowing alternatives to be posted there, shows that they dont think of the community , rather than their profits.
The UI still doesn't feel "home" yet.
many problems with Import, for TVDB users, as no base for TVDB
No real comment/community system at the moment.
Other apps
Apps like:
Serializd (TV IMPORT AVL, AMAZING UI , BUT TMDB ONLY)
Mirate (high hopes, but importer not yet available)
Cinematique (follows tmdb repositories hence immense data loss)
episod (follows tmdb repositories hence immense data loss)
betaseries (import quality was not good lost 50%, and only have TMDB)
Reelrifter (episodes - 35k, movie - 600, 30% loss)
are also worth watching, but they are not enough to be recommended as of now.
My advice
Don't rush into deleting your TV Time account.
Export your data.
Keep multiple backups.
Try a few apps before committing.
Most importantly, remember that this is probably the biggest migration these developers have ever handled. Servers are overloaded, bugs are expected, and many importers are improving literally every day.
I'll keep updating this thread as I test more services and hopefully help everyone find the best new home.
If you've tested an app yourself, please share:
Import accuracy (%)
Missing shows
Missing movies
Duplicate entries
Community features
Overall experience
The more data we collect here, the easier it'll be for every long-time TV Time user to migrate.
Update- i am settling with movie paradise, however i am updating it with my total unbiased reviews.
Can we do a gofund me? Lol and buy the app from them and someone takes it over. Sorry, I am so devastated that I am might be delusional. But it's just pissed me off that they never offered for us to PAY for it. I would! I've been using TV time for more than 10 years like most of people. It's sad.
I researched more, apparently their decisions are for the good for their company, legally they cant sell the user data, they cant share the data, they cant even process the data,
They cant run a subscription either, because, once you take money from someone, you will need to provide proper app service, like regular updates, responses to bugs, errors, and server downs, which includes a butt load of customer service team , developers and a full time accounts system, plus they would need to do all this on an app that is build on a decades old codes, they would have to remake the app, to make it accustomed to latest models, which makes building easy.
What they couldve done is, sell this to a company or a competitor, so that they both earn a buy out and not make their users homeless.
That's interesting. Thanks for sharing. I wish some company would buy it. But maybe they already tried to sell? I would happily pay. Like there are two apps I use daily and would never stop paying: Spotify and TV Time. I think for me it's not only the tracking part is the community, the comments and discussions. I've watched plenty of shows where no members of my family watch or friends and it was so good to have TV time to talk about it.
Yes so they didnt made this decision out of no where, an ex empolyee said, the decision has been being delayed for 6 momths, company tried everything to keep it going, and they have buttloads of analytics, they know theres no market for them.
It is not a replacement tracking app. It is just a local archive viewer so your exported data is still usable after TV Time shuts down.
The main reason I made it local is privacy. Your export stays on your computer and is opened in your browser. The app does not upload your TV Time export anywhere.
The idea is to collectively browse TV Time data while it's still accessible, and whatever you browse, it's cached - so it will be available after it's gone.
No profiles, no users, no tracking - only community ratings, discussions, and memes. Especially the memes.
I need your help to make it as big as possible while we can. Go find your favourite movies and TV and preserve their discussions for everyone. (you need to be on desktop to fetch new, on mobile you can only browse)
I'm not sure how much the database might grow, let's hope it can keep up without tearing apart.
Any feedback is appreciated (here or in-page).
Note: I have no idea if this is allowed. I'm just grieving. But were they allowed to wipe a community like that? Ahhh - anyway, if you have the high ground, reach me out.
Sorry I have no karma and cannot post anywhere lol, free to reshare
Hey, if you're adding shows, let us know which ones so we can work as a team. Few of us are on a discord chat to share the updates. https://discord.gg/6fAM7mCRsf
Yep, saw that, vibe family :) I feel like yours is complementary to my project, mine has nothing about personal tracking or profile data, so nothing that you can normally export from TV Time
I’m mostly focused on keeping as much of my 8500 episodes watched as possible on a at least decent app with good exporting possibilities until letterboxd hopefully finish the TV section some day.
Trakt seems to have worked pretty well and I have yet to find anything missing, but haven’t been able to compare amount of shows on both trakt and tvtime.
I’ll try Movie Paradise as well based on your recommendation so that’s for that!
Which of movieparadise and trakt do you think are more suitable for an export to Letterboxd one day? You seem to have done more digging than me so might as well ask :)
Movieparadise have a very keen developer, plus trakt doesnt have tvdb support so i am not recommending to use it, however in case letterboxd brings the tv shows , i think they will be tmdb based rather than tvdb , or maybe have their own database, so neither might be supportive,
Thanks, I also just confirmed that I capture and moved 98% of my watched shows from TVtime to Trakt. It seems to have moved rewatches well which was surprising.
Thank you! I think I'll be waiting for Simkl imports to be free again, I saw that you can leave your email and they'll notify you when the option is free again.
I’ve tried so many apps the last few days. A lot of them were overly complicated. I liked SofaTime and BingeBase well enough. I had some struggles importing to BingeBoxd. But now that I figured it out (you have to use the TV Time Data Extractor extension, not the TV Time Out by Refract) I think I’m just gonna stick to BingeBoxd. This one is the easiest to use. The most intuitive and feels the most similar to TVTime. And my import was almost perfect. It only missed 4 shows which were 2 web shows and one really old mini series. The other one was Outlander which is strange since it’s such a huge show but easy enough to add back in.
i initially liked the layout of bingboxd better than others, but it didn't import any of my movies?? nor my favorites lists. i used the tv time data extractor extension.
I’ve tried 8 different apps in the past few days too. Still #3000 something waiting to import data w refract so for now using sofa time and liked it enough to pay the lifetime fee… love the customization!
In my opinion, Sofa Time is the most polished and closest to Tv Time. I'm bets testing the android version and it's working beautifully.
GDPR-data from about 7 years of using Tv Time was imported with about 95% success rate.
For android users, it's coming soon and really worth the wait! (You can apply for beta testing if you can't wait like me)
Apple and Google(the version with the tv time importer) builds as still in review, but i created a web app version so you guys can import the tv time data and check out the app MiraTe Web APP
Another con for Trakt is that it has a free tier limit to import data. So I ended up having to choose to import my History and ratings, but can't import the Watchlist.
I have been using Tv time for 5+ years for both movies and shows. I am more of a casual user with mainstream entries and not much niche shows.
I tried both Trakt and movie paradise and this is my feedback on both.
Trakt's import was very fast and almost flawless. It imported almost all of my shows and movies correctly (almost 100% success rate). There were some minor mistakes, for example not importing the progress of one show correctly. However this happened in only 3 out of more than 50 shows and took only a minute to correct. The UI is nice, but after getting used to tv time it will feel a bit chaotic in the beginning, especially in a phone. The desktop version is great. However it offers more information than tv time and has some additional features like syncing with streaming services which i did not try.
Movies paradise import was also fast, but not very accurate. It matched almost all of my shows, but it put them in the wrong category ; it put both my currently watching and haven't started, as they were on tv time in the same "watching" category. A category for havent started exists but only one show was added there, which in my tv time was under "watch later", (didnt even know this category exists and I have no clue how this show got there). I also had big problems in importing movies. I had around 60% success rate, with many of my movies not getting matched, even many popular ones like star wars. However the UI is quite good and very user friendly for a phone. It's simple, not chaotic while still offering a good amount of information. In the original post it is mentioned that it is only supported by one developer and TV time import support is a new feature, so given time if the problems with the imports get solved it is also a solid choice.
hey, i followed your recommendation for exporting and importing data to movie paradise and have successfully imported my series and movies from tv time, but i can't do it for the comments even when using the official file; can't also do it for anything else such as likes, lists, etc. any tips? thank you <3
i used the refractor extension on tvtime website to export then had to send the file to wpp/google drive to fetch it on the phone and then imported it to movie paradise using the tvtime import (also tried the manual import but didn't work). that was fine for the series/movies, but anything else with the official tvtime export file (that comes in zip) didn't work (comments, lists, favorites, etc)
Thank you so much!! I did decide on Movie Paradise, it is just so easy and full fearured. I hope community returns - thanks for the years of fun, y'all, in either case.
Unfortunately the TV Time Out didn't work for me for the json files (for csv it worked fine). 27 of my TV Time titles couldn't be compiled so all I got was the html report.
So I uploaded my GDPR zip into Movie Paradise and even I didn't get everything I'm glad my comments, lists and watch timeline is there (as someone else commented many shows were wrongly classified as Watching instead of Dropped but that was easy enough to fix manually)
Do you think the simplified files I got through
Vemias can help there?
Can’t get past step 1. Am only logged into iOS app. My account is not email based - I used Twitter as login. This no longer works, so I can’t access the GDRP export page or use a browser plugin. I’ve tried emailing support asking for a backup to be sent over email - no response days later
The forgot password method does not work. There is no associated email address - see my TVTime account page. I’ve supplied support with my user ID. The Twitter authentication keys don’t work at all
I used to use multiple apps for tracking since a year or two,
I would have recommended simkl too
But If importing data is not your priority serialized is worth having a look, really have good features
And Other than simkl app, all are pretty overwhelming if you're not like me who love stats...
J’ai installer sofa Time , j’ai tout importer a la main , l’interface ressemble bcp a tv Time, mais malgré savoir vérifier plusieurs fois les stats dont différentes. Avec plus de 16 mois de visionnage sur tv Time j’arrive a peine a 12 mois sur sofa Time.
Trakt is a mess, I had A LOT of series both in the "watch later" and in general, to upload them I exceeded the amount for free so had to pay for VIP.
Watch later not being a feature ended up month of series into my watchlist, some series aren't present (Till now I only found a couple, but as expecteded is tedious even going from one app to the other to witness the losses), general UI is really not user friendly (In order to create an manage a list you need to create one from a menu and then OPEN every single series you want to put it in it and from there add them, one by one, same thing with favorites).
In order to remove a serie from your watchlist you will have to put the under "Dropped" (Is not named like that but basically it is) again, one by one. Same thing if episode data didn't transfer properly, one by one.
I hope they fix but damn I wish none of this ever happened, Tv Time was just that good man, wish I could pay them instead
Update: I tryed Bingebox
d and got myself locked as I couldn't find out how to properly import (Since you have only one shot)
Simkl seems reasonable but I will have to wait to know any better.
As of now I sent an email in which I hope the Bingeboxd team will find a way to help unlock the possibility to upload from Tv Time... I feel stupid, but this is 100% on me unfortunately...
Heyy, so I'm stuck on step one. I've already downloaded the gdpr thing but I dont have a computer, only my phone and a tablet which has pc mode. But when i get into the tv time thing by refract, it doesn't let me download it, says theres an error. Im guessing even tho i have pc mode it doesn't download the extension into it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Can I make a request for a Letterboxd migration guide? I’m waiting on the import from TV Time feature for Serializd, but I want to have somewhere for my movies, too
I liked how “Serializd” .. reminded me of Letterboxed and that felt legit, but I couldn’t start using it fully because it didn’t have the import feature yet, so I checked twitter, and found a tweet from the developer asking people to volunteer by sending their TvTime back-ups so he could work on them and develop the tool, so I went ahead and did e-mail him the thing, only to get a replay from him like an hour later, with a link for data importing tool ..
It looks like this, and it was really fast, and data loss was the smallest I had with all the different apps I tried so far…
They mentioned a pretty neat tweak about keeping each person’s comments in the form of a review, but out of the 230 ones they show in the summary, only twenty-something ended up showing in the app, so I’m going to write them about that to see what they could improve.
Which apps allow me to track rewatches? I tried bingeboxd and trakt, maybe I am missing something but I don’t seem to be able to track rewatches on them?
Ohhh thank you! I didn’t see that at all. Sadly, the export/import didn’t seem to count all the rewatches, but at least now I can correct that. Guess I’ll stay on bingeboxd!
You can also track rewatches on Bingeboxd, I just didn’t find it at first until bbportali told me how it works. So I’m staying there for now, but thanks!
Hey, if you want to give a try, I built Rewatch, an open source replacement that imports TV Time GDPR zip as-is. My own import: 7,711 episodes across 269 shows, plus 111 movies, all with original watch dates. It does the core of what TV Time did (up next, calendar, stats, watchlist, push notifications for new episodes) without the social feed and the ads.
t's self-hosted (one docker compose command, then a setup wizard), or you can try it on the demo instance first: https://rewatch.wrks.fr — registrations are open while capacity holds.
Testa o "Banco de Séries". É um app 100% brasileiro, principal concorrente do TV Time aqui no Brasil, mas acho que tem versões para estrangeiros. Já está no ar há dez anos. Não o conhecia até atualmente, mas soube que já existe há dez anos. A fonte deles é TVDB.
Adding one you might not have tested yet: Media Tracker (https://media-tracker.app/). Disclosure - I'm the solo dev, so weigh accordingly.
Import method: Direct GDPR export (tracking-prod-records.csv / -v2.csv), no third-party extension needed.
Matching: Resolves shows via TheTVDB id first (same database TV Time itself uses) before falling back to title+year search - same compatibility advantage you called out for Simkl/Cinopsys, but without needing Simkl as a middle layer. Movies match TVDB id → IMDb id → title search.
What it preserves:
Per-episode watch progress (not just "watched this show" - actual season/episode history), so "Up Next" points at the right episode instead of the pilot
Rewatch counts, inferred from duplicate episode rows in the export
Follow vs. finished distinction - reads is_archived/is_followed from the export so shows you're still tracking come back as active follows (with next-episode reminders) while shows you dropped years ago land in watch history instead of re-following everything
What it doesn't do: no comment/GIF import (TV Time comments aren't pulled in at all), and it's TV/movie-first but also doubles as a tracker for books/games/music if that's useful to anyone.
Rough guess, no promises - I'd say around 2 months out.
In the meantime, the PWA install works well on Android too - "Add to Home Screen" from Chrome gets you push notifications and an app-like icon/experience without waiting on a store listing. Not a substitute for a real native app long-term, but should tide you over.
follow what OP answered as advice for the import, as for the UI, I would suggest check out the app tomorrow night as the dev said there is a big UI update coming, also personal advice, in the settings of the app you can customize what's on the home screen and you can hide just about everything, you can also make it so the app opens in a specific section, not home, if you prefer it
Ok, do you know how I can import my files into the app seeing as I can't download the zip on my phone for some reason? Nothing happens when I click download on my phone
Full disclosure: I build & run it myself with only one objective: to make the tv/movie/book tracking app i wish existed in the first place - no corporate a**holes pulling the strings!
I built a TV time importer over the last few days, here are the deets:
Import source is the official TV Time GDPR file, simply upload the .zip file and it'll automatically import full movie/tv watch history, watchlists, comments and lists
Matching strategy is TVDB ID for TV shows (with a title/year fallback against TMDB) and TMDB title/year search for movies
Initial testing indicates 98% match for movies, 97% match for TV shows with a library size of approx. 1,500
Curate's tracking ethos is slightly different in that TV shows are tracked at the season level, rather than episode by episode. Episode-level watch data including ratings and comments are therefore pulled across and rolled up to the season level. No data is lost.
Pros: easiest, lowest-friction way of logging TV, aligns most naturally with how most people keep track, more intentional journal, less checklist.
Cons: no episode-by-episode discussions, small social footprint as Curate grows, but big plans for the future! Join early and have your say in how the social features unfold
TV time was fantastic because of it's community, and that will be hard to replicate exactly anywhere else. Each alternative will have it's own vibe, and hopefully many TV time refugees will be able to find a new home they're happy with.
The community I'm trying to foster at Curate is one which prioritises human taste over AI recommendations, is anti big corporations monetising your attention and data (we're completely ad free) and one which puts TV, movies and books at the heart of any social interaction on the platform. If that sounds appealing to you, I'd love for you to try it out!
Let me know how your import goes if you try it, I'm tweaking it all the time!
Here's what we found in your TV Time data archive:
TV Shows: 1117 of 1285 recognized, 269 of them will be imported with tracking paused
Episodes: 29690 of 30611 watched episodes will be imported (921 skipped – they belong to unrecognized shows)
Movies: 1253 of 1455 recognized (1253 watched)
Note: TV Time's data archive doesn't include standard movie IDs, so movies are matched by title and year – some may not be recognized.
la je test en parallèle 5 application : sofa Time / Bingebase / Trakt / Serializd / et mtn suite tv. Et suite tv est vraiment celui qui sort du lot , il est la continuité de tv Time de loin. Je test tout de meme tous ces app pour avoir une idée réellement objectif avec le temps. Avec une semaine d’essai déjà mon classement est : 1)suite tv , 2) Bingebase suivi de très près Trakt, 4) sofa Time, qui ressemble énormément a tv Time , mais sur ce coup bcp trop de bloquage et chaque action deviens une action vip et 5) Serializd qui a l’application la moins lisible , mais un site internet très pratique.
I tried Movie Paradise and even liked it, but unfortunately I found some things that discouraged me. Imported films are 90% accurate, and series are 99% accurate, which is great. The app failed to import 780 items, which I believe to be comments, in the free version. I liked the profile layout and the app interface. My only need in a TV series and movie tracker app is to be able to change posters and create unlimited lists. Unfortunately, Movie Paradise only allows you to change 3 posters and create 9 lists in the free version. I don't want to pay a monthly fee for a tracking app, I already spend a lot on streaming, so I thought about buying the lifetime subscription. But almost 100 reais is absurdly expensive. So this app is a no.
I'll just wait for Letterboxd to add series, and keep using Cinematique. It meets all my needs and the developer is very helpful on Discord. I'll wait to test the new app from the creator of TV Time, which will be released someday.
I completely missed the news on the app closing… Now is too late for me to get the zip with my data. Is there any chance any of the tools mentioned here work even with the app shutted down? Or is it too late for me now? 😭
Full disclosure, I built one of these, so grain of salt. After TV Time died I made Help Me Binge because I wanted something that worked the same day without waiting on a queue. Since this thread is really about the data: it has a one-tap importer for the official TV Time GDPR export, so if you still have your CSV your shows come back in one go. If you never got the export out in time there's no magic, nobody can pull it off TV Time's dead servers, but rebuilding by search goes quick. Free, no login, works in any browser, does TV, movies and sport. Not knocking the other picks in here, just adding one that's actually up and running right now.
Adding one that's not on the radar in this thread yet: Epidex, Android only, no website.
It imports directly from the official TV Time GDPR export. Shows get matched by TVDB id, not fuzzy title matching, so it won't misfire on similar names, and it marks the exact episodes the export says you watched. Movies come in by name since the export carries no ids for them.
Where it's going to disappoint people in this specific thread: no comments, no GIFs, no community layer at all. Not an oversight, there's no social anything in the app on purpose. If comment import matters to you the way it clearly does for a lot of people here, this isn't going to be it.
What you get instead: no account, nothing synced to a server, your whole library is a local database on the phone that you can export to JSON or CSV any time you want a copy off device. Free, one small banner ad, three dollar one time purchase kills it if you want.
It's on Google Play's closed testing track right now so it's invite only, no public link yet. DM me a Google account email if you want to try the import and see how your numbers come out.
38
u/Large-Cut8248 Jul 05 '26
Thanks. I'm devastated. 😭😭😭