Movie Metadata

We use TMDB as the primary source for all movie metadata. TMDB is an open database, so it’s free to sign up and edit info. Contributing to TMDB (please read the TMDB Contribution Bible and follow all their rules) helps Trakt and thousands of other apps that use TMDB metadata. We really appreciate your help with keeping the data updated!

Here’s how to import a movie:

1. Make sure the movie exists on TMDB with English information filled out. The more complete the TMDB entry is, the better it is for Trakt and all the other apps that use TMDB.
2. On the Trakt website, click the Import Movie link in the footer.
3. Type in the TMDB ID and click the Import button.

A 404 error could mean a few things:

• There is no English translation.
• TMDB has too much blank or invalid data.
• The movie is a duplicate (usually indicated in the title).
• The movie is marked as adult content.

Behind the scenes, here is what we do:

1. All main English movie info is imported from TMDB.
2. Aliases, translations, genres, language, and actors are imported from TMDB.
3. The highest rated English or No Language poster and fanart are also imported from TMDB. 1080p (or larger) is preferred for fanart and we’ll only use 720p if nothing better is available.
4. Supporting images are imported from Fanart.tv (logo, banner, thumb, clearart) and it’s used as fallback for other images (poster, fanart).
5. Site ratings are imported from OMDb and other data (homepage, runtime) is used as a fallback if it doesn’t exist on TMDB.

Daily refreshes

Movies are automatically refreshed every 24 hours. We check TMDB each day for any changes, then queue up those movies to get refreshed information. Existing images are left alone, but any missing images will be added.

Note: Some movies have locked poster and fanart (indicated on the left sidebar). This means we have specifically set those images and they won’t be auto updated with a refresh.

New movies

We automatically refresh any movies that recently premiered between 14 days ago and 21 days in the future. All data and images and are refreshed.

What if a movie isn’t refreshing correctly?

Movies sometimes get stuck and don’t refresh their data from TMDB correctly. If it’s been over 48 hours, go to the movies’s main page, click the Report Movie sidebar link and let us know data isn’t getting refreshed.

VIP refresh

Trakt VIP members can queue up a movie to be refreshed more quickly by clicking the Refresh Data sidebar link. Movies should be auto refreshing every 24 hours, but this allows a quicker update on Trakt if needed.