How do I restore the watchlist tab on Apple TV?

The Watchlist (Continue Watching/​Up Next) is tied to a specific Apple Account, not to a device per se. Please verify that the intended account is active/​signed in.

The Watchlist can be reset by deactivating Use Viewing History/​Use Play History on your devices. Once reset, that data will be gone permanently. When active on your devices, it should sync to iCloud, and be available on any of your devices (with the Apple TV app). Because it is in iCloud, internet connectivity is mandatory to load this information.

If your settings are correct/​as intended, and it still doesn’t work, then try signing out of your account, followed by immediately signing in again, to reload these account properties freshly.

On what (primary) device did you have this missing? Is it for the Apple TV box? Which model? [1] [2]

Or else what other Apple device or third party device with the Apple TV app?

Continue Watching was named Up Next in earlier software versions. There was no other personal Watchlist before that in the Apple TV app.

The tvOS 17.1 and earlier (buy) “TV show” app and (buy/rent) “Movies app” used to have a Wish List, which is now defunct. Perhaps that is what you meant?

Third party content provider apps may have a Watchlists with characteristics that are different from how Apple organizes it (a queue list) in their apps.

There are specialized third party apps to allow list builders to curate watch lists as they see fit, for content across multiple apps and content providers. E.g. Letterboxd. You may want to explore that.

This is a user-to-user forum for (technical/​how-to) questions and answers. Apple staff will not see your opinion here. You may give direct feedback to them with your ideas for improvement: Feedback - Apple TV App - Apple.

The Continue Watching/Up Next options are a very poor replacement for the “My Watchlist”.

• Continue Watching does NOT give the user an option to go to a show’s home page. Maybe when I continue watching its minutes after I stopped, but often times it might be 1 or 2 days or even WEEKS later. I need to go to the show’s home page so I can read the series episode descriptions so I can get back up to date on what’s going on in the show. Continue Watching is a frustrating option and not particularly helpful if it only does what you want half the time (or less).

• Now, since I cant get to My Watchlist, I literally cant find the show I’m looking for unless I go and manually enter in a search for that show. What a frustrating user experience. Why am I forced to work through a cumbersome search process when I should easily be able to jump to the show’s home page in My Watchlist?

• Moreover, this current user experience feels like Apple is once again trying to make decisions for me, like some Apple algorithm knows what I want more than I do. I do not care for your top 10 lists. I do not care for your picks “for me”. I do not care for your “New Releases” list and good God almighty, stop auto-running The trailer for “Stick”! Owen Wilson is a super annoying prat and I have NO interest in watching ANY of his movies. I’m sorry but I need an option to BLOCK anything w Owen Wilson. Auto playing various media the user finds ANNOYING really helps me appreciate other streaming services.

Please bring my self-curated “My Watchlist” back. You do NOT know what I want better than I do. And for God’s sakes dont auto-run shows without letting me get to the show home page so I can figure out which episode I want to watch. You know sometimes, I like to re-watch the last episode, but its an atrociously cumbersome experience getting there from “Continue Watching”

Whomever decided taking away the user’s choices needs to fired. It’s an atrociously annoying design. I can just imagine what Steve Jobs would say about this user experience.