WATCH ORDER
Switching from Trakt to CouchReel: How to Export and Import Your History
Updated Sep 15, 2026
Trakt's own site blocks automated browser access (Cloudflare), so the export steps below are cross-referenced against Trakt's community forum and documentation rather than screenshotted live — re-verify the exact menu wording if Trakt redesigns settings.
CouchReel doesn't connect to Trakt's live API yet (D-111 — Trakt now requires a paid VIP membership just to register an API app, so the owner deferred that integration). The migration path is a straight file export from Trakt and an import into CouchReel, and it takes a few minutes.
Step 1 — Export your data from Trakt
1.
Sign in at trakt.tv in a browser.
2.
Open your avatar menu → Settings.
3.
Go to the Data tab (trakt.tv/settings/data).
4.
Click Export now.
5.
Trakt builds a .zip file containing separate JSON files for your watch history, ratings, watchlist, personal lists, collection, and comments, and starts the download automatically. You do not need a VIP membership to do this — full JSON export is available on the free tier.
If you specifically want CSV instead of JSON: Trakt doesn't offer one combined CSV export. Open each data type individually (your history, a specific list, your ratings) and use the CSV download icon on that page — this has to be repeated per list.
Step 2 — Bring it into CouchReel
1.
In CouchReel, go to Settings → Bring your history.
2.
Choose Trakt as the source and upload the exported file(s) — the .zip from step 1, or individual CSVs if that's what you exported.
3.
CouchReel matches each entry against its catalog primarily by TMDB/IMDb id (Trakt's export includes these), falling back to title + year for anything without one.
4.
Review the preview — anything CouchReel couldn't confidently match is flagged so you can skip it or match it by hand, rather than silently importing the wrong title.
5.
Confirm to apply — your watched history, ratings, and lists merge into your CouchReel account. If an item already has partial progress in both places, the further-along progress wins; nothing gets rolled back.
What doesn't come across
•
Trakt-specific automation (Plex/Kodi scrobbling rules) doesn't transfer — CouchReel logs a title as watched when you decide it in the app, not via a media-server hook.
•
Comments and social activity aren't imported; only tracking data (history, ratings, lists, watchlist) is.
Why not just keep using Trakt alongside CouchReel?
You can — nothing here deletes your Trakt account. But if the reason you're looking at CouchReel is the shared-household decision (Trakt has no concept of more than one person's taste) or the free tier's item caps (250 per list, 1,000 across all lists as of Trakt's February 2026 increase), a one-time export gets your history moved without waiting on a live sync that doesn't exist yet.
See also: `content/articles/couchreel-vs-trakt.md` for the fuller feature and pricing comparison.