Filtering search results seems to be ignored : ratings, years, network...

[jonathanantoine]

Previously, the search endpoints allowed some interesting filters : year, ratings, network, genre, etc :

https://api.trakt.tv/search/show?query=grey anatomy&extended=full&ratings=2-10&networks=Netflix&genre=drama&years=2024-2024

Since a few weeks, they seems completely ignored in the API (and also in the Android Trakt app - see related post in the forum).

It would be really nice to have this back :)

Regards

[jonathanantoine]

Any updates on this one 🫣?

[kevincador]

Thanks for the report.

This is related to changes we made to our search engine. In the past, the search was not as good as it is today. Relying on those filters may have improved the quality of the results for you. However, it is not the intended use of the search engine today.

The /search endpoints are meant for finding specific titles from a query, and should not be used as a catalogue-browsing endpoint with stacked filters.

That distinction matters for your UX too. For example, if a user searches for "grey anatomy" and also applies filters like network or years, they may expect the exact show they searched for to always appear if it matches the text query. If filtering changes or suppresses those results in unexpected ways, the experience can quickly feel broken or inconsistent.

To sum it up, you should:

• use /search when the goal is to search for a specific title from a query
• use endpoints like /trending, /popular, /watched, and similar endpoints when the goal is to browse a catalogue and narrow it down with filters

@rectifyer can we update the public documentation to make it clear the /search endpoint doesn't support filters anymore?

Thanks again for calling it out.

[rectifyer]

API docs updated.

[jonathanantoine]

Thanks for the explanation, I will remove these filters from my app then.

Side note : this was requested by A LOT of users but you have more metrics than me on this 😀