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How to Get Your TV Time History Back, Step by Step

If you have the ZIP file TV Time sent you, your history is not gone. Every show you followed, every episode you ticked off and the date you watched it are sitting inside that file. This guide shows you how to get your TV Time history back into a tracker on your phone, one step at a time.

We make OpenTV, a free, open-source TV and film tracker for iPhone, iPad and Android, so the steps below use it. The first two sections apply whatever app you pick.

First, find the file

TV Time stopped running after 15 July 2026. Before that, it offered a data export through a GDPR request. People who asked for it received a ZIP file, usually through a download link or an email.

So the first job is to find that ZIP. Good places to look:

If you find it on a computer, send it to your phone any way that carries a file: email it to yourself, put it in iCloud Drive or Google Drive, or use a messaging app.

Keep the ZIP as it is. You do not need to unzip it. If you already did and want to look inside, see what's inside the TV Time export ZIP.

If you never downloaded it

We have to be honest here. OpenTV cannot fetch your history from TV Time. No app can. The service is closed, and the export was the only way to take your data with you.

If you have no file, you can still start fresh. Search for your shows, add them, and mark the episodes you have seen. A whole season can be marked in one go, so it is quicker than it sounds.

Step 1: Install the app

Install OpenTV from the App Store or Google Play. It is free, has no ads and needs no account.

Step 2: Start the import

Open the app and tap GET STARTED. On the next screen, tap IMPORT YOUR DATA.

The app asks where your history is coming from. Pick TV Time.

Already set up the app and want to import later? Go to Settings, open the Library tab, and under Your data tap Import your data.

Step 3: Choose the ZIP

Tap CHOOSE EXPORT FILE and pick the ZIP. The phone's file picker opens, so you can browse Files, Downloads, iCloud Drive or Google Drive.

Step 4: Keep the app open

The import runs on your phone. Keep OpenTV open while it works. A big library can take a little while, because the app also fetches episode lists and artwork for each show.

If your phone locks or you switch apps, nothing is lost or half-saved. Come back and start the import again. Importing twice never creates duplicates.

Step 5: Read the summary

When it finishes, tap SEE YOUR SUMMARY. The Import Summary shows four columns for shows, episodes, movies and your watchlist:

If something could not be matched, it appears under Needs attention, with a FIND button so you can match it by hand. Old or obscure titles sometimes need this.

What comes back

From the TV Time export, OpenTV brings back:

The comments you wrote stay on the phone, visible only to you, unless you choose to join the community later. More on that in the TV Time episode comments are back.

Already have a library?

If you have been tracking in OpenTV for a while and then import, the app asks what to do. Merge into my library adds the import on top and deletes nothing. Erase it and import clean starts from the file alone.

Merging is the safe choice. Anything already in your library is kept as it is, never duplicated or overwritten.

Keep the file safe

Once the import is done, keep the ZIP somewhere safe anyway. OpenTV keeps a copy of it and can use it to repair your history after future updates. If the app ever asks you to select your TV Time ZIP once more, that is why.

It is also worth turning on a backup. On iPhone, OpenTV can back up to your own iCloud Drive. On Android, it can back up to your own Google Drive. Both are free and need no OpenTV account. We explain why this matters in what happens to your watch history when a tracker shuts down.

Coming from somewhere else too?

If you also used Trakt, Simkl, Letterboxd or IMDb, you can import those files on top. Each import merges with what is already there. See how to move your history from Trakt, Letterboxd, Simkl or IMDb.

Get started

OpenTV is free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, and on Google Play for Android. There is a shorter version of this guide on our import your TV Time history page. If you are still choosing an app, our TV Time alternatives page compares the options, and OpenTV vs Trakt goes into one comparison in detail.

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