How to export your Netflix viewing history (and what to do with it)
How to export your Netflix viewing history (and what to do with it)
Netflix knows what you watch. For years that data sat in a silo, useful only to Netflix's recommendation engine and invisible to you. That changed when Netflix settled with the FTC and agreed to let anyone download their viewing history with a couple of clicks. If you've ever wanted a real record of what you've watched, or a way to feed that history into a better recommender, here's how to get it and what to do with it.
Step 1: Request your data
Open Netflix on a web browser (the mobile app doesn't expose this). Click your profile icon in the top right, then Account. Scroll to the bottom of the page and look for Download your personal information or Request my data under the privacy section, depending on your region. Click it, confirm, and Netflix will email you when the export is ready, usually within a day.
The download arrives as a ZIP. Inside, among billing and account files, you'll find ViewingActivity.csv — a plain spreadsheet with every title, the date you watched it, and the device. It's surprisingly detailed: every episode of every series, every movie, every half-finished rewatch you abandoned at the 20-minute mark.
Step 2: Look at the CSV
Open ViewingActivity.csv in any spreadsheet app. You'll see columns like Title, Date, Profile, Duration, and Bookmark (where you stopped). Each row is one viewing event. A series you binged will show up as dozens of rows. A movie you watched twice will be two.
This file is the closest thing to a diary of your taste that exists. Most people have never seen their own history laid out this way, and the first read is a small shock — you watch more than you think, and the patterns are clearer than they feel in the moment.
Step 3: Clean it up
A few things to know before you analyze it:
- Titles include season and episode info in the
Titlecolumn (for example,Breaking Bad: Season 2: Grilled). For a cleaner list, split on the colon and keep the show name. - The date is UTC, not your local time. Off by a few hours, which rarely matters for a viewing log.
- Profiles are separate. If your household shares an account, each profile exports separately, so mix-ups are limited.
A pivot table on the Title column tells you your most-watched shows in a minute. A count of distinct dates tells you roughly how many nights a week you actually watch something. Neither is a verdict — it's just data.
Step 4: Do something with it
Here's where the CSV stops being a curiosity and starts being useful:
Keep a permanent log. Netflix only keeps your history while your account is active, and even then it can drift (auto-plays, trailers you skipped). Exporting once and saving the CSV somewhere safe gives you a copy you control.
Build a real watchlist. Once you can see everything you've finished, you can finally separate "things I actually want to watch" from "things I half-watched and forgot." A clean want list, built from what you loved rather than what an algorithm guessed, is the single biggest upgrade you can make to how you pick what's next.
Feed it to a better recommender. This is the part most people miss. Netflix's recommendations are tuned for Netflix — they surface what keeps you on Netflix, not what you'd actually love. Your raw history, with ratings you add, is a far better input for a recommender that isn't trying to sell you a subscription. That's exactly what FleckFlix does: import your Netflix CSV, log ratings on what you loved and what you didn't, and get picks shaped by your taste rather than a platform's incentives.
Step 5: Make it a habit
The export is a snapshot. To keep your log current, either re-export every few months or, easier, log new watches as they happen. A few seconds per title is enough, and over a month it builds the profile that makes a recommender actually work — instead of the cold-start guess every new app subjects you to.
Your viewing history is the most personal dataset a streaming service holds on you. Now you can hold it too.
