How to keep track of what’s new on Netflix and what’s leaving

Netflix offers thousands of titles for viewing on-demand, but its library of available content changes regularly. Although you’ll always be able to watch Netflix Originals, which the streaming giant produces in-house, syndicated videos that come from other television and movie studios have set expiration dates.

You don’t want to find an episode you were about to watch has disappeared unexpectedly or miss watching one of your favorite films because you never realized it had become available. Here’s how to keep track of what’s coming to and leaving Netflix.

Netflix

Ironically, Netflix is not the best source for telling you it has available. However, it does have a couple of tricks you can use to learn about new content. For information about soon-to-expire titles, on the other hand, you’ll need a third-party service (we’ve listed some good ones below). Netflix doesn’t share this data within its menus, possibly to avoid drawing attention to how frequently videos rotate out.

Through Netflix, you can visit its “new and popular” page, which shares titles freshly added to the streaming service, the most popular shows, and movies, and what’s coming soon.

Confusingly, you can also visit a separate recently-added page. This gives you a similar list of titles but sorts them into more apparent sections, including Netflix’s genre categories and what’s popular with other users.

There are a couple of other ways to find new content, but neither is ideal. You can regularly look up your favorites with Netflix’s integrated search tool, but this is time-consuming and easy to forget about. Alternatively, you can follow Netflix on Twitter, an account that shares some new titles as they join the library. However, it doesn’t tweet about every new addition.

Once you discover a new movie or show you want to see, you should remind yourself to watch it before it expires. So please save it to your list: Click the Add to My List button (the plus icon) that appears as one of the options when you hover over the title. If you start every visit to Netflix on this page, you won’t forget about the content you need to catch.

Reelgood

Third-party services do the best job of informing you about the available content. For example, the well-organized database Reelgood provides a straightforward catalog of everything currently on Netflix, HBO, Disney Plus, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.

Crucially, for our purposes, this site has specific sections for new arrivals, content that’s coming soon, and titles that are about to leave Netflix. Each is sorted by week so that you can plan your viewing. You can also search for specific keywords or filter the list by genre, year of release, or viewer rating.

While anyone can check out the site (or the app version, free for Android and iOS), we recommend you register for a free account to keep up with library changes. Account-holders can bookmark shows and movies they want to see and receive alerts when Netflix adds new episodes of favorite shows.

New On Netflix

New On Netflix is similar to Reelgood in that it offers a complete catalog of everything currently on Netflix, which you can browse by genre, release year, and rating. To avoid surprises, it shows each title’s expiration date when this information becomes available. The service also includes a list of newly added content, and for ongoing television shows, it displays the launch date when a new season will show up.

How do the two compare? Well, New on Netflix lets you search the database by additional parameters, such as title or actor. You can also check out comprehensive individual listings for each item, which give you just as many details as Netflix does, including a description, cast list, and run time. However, it lacks Reelgood’s visual polish, and it only deals with Netflix.

Overall, you can’t go wrong with either option. Like Reelgood, New On Netflix lets you sign up for email updates that will inform you about new expiration dates and removals and alert you when content that interests you becomes available. Alternatively, you can get updates on new arrivals by plugging the service’s RSS feed into your favorite reader.