AniList Frequently Asked Questions

This thread is meant to explain various functions of the site and to answer questions that users regularly ask.

• Data & Submissions

• How can I make a submission?

  • Please refer to the site guidelines for information on making data submissions

• How can I see if my submission was accepted?

  • The submissions tab on your profile shows the status of your submission and any mod notes left on it.

• Can I edit a pending submission?

  • Unfortunately not at the moment. If you feel that any additional info is necessary, please mention it in the "#submission-support" channel on our Discord. Duplicate/empty submissions may be rejected as multiple people work on our queue and may not get to see both.

• Why can't I find [so and so] entry on the site?

  • First, try searching with the native name. If it looks like we do not list it, please double-check to make sure it meets our anime criteria/manga critera and check the frequently rejected titles anime/manga, and search the forums to make sure the certain title hadn't already been addressed. If it meets our criteria and you cannot find it already mentioned, feel free to make a submission with as much info as you can! Instructions on how to make a submission can be found here.
  • Note: Adult Content (sexual, pornographic, gore content) is hidden by default but can be enabled by checking the “18+ Content” option in your media settings. To search for it, you have to also enable the “Adult” option in the advanced search settings on the Browse page. Using the quick-search (magnifying glass/Ctrl+S hotkey) only requires having it enabled in settings.

• MAL/Kitsu/Anime-Planet/Other listing sites list something you don’t/lists this differently, can you fix it?

  • We aren’t them. By having different criteria, we aren’t (and do not aim to be) a 1:1 database. We may list things differently, but that doesn’t mean either is wrong.

• I've found a tag that seems like it doesn't belong on an entry, how can I remove it?

  • Unfortunately with the way the tag system is set up at the moment, people like to 'troll' and add irrelevant/offensive tags to innocent entries but they can easily be removed by a moderator. Feel free to make a submission ('Edit' button below the left-hand sidebar) with the tag to be removed mentioned in the submission notes, or send a message in our '#submission-support' channel on our Discord and we'll get it resolved.

• Account

  • How do I export my list?
  • Douki
  • Fern
  • MALScraper
  • I forgot my login email/password and can’t access my account.
  • For account-related issues, please contact nck (@.nck on Discord), nazo (@nazo on Discord) or using our contact email: contact@anilist.co
  • When I try to reset my password or log in from a new location, I do not recieve a verification email.
  • First, check if the email was sent to your spam folder.
  • If you tried requesting more than a handful of times or for whatever reason the email bounces, our email system will flag your email to prevent spam. Send a message in the #site-support channel on our Discord so a mod can lift the suppression.
  • Certain providers (such as Wirtualna Polska) will temporarily suppress our emails entirely as spam, in which case you will have to whitelist as not spam/add noreply@anilist.co as a contact (example for o2.pl) or wait until the restriction lifts on their end which usually takes a few hours.

• I received a message saying I was banned from the site and the page isn’t loading, what did I do?

  • AniList bans do not stop you from being able to view a page and if a ban message did not come as a message on the site from an account tagged as a community moderator then you are not banned from the site. In some instances CloudFlare may limit traffic from your region or some third-party apps may incorrectly say your IP has been banned, in both of these cases you will need to simply wait and try again later.

• I donated to the site and have not recieved my benefits yet?

  • Donor perks are applied manually by nck (@.nck on Discord) or nazo (@nazo on Discord). If you haven't received them within 2-3 days, shoot one of them a DM here or on our discord #site-support channel.

• How can I claim a username from an inactive account?

  • Go to the Account section in your settings and where you can change your username there will be text underneath “User name you want is taken by an inactive user? Try claiming it”, this text is a link to submit the request.
  • Username requests are granted for inactive accounts that have had no activity for 3 years. To check when the account was last active, go to the account’s profile and hover over the time stamp on their last activity, ex. where it says “3 years ago”, this will give you the exact date and time the activity was made, as the “3 years ago” is only an estimate. If the account has no activity you can hover over their profile picture to get the account creation date.
  • It is possible the user took action within the past 3 years that may not be readily apparent such as following another user or updating private list entries, this could be why you cannot request their username even though it appears they have been inactive for 3 years.

• Profile & Lists

• How do I add an image to my post/bio?

  • You can read a markdown guide here

• Why does my activity history have a hole in it?

  • Activity history is updated periodically and it reflects the number of public activities on your account wall. List activities, statuses, and public messages all contribute to it but if you have your merge timer set to always or other high merge times this will remove activities on your wall and result in gaps in your activity history. Activity history is also based on the timezone set in your Settings.

• What is ‘Activity Merge Time’?

  • It is the amount of time that can pass between list updates on a single entry that will result in your previous update being merged into the new update. The intention of this is to reflect a user watching/reading a cluster of multiple episodes/chapters in which they may want comments to just be for those episodes/chapters and so their profile works as a timeline of when they watched various episodes. Some users they may prefer to not have any activities merged so each activity is just for that episode/chapter while other users may want to always merge their activities so all comments they and their friends have made are all in one place. When merging activities, any comments/likes from the ‘old activity’ are applied to the ‘new activity’. Please note that if an activity is merged into a newer activity, then the old activity will no longer contribute to your “activity history”.

• Why does a show not show up in “Airing” or “Anime in Progress” sections on my homepage?

  • Only 20 anime are listed between the “Airing” and “Anime in Progress” sections. The 20 are the 20 most recently updated entries on your list. You can expand this by clicking the icon in the top right of the section (for a maximum of 40 most recently updated entries) or by going to your actual list to see the full list.

• What is the difference between ‘Average Score’ and ‘Mean Score’ on an entries page?

  • The ‘Mean Score’ is simply an equation that takes the total of the scores for an entry and divides it by the number of users who have given it a score. The ‘Average Score’ is the same but it is weighted for entries with low amounts of scores as a means to reduce a small group of users highly rating a low-popularity title and causing it to become a highly rated title on the site.

• Do score systems like ‘3 Point Smiley’ and ‘5 Star’ influence an entry's score?

  • Yes, all scores are converted into the 1-100 score system. ‘10 Point Decimal’ and ‘10 Point’ both directly convert but the ‘5 Star’ system uses 10, 30, 50, 70, and 90 for the stars and the ‘3 Point Smiley’ system uses 35, 60, and 85 for the different smileys.

• I want to customize my rating scale/score system.

  • You may rate using any of the following score systems: 100-point decimal, 10-point decimal, 10 point, 5 stars, or 3-point smiley. As mentioned here, we’re not planning to add new rating formats/scales.

• I see some users have lists for anime that aren’t just ‘Watching’, ‘Rewatching’, ‘Completed’, ‘Dropped’, and ‘Paused’, how do you do this?

  • In the Lists page of your settings, there is an option to create custom lists for your anime and manga lists. To re-order these lists you can go to your anime/manga list and you’ll see 2 arrows in the sidebar next to ‘Lists’ that say ‘Reorder List Sections’ which clicking will then allow you to re-order your custom lists.

• An entry is not showing in my list but when I go to the page it shows as being completed, where is it?

  • This is likely for 1 of 2 reasons. The first being the entry was set to private, if you open your list editor you should see a checkbox for private, if you uncheck this it should re-appear in your list. The second is that there is a hard limit of 11,000 entries in a user’s list. This limit exists for load times and from our experience is typically only an issue when someone either breaks the rules by using a script to automatically add entries to their list regardless of the user having watched/read them or if they place thousands of entries into their planning list. This limit is intended to be removed in the future.

• Why do my stats not reflect my current list?

  • Stats updates happen every couple of days automatically, more frequently if you [donate] to the site. You can force a stats update with the “Update Stats” button in your list settings.

• Social

• How do I make someone unfollow me?

  • You can cause another user to stop following you by soft-blocking them. Soft blocking is when you block another user and then immediately unblock them intending to make it so they no longer follow you. To block another user you can go to your Account Settings, scroll down to the Blocked Users section, search for that user name, click Block, then find their name in your blocked users list, and unblock them. You can also go to their profile, click the dropdown arrow on the right side near the “Follow” button, and block/unblock them.

• Why am I unable to see somebody’s profile when I go to their page?

  • First, please make sure they haven’t changed names if you are accessing their page via URL. If they are still using that name, then it means they have either set their profile to “Private” or have blocked you.
  • Note: While it may be frustrating to have found that another user has blocked you, it is against the rules of the site to attempt to circumvent this, even if all you’re doing is trying to ask them why.

• Why doesn't my list of activities appear in the Global feed?

  • List activities need at least a reply to appear on the Global feed. This is to prevent making the feed unusable with our increasing number of users constantly updating their list.
  • List activity will appear in your followers 'Following' feed regardless of replies as long as your privacy setting it set to 'public/semi-public' ('semi-public’ also restricts being shown on Global.)

• I've found something a user posted that shouldn't be allowed on the site, how do I report it?

  • To report a status, mouse over it and click on the 3 dots next to the timestamp.
  • To report a status reply, click the exclamation point next to the like button.
  • To report a message, mouse over it and click on the 3 dots next to the timestamp.
  • To report a thread, click the exclamation point next to the timestamp.
  • To report a thread comment, click the exclamation point next to the like button.
  • To report a profile (pfp/bio), click on the dropdown arrow next to the follow button.
  • **When you click report, you will be prompted to provide a reason. Do note that not every report may be actionable, if you would rather not interact with a user, feel free to block them by going to their profile and clicking on the dropdown arrow or add a block in your account settings.

• How do I appeal a ban?

  • Please message a community moderator on our Discord (as denoted by their "Community" role).
  • Do note that creating additional accounts to evade a ban will result in an extension of the current ban and permanent suspension of alternative accounts.
  • Any moderator disputes can be handled by the lead community mods nolu (@noluos on Discord) or das (@das_ on Discord).

• Miscellaneous

• How can I make a feature suggestion for the site?

  • We are glad to hear ways to improve the site! If it's not already mentioned on our roadmap as a planned feature, please feel free to make a forum post under the category "Site Feedback"