It feels a bit like a cliché at this point, but it does really feel like we’re living in an age where there is so much TV programming out there, that no one could ever watch the best shows available. Network TV used to be the go-to source of quality shows, which then evolved into cable networks and then into streaming services. Another notable shift in recent TV history has been the reduction of the number of episodes in a TV season from 20+ episodes into the range of 10-13, resulting in higher production value for each individual installment, rivaling the feel of a theatrically released movie. While this does mean it’s the best time to love TV, it also means it can get complicated trying to keep track of all of your favorite shows. Unless you’re tapped into every network and every streamer’s marketing campaigns, it can be easy to forget when a series has new episodes, especially given how some series release a new episode each week, while others will drop a whole season all at once. For millions of us, the best way to keep track of which episodes of shows we’ve seen and when new episodes have premiered was TV Time, which is set to change next week. After years of reliable service and with millions of active users, the app has announced that it would be officially shutting down on Jul. 15. This means that millions of users will lose years of data that they have been accumulating, though there is currently a tool that allows users to export their data before then. The service announced its shutdown via an in-app notification.

The TV Time message that announced the app’s shutdown.TV Time

“While we loved supporting TV Time, it was no longer sustainable to continue operating the service as a free app, and there was not enough demand for a paid app,” the message announced. “To everyone who tracked, discovered, and shared their love of TV and movies with us, thank you. Your passion and enthusiasm made TV Time more than an app. You made it a community.” TV Time initially launched in 2012 as TVShow Time, then rebranded in 2017 as TV Time, and then acquired the data from TheTVDB in 2019, which solidified the service as the go-to TV tracker for millions. Like many different apps, the more time that went by, the more features were introduced, including reviews, recommendations, and badges. Even with additional features, at its core, it was one of the most user-friendly ways to make sure you never missed an episode of your favorite series. Even though this service was one of the most widely used platforms, TV Time isn’t the only service out there. Services like trakt, SIMKL, Movie Paradise, and many others have similar features, and many of them allow you to upload your exported TV Time data. As of this writing, TV Time users are flocking to other apps and putting heavy workloads on their servers, with some apps only allowing paid users to upload data.

It might be the end of an era for this specific platform, but so long as you export your data before the official Jul. 15 shutdown, you still have options to track all of your favorite TV shows.