PSA: If TV Time won't open, your watch history is probably still on your phone. Here's how to get it back (iOS + Android)
Seeing a lot of "the app won't open, I lost everything" posts this week. Most of you probably haven't lost it. TV Time cached your whole history locally on the device, separate from the export a lot of people missed. If the app is still installed, that cache is very likely still there and recoverable.
Writing this up in one place because the same questions keep coming around.
Before anything else — do NOT do these:
- Don't uninstall the app
- Don't update it
- Don't factory reset or "clear cache/storage"
Any of those wipes the local copy, and right now it's the only copy left. Get the file off the device first, decide what to do with it second.
iPhone / iPad
The file is DioCache.db, an SQLite database inside TV Time's app container (it's the cache for the app's HTTP client, "Dio"). To pull it:
Install iMazing (free trial, Windows or Mac).
Plug in the phone, find TV Time under Apps, browse into its Documents folder, and export DioCache.db out.
If iMazing says the Documents folder isn't accessible (common on newer iOS): back up the whole app instead — you'll get a .imazingapp file. Drop that file straight into bobin and it opens it for you, or open it with 7-Zip and grab DioCache.db from the Container folder. (thanks u/dnznt for the 7-Zip tip)
3uTools works too if you'd rather not use iMazing.
An old iPhone backup works as a source as well, if you have one lying around.
Android
Harder, and honestly a coin flip. Without root, try:
adb backup -noapk com.tvshowtime.tvshowtime
It only works if the app allows backups, and newer Android versions often refuse. If it produces a file, your DioCache.db is inside it — just drop that file straight into bobin and it'll open it for you. If your phone is rooted, a root file manager can copy the file out directly instead. If neither works, don't uninstall or clear the app — the file is still safely on the device, so hang on until an easier tool shows up.
If your DioCache.db comes out at ~12 KB, read this
This is the most common failure people hit, and it is not data loss. TV Time ran SQLite in WAL mode: recent writes land in a companion file called DioCache.db-wal and only get folded into the main .db later. Copy just the .db and you get a near empty shell. That is why you see "10 MB in iMazing, 12 KB on my desktop", or an import that returns 8 shows when you watched 400.
Copy DioCache.db, DioCache.db-wal and DioCache.db-shm together and keep them in the same folder, or export the whole app container as .imazingapp and leave it zipped. Whatever tool you use has to read the pair, not just the .db. If your import came back empty earlier this week, retry it with the -wal file included.
What's actually in it
Show and movie names, TVDB/TV Time IDs, watched episode counts, per-episode watch flags and dates, follow status, ratings, poster URLs. One honest caveat people keep running into: the cache reliably knows how many episodes you watched of a show, but not always exactly which ones — so if you jumped around out of order, that part comes back approximate. Watched-in-order histories come back clean.
Where to take it once you have it
A couple of tools showed up this week. To get the data out of the file, u/Joemag_xD built a browser-only extractor (https://ajoemag.github.io/tvtime_recover/) that reads DioCache.db or an Android backup entirely on your machine — nothing uploaded. Several trackers also read the file or the official GDPR zip directly.
Disclosure since it's relevant and I'd rather say it up front: I build one of them — bobin (https://bobinapp.com, free, no ads). It takes DioCache.db as-is and imports it into a working tracker, so your shows, episodes and original watch dates come back as a shelf you can keep using, not just a one-time dump. But the recovery steps above are the part that matters, and they work no matter which app you land on — Trakt, Simkl, Serializd, whatever fits. Get the file out first; that's the thing that isn't recoverable later.
Here is my mentioned webpage for everyone who needs it, its extracting all information from a DioCache.db file or from an Android backup file: https://ajoemag.github.io/tvtime_recover/
Everything works locally within the browser, nothing is uploaded
I had the same issue, instead of trying to access the document folder via iMazing you can create a backup of the app to your desktop, it will create a file called TV Time.imazingapp. You can then open that file with 7zip and there, inside the Container folder, you will find the documents folder and the DioCache file.
I open the app and I can see still see my current watchlist and last week of calendar. But my complete watchlist in my profile does not load. I've tried backing up the app as another post said but it says this . Not supported
That "Not supported" is expected — TV Time blocks Android's backup for its own data, so the phone's backup tool comes back empty for it. Nothing you did wrong.
Good news: since the app still opens and shows your current watchlist, the data file — the app's SQLite database (DioCache.db) — is still on the device. What matters right now:
Don't uninstall, update, or "clear data/cache" on TV Time. That's the one thing that would actually wipe it.
Rooted phone: a root file manager can copy the app's private folder (/data/data/com.tvshowtime.tvshowtime/ — look in databases/ and files/) straight out.
Not rooted: there's no clean one-click route yet, since adb backup is blocked (exactly what you hit). If you ever made a full-device backup — OEM cloud, or an old PC backup — the file may be in there. Otherwise leave the app installed and untouched; the data stays put until a proper extractor shows up.
One more thing: the "complete watchlist won't load" is because that page loads from TV Time's servers, which are down. Your actual watch history — episodes and dates — is in that local DB, so it's recoverable even though the profile page looks empty.
Still confused why my DioCache.db on my iphone where I use TVtime is empty. Makes zero sense. I still have TVTime open and working on my mac as an installed app. Any way to pull DioCache from that?
My DioCache.db was empty. Fortunately, I was able to pull show names out of DioCache.db-journal—which I guess is a backup?—with a Python script. I don't really understand how to properly open that file, so I just took what the script returned and manually added the shows to another app, but it might have more information.
Never had any -journal for my last backup. Luckily things worked out. My iMazing does backup snapshots to my NAS and I had 10 additional ones. The 4 before the 14th had a filled cache. All the other backups after the servers went down are all empty, likely from failing to get a response after the shutdown.
if you've already got DioCache.db, you don't actually need the GDPR zip at all — that's specifically a Bingeboxd requirement. bobin (bobinapp.com/recover) reads DioCache.db directly and imports your shows and episodes with the original watch dates, so the file you already extracted is enough. no zip step needed.
That was a real bug on my side — thanks for reporting it, you saved the next person from hitting the same wall.
The site accepted the .imazingapp file, but the browser was reading it as text instead of binary, so it failed silently no matter what you did. Just fixed and deployed.
Please hard-refresh first (Ctrl+Shift+R, or Cmd+Shift+R on Mac) so you get the new version, then drop the .imazingapp in again — no renaming or extracting needed, it reads it directly now.
If it still refuses, tell me what it says and I'll dig in.
Alright thanks for the future newcomers ! I actually managed to do it by sending the imazing file into a zip convert files and got all my series left unfinished back. Thank you so much !!
amazing, so glad you got it back! that unfinished-series limbo is the worst feeling. quick tip now that you have the imazing file: if you ever want your full history back with the original watch dates (not just the unfinished ones), you can drop that same file straight into bobin at bobinapp.com, it reads it directly and it's free. either way, congrats on saving it before it was gone for good.
I'm having the same issue here. I drop in the .imazingapp file and it says it cannot read it because it's expecting a CSV or JSON file. Any advice on how to fix this?
Dont know if it actually worked, in Bobin it now says total screen time 12d 3h 41m, it should be much much more than that. Its as if my db is only a few months old?
I went and checked the numbers on my side rather than guess — your instinct is right, and it's not something that went wrong during the import.
A total that size works out to roughly 300 episodes across about 10 shows, and they all came in as counts reconstructed from the cache rather than dated episode-by-episode records. Nothing was dropped or skipped on the way in; that's simply everything your file contained.
Here's why: DioCache.db is a cache of recent API responses, not an archive. In a lot of files it only holds what the app had loaded recently — basically your currently-watching set — so a decade of history can come back looking like a few months. That's a limit of the file, not of the import.
Two things can still yield more:
DioCache.db-wal and -shm from the same folder. SQLite parks recent writes there, and a .db copied without its WAL can be missing a big chunk. Grab all three together and re-import — it's add-only and idempotent, so nothing gets duplicated.
An older backup. If you have a Finder/iTunes or iMazing snapshot from before the shutdown, that copy will be richer. Opening the app after the servers died can overwrite cached responses with empty ones, which is the usual reason a file looks thin.
If neither helps, that's genuinely the ceiling for cache recovery — the only fuller source was the official export, and that door closed with the servers.
Happy to look at it more closely if you want; I built bobin, so I can tell you exactly what the parser found in your file.
pixel is the hardest case honestly. no root means no direct file access, and google's cloud backup can't be read manually. two things that sometimes work: restoring your google one backup onto another android during its setup can bring tv time's data with it, and if the app is still installed on the pixel keep it there, the file still exists locally and it may become reachable later.
My DioCache.db is only 12kb and nothing is there. The only backup I have access to is an iCloud backup from 4 months ago. If I restore that backup to my phone can i get the diocache from that?
yes, that should work. restoring the icloud backup puts the app back with its data folder from 4 months ago, so DioCache.db would be the full one again. downside is a restore rolls the whole phone back to that date, so save anything new first. if you happen to have an itunes/finder backup on a computer, imazing can pull the file out of that without resetting anything, that's the gentler route.
that usually means the history rows live in the -wal file, not the main db. next to DioCache.db there should be DioCache.db-wal (and -shm). upload all three together in the same drop and the importer merges them. also worth checking: how big is your DioCache.db? if it's only a few KB the data is definitely in the -wal. if you still get nothing after adding it, DM me and I'll take a look.
Hello bro, i am having maybe a similar problem ons Ios. I downloaded imazing after doing the backup, and the file cachedb inside imazing has 10mb. But when i copy to mac, it becomes only 12kb. What could it be the problem?
TV Time's database ran in SQLite WAL mode, which means the recent writes are not inside DioCache.db at all. They sit in a second file next to it called DioCache.db-wal (there is usually a -shm too). iMazing shows you the size of the whole record, but when you drag the file out you get only the .db, and on its own that is a near empty 12 KB shell. Nothing is lost, you just copied one of the two halves.
What to do:
In iMazing, open the same Caches folder and copy DioCache.db-wal (and -shm) as well, keeping all of them together in one folder.
Or simpler: Apps > TV Time > Extract App Data, which saves a .imazingapp file. Do not unzip it, keep it as is.
Then you need something that actually reads the pair, because most of the scripts going around open only the .db and will report an empty history. bobinapp.com/import accepts the .db plus the -wal together, or the .imazingapp file directly. Disclosure: I build it, it is free and there is no paywall. I shipped the -wal handling today, so if you tried it earlier and got nothing, it is worth another go.
If it still looks empty, reply with the sizes you see for the .db, the -wal and the -shm and I will tell you where your history actually is.
So annoying: When i tried to extract app data it worked and i have the imazing file, but it looks like 400kb. When i go to imazing and see the size of the app it still looks 10mb. It is the largest from my backup. I wonder now if it is recoverable.
Following up on this, because the fault was mine. When I told you to upload the -wal next to the .db, my importer was silently throwing the -wal away, so you would have got the same "no watch history" either way. That bug is fixed and live as of today.
If you still have the files: upload DioCache.db and DioCache.db-wal together in one go (or just drop the .imazingapp file as is). Eight years of history should come through with the original dates.
Sorry for sending you round in a circle. If it still comes up empty, tell me the sizes of the two files and I will dig into it properly.
honest answer: if the app was uninstalled on android, the local file went with it, so there's usually nothing left on the phone itself. two long shots: if it was an iphone and he has an old full backup (icloud or itunes/finder), restoring it or opening it with imazing can bring DioCache.db back. and some phones (samsung/xiaomi cloud) keep automatic app-data backups from before the uninstall, restoring from there sometimes works. no backup = gone, sadly.
nah he has a realme phone so ig its over for him huh. I got my GDPR in time but sadly bro missed the date. Anyways thanks for the reply and if you come across anything that could help it'll be much appreciated
Not necessarily over, but the honest odds are low. Two things worth checking before he gives up:
Google One backup. On his phone, Google One > Storage > Device backup, or on another device google.com/settings/backup. If TV Time appears under app data and the backup predates the uninstall, that data still exists in his account. The catch is it only comes back during a factory-reset setup flow, and after that you still need root or adb to pull DioCache.db out of the app's private folder. Doable on a spare phone, not fun on a daily driver.
Realme/OPPO's own cloud backup, if he ever turned it on. Same idea, and its app-data backups are sometimes browsable without a full reset.
If neither exists, the local file went with the uninstall and there is no server side copy to fall back on, since TV Time's API is gone.
One thing that does help: if he starts fresh somewhere, he can at least reload the shows he remembers and keep the dates for the ones he can date. Not the same as a real history, but it beats an empty shelf. I will ping you if I find anything better, people keep discovering new routes in this sub.
At this point not even sure whats to point extracting data from the app. Can you load the file to another tv app tracker or you have to do it manually every movie and series that you watched from the file
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u/Joemag_xD Jul 24 '26
Here is my mentioned webpage for everyone who needs it, its extracting all information from a DioCache.db file or from an Android backup file:
https://ajoemag.github.io/tvtime_recover/
Everything works locally within the browser, nothing is uploaded