Backing up and exporting your Kitazo data

Downloading the archive

Open your profile, then Settings, the Data section, Export my data. Kitazo prepares a file named kitazo-export-<date>.zip and hands it over: on the web the download starts, on a phone the share sheet opens so you can save it wherever you like. There is no queue and nothing arrives by email: it is ready in a few seconds.

The export is always a ZIP archive. The old CSV format is gone, because it could not hold comments, lists and per-episode ratings without losing pieces.

What is inside

The archive is split into files, one per topic, so you can open the one you care about without scrolling through everything else. A manifest.json at the top says what each of the others holds.

• library.json: watched films, with rating, date and favourite flag; series, with status, favourite, set-aside, finished, and the notes you wrote on seasons; the watchlist.
• episodes.json: every episode you marked watched, with its date and how many times you watched it.
• episode-ratings.json: ratings given to single episodes.
• lists.json: your lists, with their titles and whether they are public or private.
• comments.json: your comments, with text, spoiler flag, visibility, the stars you had at the time, and the title, season or episode they were attached to.
• profile.json: name, username, bio, language, genres and privacy settings.
• social.json: who you follow, who follows you, and the favourite characters you voted for.

They are JSON files readable in any text editor. Watch dates are stored to the day, not the hour. Titles are identified by their TheTVDB code, the same one Kitazo uses internally: that is what makes the restore exact.

It is also your personal-data export

The same archive is the copy of your personal data you are entitled to request. There is no separate procedure: what Kitazo knows about you, meaning the data you entered and the activity you generated, is in there. What you don't find in the file we don't keep in a form that concerns you directly.

Putting the backup back into an account

Go to Settings → Import data and pick Kitazo backup. Upload the ZIP as it is. Everything returns: library, episodes with dates and view counts, episode and season ratings, season notes, set-aside and finished series, watchlist, lists with their visibility, and comments with their spoiler flag. It is the only import that never has to guess, because the codes are the same on both sides.

Two things are deliberately not restored. The profile, because it would overwrite the account you are importing into. And the people you follow, because re-following someone is an action the other person sees, and it makes no sense to fire it silently from a file. Character votes stay in the file too. Comments come back public on the title's page, whatever visibility they had.

Like every import, this one adds and never replaces: you can load a backup on top of an already full library and you get the union of the two. A backup made before the archive became a ZIP, when it was a single JSON file, is still read.

When it is worth doing

Before using Delete all library data in the danger zone, always. Before deleting your account, if you think you might come back. And every now and then, because a file on your own disk is the only copy that depends on no service, ours included.

Syncing with Trakt

If you have a Trakt account, Settings → Data has Sync with Trakt, when the server has the connection configured. It keeps a running copy on Trakt of what you do on Kitazo, without you having to think about it.

It works in one direction only, from Kitazo to Trakt, and only from the moment you connect the account: it does not push back the history you already had, and it reads nothing from Trakt. That is why, before turning it on, the app suggests importing your Trakt export into Kitazo first, so the two libraries start aligned.

What gets copied: films and episodes marked watched or unwatched, with their date; film ratings, given or removed; episode ratings, converted to Trakt's 1 to 10 scale; watchlist additions and removals. What stays on Kitazo: season ratings, lists and comments. A film goes to Trakt only once Kitazo knows its IMDb code, which arrives with the metadata.

The copy is silent: if Trakt doesn't answer, Kitazo doesn't warn you and doesn't retry later, so the copy can have gaps. If the connection expires you see Reconnect your Trakt account. Disconnect withdraws the authorisation and changes nothing in your library, here or there.