Getting started
What am I supposed to do first?
Follow a few shows and save a few films, and Home starts to fill up: what’s on today, the episode you’re up to, the films you saved that are in theaters or streaming. Search is the field at the top of Home. If you’d rather tell the app everything at once, the Grid does it a hundred posters at a time: a new library opens on it, Home offers it with a banner while your library is new, and it’s at the top right of Discover beside the Deck.
How does the Grid work?
It shows a hundred of the most popular films, or shows on its TV tab, that you haven’t answered yet, four across. Tap a poster once for Seen, twice for Want to See (or Follow, for a show), and a third time to clear it. The button at the bottom marks the batch: what you tapped as you tapped it, and everything else as Not Seen, then deals the next hundred. Shows you tapped Seen get one more page asking how far through each one you are. Close it with the X and the batch is left as it was.
What is Up Next?
The first row on Home: what you scheduled for today, episodes out today on shows you follow, and the shows you’re partway through, each with the episode you’re up to. Hold a card to mark it Seen, mark a show caught up, reschedule it, or pause or abandon the show. See All opens the next fortnight.
How does the Deck work?
The Deck is the icon beside the Grid at the top right of Discover. It asks whether you’ve seen something, one card at a time: right for Seen, left for Not Seen, and up to follow a show or save a film to Want to See. The switch at the top moves between TV and films. Say you’ve seen a show, or follow one, and it asks how far you got, then marks those episodes for you. Tap away from that question and nothing changes. Anything you’ve answered isn’t dealt again; Settings > Decks can offer what you passed on once more.
How do I schedule something to watch?
From the … menu at the top right of a film’s or an episode’s page, or by holding its poster anywhere, choose Schedule and pick a day from the calendar; days with something on already are marked. On the day it’s in Up Next. The morning after, if it hasn’t been marked Seen, a notification asks whether you watched it: I watched it logs it, Not yet leaves it on the schedule, and Take it off removes it. A day can hold as much as you like.
Where do I see everything I’ve scheduled?
Scheduled is one of the cards at the top of Lists, and Up Next’s See All shows the fortnight ahead. Sort it soonest first, by title, or in your own order; hold or swipe a row to Reschedule it or take it off. Import CSV brings in a whole schedule from a spreadsheet, and Clear Schedule empties it.
When I mark something Seen, why does it ask when?
So the Logbook knows. Wherever a film or an episode is marked Seen, the app asks: Log as Watched Today, Log on Another Date from a calendar, or Just Mark Seen with no date at all. Episodes also offer the day they aired. A film you’ve logged before goes straight to Seen.
What are Collections?
Lists other people drew up, carried in the app and measured against your library. The Collections store has them on shelves, under Films, TV and Films & TV: Franchises (every film in the series in release order, and on Films & TV the series too), Studios, Directors and Actors (every feature from Pixar, A24, Studio Ghibli and the rest, or by Spielberg, Kubrick, Streep and the rest, in release order), the Academy Awards, Emmys and Golden Globes (every ceremony, every nominee, winners marked), Box Office (the 25 biggest films released each year at the US box office, every year since 1977), In Memoriam (the films and series the actors lost this year are remembered for), Critics & Awards (Sight and Sound, AFI, every Best Picture winner, the Criterion Collection, the New York Times’ and the BBC’s best TV of the century), and, in their seasons, Holidays. A shelf shows ten; tap its heading for all of them. Add the ones you want and they become Your Collections, a row on Home and a choice in Pick for Me. Open the store from the + on Your Collections, or from the Add Collections card on Home while you have none.
How do I add or remove a collection?
Open it, from the store or anywhere else, and tap Add to Your Collections under its title; once added, the same button says In Your Collections and offers to remove it. You can also hold its card on Home, or swipe it on Your Collections. Removing a collection removes only the collection: every film, verdict and watch in your library stays as it was.
What can I do inside a collection?
Each title is a row with its placing, its poster and a mark if you’ve seen it. From the menu at the top right you can show Only What I Haven’t Seen, Filter by Provider, Swipe Through the List as a deck, or select several titles and add them to one of your own lists, or file films all at once. Hold a row to add it to a list or schedule it.
Why does filtering a collection by provider take a moment?
A collection holds a name, a year and an id for each title, and nothing about where it streams. Filtering asks, a few titles at a time, and the rows appear as the answers arrive; the list says how far it has got. A hundred-title list settles in seconds, and Criterion’s eleven hundred takes a while.
What are Trick or Treat, Leftovers and the other seasonal picks?
Each season’s pick is a banner at the top of Home while it lasts. Trick or Treat deals one horror film at a time in October from what’s on your providers and Variety’s hundred best, each with how frightening it is according to Scary Meter. Leftovers does Thanksgiving films and episodes through November in the US, Deck the Halls Christmas films through December, and Be Mine love stories through February. Shorter ones come and go through the year: Friday the 13th, April Fools’, May the 4th, Pride, Summer, Shark Week, Back to School and the Fourth of July. Each asks a mood first, draws only from your providers, and has a list to add to Your Collections; when it ends, its banner leaves in a way of its own. Black History, Women’s History, AAPI Heritage and Hispanic Heritage months bring a collection rather than a pick. Not Now on an invite means it asks again next year.
What is Viewing History?
A chart on your Profile of films and shows watched, a pair of bars a month across a year, or a year across ten. A film counts each time you logged it; a show counts once in a month however many episodes you watched. Hold a bar for its numbers.
Where do the rows on Discover come from?
All of them come from TMDB and refresh about once a day. Providers, Genres and Release Dates show the most popular titles on each of your services, in each genre and from each year; the arrows at the top of Providers and Genres put their rows in an order of your own, and a shelf in full can hide what you’ve seen or saved from its Filters button. Popular Films is the twenty most popular films in theaters in your region (released there in the last 90 days) and on the providers you chose in Settings, and Popular TV is the same for shows. Popularity is TMDB’s measure of attention on its own site, not box office or viewing figures. Latest Film Trailers and Latest TV Trailers are the newest trailers. A check on a poster means you’ve seen the film or caught up on the show; a star means the film is on your Want to See list, or you follow the show.
A trailer won’t play.
Trailers are YouTube videos played in the picture at the top of a title’s page, so they need a connection. Some studios don’t allow theirs to play outside YouTube, and those show a Watch on YouTube button instead. A title with no Trailer button has no trailer on TMDB.
Where do the ratings on a title’s page come from?
The Ratings row shows the critics’ scores Wikidata has recorded for a title — the Tomatometer, Metascore and IMDb rating, and Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score where there is one — beside TMDB’s own. Each says the month it was recorded, since they are snapshots rather than live figures, and tapping one opens that site’s page. A new release or a show often has only TMDB’s until somebody adds the others to Wikidata. The first of them is also on the line of facts under the synopsis.
What does Maybe do?
It puts a film aside without deciding. Maybe films appear on Home’s film rows beside your Want to See ones, and a notification can tell you when one lands on a service you pay for. A film you answer Maybe to before it’s out comes back to the Deck once it is.
I can’t find a film. Which list is it in?
Open Lists and choose All Films (or All Shows on the TV side), under More unless you’ve pinned it, then search. It covers everything you have filed, and each result says which lists the film is in.
TV shows
How do I keep track of a show?
Search for it from the field on Home (the TV scope narrows to shows) and tap Follow on its page. Picking it up partway through? Where You’re Starting sets the episode you start from, so the ones before it don’t count against you. Its seasons are a row of episode cards: tap one to open the episode, or its … to mark it Seen; See All opens the season’s own page, with the circle beside each episode and Mark All Seen. Marking asks when: the day it aired, today, another date, or no date at all. Mark one further along and it offers to mark the earlier ones too. The show’s page, Up Next and Lists then say which episode you’re up to.
Is there a quicker way to tick off an episode?
Three. A show’s page has a Next Episode row for the one you’re up to, with a circle to tick; ticking it moves the row on to the next one. On the TV side of Lists, swiping a show’s row from the left marks the episode you’re up to without opening the show. And on Home, holding a card in Up Next offers Mark as Seen, or Caught Up for everything that’s out. All of them ask when you watched.
What notifications will I get for a show?
Following a show is what asks for them; each kind can be switched off in Settings, under Notifications. A premiere always gets through: “starts today” for a new show, “is back” for a new season. A new episode gets through when you’re caught up, or one or two behind, when it says how many. Further behind than that, or before you’ve started, only premieres do, since a weekly note about a season you haven’t begun is only noise. Notifications arrive at the hour the episode airs where TVmaze knows it, and otherwise at a time you choose. There are also notes when a show is renewed or ends, and when you’ve stopped watching one you’re behind on for a month.
What do Pause and Abandon do?
Both set a show aside without losing anything you’ve seen. A paused show goes quiet and comes back to you a month and a week before its next season; an abandoned one stops altogether. Either can be undone from the show’s page, and both have lists of their own.
What is Recap a Season?
A summary of a season you’ve watched, for when you’re about to start the next one and can’t remember how the last one ended. It’s written on your iPhone by Apple Intelligence from the season’s episode summaries, Wikipedia’s where it has them and TMDB’s otherwise, so it needs an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence.
What does Unfollow and Clear do?
Unfollowing a show stops its notifications and keeps what you’ve seen, under Not Following in Lists. Unfollow and Clear also removes its seen episodes, its watches and your answers about it.
What is the TV deck?
The Deck’s TV side, from the switch at its top. It deals shows in TMDB’s order of popularity, most popular first, with the same three answers as films: Not Seen, Follow and Seen. Follow and Seen ask how far you got first. The Filters menu at its top right narrows it by genre, country, or your providers.
Can Pick for Me choose a show?
Yes. Switch it to TV from the menu at its top left and it picks a show: one you follow, or one from a collection or a list of yours, narrowed by genre, rating, episode length, number of seasons, providers and the rest. Tap the poster to open it.
Your library
Where do imports live?
Under one row. Settings, then Import Library, asks which app your library is in (Trakt, Letterboxd, Sofa or Marathon), and each one takes the export as it comes: pick the zip the app sent you, with no need to unzip it first. Every import walks the same steps, shows you what it found, and writes nothing until you tap Import on the last screen. Titles you bring in carry an “Imported from” tag, and Settings lists them under Imported Titles.
Can I import a list from a spreadsheet?
Yes. A CSV file can fill a list of your own, start a new one, or fill your schedule: Import CSV is in a list’s menu and in Scheduled’s. A file with Title and Date columns goes straight through; otherwise it asks which column is which. Every row is looked up on TMDB, and you see what was found before anything is written.
Can I bring in films from Sofa?
Yes. Export your library from Sofa, then use Settings, then Import Library, then Sofa, and pick the file. Films come across with their watch dates where Sofa recorded them, and so do your shows: the ones Sofa has you watching are followed, and every episode you watched is marked Seen with its date.
Can I bring in my Trakt history?
Yes, all of it. On trakt.tv, go to Settings, then Your Data, and ask for an export; Trakt emails you a zip. Use Settings, then Import Library, then Trakt, and pick the zip — there's no need to unzip it first. Films come across marked Seen with every dated viewing in your Logbook, shows arrive with every episode you watched and its date, and shows you've watched in the last six months are followed. Your watchlist becomes Want to See. Ratings are kept with your library but not shown, since Match Cut no longer rates. Trakt records the same ids this app uses, so nothing is matched by title. Specials are the one thing left behind — Match Cut follows a show by its numbered seasons.
Can I bring in films from Letterboxd?
Yes. On letterboxd.com, go to Settings, then Data, and export your data. Use Settings, then Import Library, then Letterboxd, and pick the zip Letterboxd sent you; there's no need to unzip it, though a folder you have already unzipped works too. Every diary entry becomes a dated viewing in the Logbook. Letterboxd doesn't include TMDB ids, so each film is found by title and year; a few with the same name may ask you to pick between them before anything is written.
Can I bring in my Marathon library?
Yes. Export from Marathon under its own Settings, then use Settings, then Import Library, then Marathon, and pick the zip. Marathon is a television tracker and records the same show ids this app uses, so every show matches exactly rather than by title. Shows arrive in the state you had them in — following, paused or abandoned — with every episode you had marked, and a show that has ended and that you saw to the end arrives as Finished. Your ratings are kept with your library but not shown, and your lists arrive whole, in the order you ranked them. Marathon records bulk ticks separately from real evenings, and only the real ones reach your Logbook; the rest still mark the episodes Seen. Each show is looked up while the export is read, which takes a few minutes on a large library.
Will an import overwrite what I already have?
Almost nothing. Episodes, watch dates and lists are only ever added to: an episode already marked Seen stays Seen, a watch you had already logged isn't duplicated, and a list comes in as a new list rather than merging into one you already keep. Two things do come from the file: whether a show is following, paused or abandoned, which you can change on the review screen before anything is saved; and ratings, if you leave that switch on — a show or season you had already rated takes the file's rating instead. Nothing at all is written until the last screen.
How do I back up?
Settings, then Export Library, writes a single file holding every verdict, watch date and note, and every show you follow with the episodes you've seen. Put it wherever you like. Restore from Backup reads one back, filling gaps without ever overwriting a verdict you have given since.
Does my library sync between devices?
No. Match Cut stores everything on the device it is on, and nothing is sent to a server. Moving a library to another iPhone means exporting a backup and restoring it there. The app is for iPhone; it runs on an iPad only as an iPhone app, since nothing in it was laid out for that screen.
A film or show is missing, or its details are wrong.
All film and TV data (titles, posters, cast, release and air dates) comes from TMDB, and the app shows exactly what TMDB holds. If something is wrong or absent, it can be corrected at themoviedb.org and the app will pick the change up. There is nothing I can fix on my end for a specific film's data.
Things that sometimes go wrong
The deck says it can't reach TMDB.
Usually a connection problem. The app keeps whatever it already has on screen and offers Try Again. If it persists on a good connection, TMDB may be having trouble.
The deck has run out of films.
Check whether a filter is on in the Filters menu at the Deck’s top right: a narrow genre runs out much faster than the full catalog. Every empty state has a button back to All Genres.
A release reminder never arrived.
Reminders need notification permission, and the kind of reminder switched on in Settings, under Notifications. They are scheduled from the date TMDB holds, so a film whose release date moved will have moved with it. If a reminder is genuinely missing, please tell me which film.
Privacy and data
What do you collect about me?
Nothing. There is no account, no analytics and no tracking, and your library never leaves your device. The privacy policy goes through it in detail.
How do I delete everything?
Settings, then Reset All Data, removes the whole library. Deleting the app removes its database too. Since nothing is stored anywhere else, that is the end of it.
Still stuck?
Email feedback@matchcutdiary.app. It is one person reading, and I would rather hear about a problem than not.
Please include your iOS version and the app's version and build number, which are in Settings under About.