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The TMDB app is built to adapt to how you browse. Whether you prefer reading movie titles in your native language, want to filter results by your country’s certification system, or simply like a dark interface at night, the Settings panel gives you direct control over the experience. Every preference you change takes effect immediately without requiring a page reload, and your choices persist between sessions so you never have to reconfigure the app. This page walks through each available setting and explains how it shapes what you see across the app.

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Language

The language setting controls how titles, plot overviews, and other text content appear throughout the app. When you select a language, TMDB returns translated content wherever it is available. To change the language, open Settings → Display → Language and choose from the dropdown. The list includes all languages supported by TMDB, such as English, Spanish, French, and Japanese. Note that TMDB’s coverage varies by language. Titles in languages with smaller contributor communities may fall back to English if a translated overview or poster is not available.

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Region

The region setting determines which country’s release dates, theatrical availability, and content certifications are shown throughout the app. For example, setting your region to US shows MPAA ratings (G, PG, PG-13, R), while GB shows BBFC ratings (U, PG, 12A, 15, 18).
Set your region to match your country even if you’re happy browsing in English. Region affects release date accuracy and certification labels across movie detail pages, search results, and upcoming release lists — not just the display language.

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Adult content filter

By default, the app excludes adult content from all search results and browsing pages. You can toggle this setting in Settings → Content → Adult Content. When enabled, TMDB will include adult titles in results where they are present. This setting is off by default and requires you to explicitly turn it on. Your TMDB account’s own content preferences are separate from this in-app setting.

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Display preferences

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Grid vs. list view

Browse pages — including Discover, Search results, and genre collections — support two layout modes:
  • Grid view — shows poster art in a compact multi-column layout, ideal for browsing visually.
  • List view — shows each title as a horizontal row with a small thumbnail, title, year, rating, and a short overview snippet.
Toggle between them using the layout icon in the top-right corner of any browse page. Your choice is saved and applied consistently across all browse sections.

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Dark mode and light mode

The app respects your system’s appearance preference by default. If your OS is set to dark mode, the app opens in dark mode automatically. You can override this independently of your system setting in Settings → Display → Theme:
  • System default — follows your operating system’s dark/light setting
  • Light — always uses the light theme regardless of system preference
  • Dark — always uses the dark theme regardless of system preference

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Default content type

Choose whether the app’s home screen and navigation default to Movies or TV Shows when you first open it. This setting affects the landing section, the default tab in Search, and the content shown in trending and recommendation feeds. Change it in Settings → General → Default Content Type.

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Default values

These are the values the app uses when you first open it before changing any setting:

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How settings are saved

Your preferences are saved in your browser and persist across page refreshes and browser restarts on the same device. Settings are per-browser and per-device — they are not synced across devices. Clearing your browser’s site data (cookies and cached data) will reset all preferences to their defaults.

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Resetting to defaults

To restore all settings to their original values, open Settings → General and click Reset to Defaults at the bottom of the panel. The app reloads immediately with the factory defaults shown in the table above.