Getting started
Do I need a Trakt account to use Showtime?
No. Guest mode works without any account and without an email address. You can browse popular and anticipated titles, search the catalogue, open show and movie pages, and save up to three shows and three movies on your device.
A free Trakt account is required to go past those three, to sync across devices, and to use anything that writes to a watch history: marking episodes watched, rating, rewatching, or dropping a show.
What happens to my guest mode titles when I sign in?
Showtime asks whether you want to add them to your Trakt watchlist. Titles already in your watchlist or already watched are skipped, and the rest are sent in a single request. The local copies are removed only after that succeeds. If you decline or it fails, the import stays available from the Account tab.
Why does Showtime require iOS 26.5?
Showtime targets the current iOS release and uses the native SwiftUI components that ship with it. On an iPhone that cannot run iOS 26.5, the App Store will not install it.
If that is your case, the official Trakt app supports iOS 18.6 and later, and Watcht for Trakt goes back to iOS 12. Both are covered on the comparison page.
Does Showtime work on iPad, Mac or Apple Vision Pro?
Showtime is an iPhone app. It can be installed on Apple silicon Macs and on Apple Vision Pro as an iPhone app, which Apple lists as not verified for those platforms. There is no interface designed for a larger screen.
Trakt and your data
Why does Showtime show a different next episode than Trakt?
Because it does not compute the same thing. Trakt reports the difference between episodes aired and episodes watched across a whole show. Showtime looks at each season separately.
The practical effect is that an unwatched gap in season 2 does not resurface once you are following season 5. The Up Next list is computed on your device from the full season data, your watch history, your watchlist and your dropped shows, and it splits into three states: In progress for aired episodes you have not watched in a season you already started, Waiting for a newer season you have not begun, and Not started for shows in your watchlist you have never watched.
Your Trakt data is untouched by this. The difference is in how Showtime reads it.
Can I import my TV Time history?
No, and neither can anything else. TV Time closed on 15 July 2026 and deleted its user data. Unless you ran the GDPR export before that date, the history no longer exists anywhere.
There is a longer answer on the TV Time alternatives page, including how to rebuild a useful history in a few minutes.
Can I import from Letterboxd, IMDb or Plex?
Not through Showtime. Trakt imports those formats on its own site, and Showtime reads whatever is in your Trakt account afterwards. Do the import on Trakt, then open Showtime.
Is my Trakt password stored in the app?
No. Signing in opens the Trakt authorisation page in the system browser, and Showtime only ever receives a token. That token is kept in the iOS Keychain on your device.
How do I disconnect my Trakt account?
From the Account tab. Signing out clears the local cache before a new sign-in is allowed, so nothing from the previous account is left behind.
Using the app
Does Showtime scrobble or check in?
No. There is no real-time tracking of what is playing and no check-in button. You mark an episode when you have watched it.
I marked an episode but skipped the earlier ones. What happens?
Showtime notices and asks. You can mark the selected episode together with the earlier unwatched ones of that same season, or mark only the one you tapped. Other seasons are never modified by that prompt.
How do I stop following a show?
The show page has a Stop watching action, which uses the Trakt dropped shows list. It asks for confirmation, then hides the show from Up Next and Upcoming without deleting anything from your history. A Resume action brings it back.
A show that is in your watchlist but never started does not get that action. Remove it with the heart button instead.
Can I log a rewatch?
Yes, for an episode, a whole season, or a movie. Tapping something you have already watched opens a sheet offering either a rewatch or the removal of that view from your Trakt history. Cancelling a full season asks for confirmation first.
Can I rate and comment?
You can rate episodes and movies on a five-level scale, which Showtime converts to the Trakt 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 values. Tapping the level again removes your rating.
Comments are read-only. You can read Trakt comments, filter them by language and sort them by popularity or recency, but you cannot post, reply or like from Showtime. Comments flagged as spoilers by Trakt are not shown.
What languages is Showtime available in?
English and French. The language can be set from the Account tab independently of your iPhone setting, so you can run an English phone with a French app or the reverse.
For shows that Trakt identifies as French, Showtime also displays the French show and episode titles when Trakt provides them.
Still stuck
If your question is not here, the support form reaches me directly. Bug reports are more useful with your iOS version and what you were doing when it happened.
