Switch from IMDb to TMDb

Why switch

IMDb is owned by Amazon and shares user data (ratings, watchlists, browsing activity) with its parent company to power Amazon services like Prime Video recommendations. TMDb (The Movie Database) is a community-built, open-source alternative that doesn’t share data with third-party services. TMDb is ad-free and provides a free API used by hundreds of apps.

What you’ll lose

Your IMDb history – There’s no direct export/import. You’ll start fresh or manually recreate your watchlist.

X-Ray on Prime Video – IMDb’s X-Ray feature (cast info while watching) only works with Prime Video.

IMDb Trivia – IMDb has decades of user-submitted trivia. TMDb has some, but not as much.

Steps

Create a TMDb account at themoviedb.org. Free, no payment details needed.

Download the TMDb app (optional). Available on iOS and Android. The website works great on mobile browsers too.

Set up your profile. Click your avatar (top right) → Settings. Add a username, profile picture, and set your privacy preferences.

Start rating films and TV shows. Search for something you’ve watched recently, click it, and rate it (1-10 stars). TMDb uses your ratings to recommend similar titles.

Build your watchlist. When you find something you want to watch, click the bookmark icon to add it to your watchlist. You can create multiple lists too (favourites, to-watch, etc.).

Stop using IMDb. You don’t need to delete your account (though you can). Just stop logging in and rating things there.

Tips

TMDb has browser extensions for quickly adding films from other sites to your watchlist.

The “Discover” feature lets you filter by genre, year, rating, streaming service, and more.

TMDb’s API is free and powers apps like Plex, Kodi, and Letterboxd.

You can contribute to TMDb by adding missing cast, fixing errors, and uploading posters.

If you really need your IMDb data, you can manually export your ratings (IMDb → Your Ratings → Export), then use the CSV to manually add films to TMDb. It’s tedious, but possible for your top-rated films.