How To: Manage Your HBO Max Watchlist to Add, Sort & Remove Titles

HBO Max's watchlist, dubbed "My List," is a great tool that lets you collect and sort the video content you're interested in. That way, you don't need to sift through HBO Max's enormous catalog every time you open the app — just open your personal list of saved titles and start binging.

If you're a veteran HBO user, you may be confused when opening HBO Max for the first time after upgrading from HBO Now or HBO Go. Why? Because your watchlist is empty. Titles in your Now or Go watchlist do not transfer over, unfortunately, but there are ways to get them back. You can't transfer your list over automatically, so you'll have to do the leg work manually, which involves finding your old list and adding and viewing items as outlined below.

• More Info: How to Get Back Your Watch List for HBO Max

Adding Shows & Movies to Your 'My List'

Adding content to your watchlist is actually pretty straightforward. First, find a TV series or movie you'd like to add, either by browsing one of HBO Max's content sections or by searching. Open up the title's information page.

To add a film to your watchlist, just tap "Add to My List." For a full TV series, tap "Add Series to My List." And if you want to undo your decision right away, tap "Remove from My List" or "Remove Series from My List."

Adding a specific episode of a TV series is a tiny bit different. Once you've located the episode in question, tap on its title or thumbnail, making sure to avoid the play button (since that begins playback). On the episode's info page, tap "Add to My List." If needed, tap "Remove from My List" to change your mind right away.

Viewing Items 'My List'

If you want to watch a show that you've added to My List, it's just as easy. From HBO Max's main screen, tap the profile icon in the bottom right. "My List" should be the first option highlighted. From there, all your saved shows and movies are just a tap away.

By default, your shows are sorted by "Recently Added." You can change that by tapping "Sort: Recently Added," then choosing from either "A–Z," which sorts your content alphabetically, or "Z–A," which sorts your content in reverse alphabetical order.

Removing Items from 'My List'

If you'd like to edit your My List, there's one thing you should know upfront: Once you've watched all shows from one of the series on the list, the series will disappear, so you don't have to worry about deleting it.

Aside from that, it's simple to remove items, though, there are no swipe or long-press gestures to do so. Tap the "Edit" button in the top right. From there, you can delete titles one by one by tapping the (x) next to each item. HBO Max will instantly remove the title from your My List when you do so, without any confirmation prompt. Tap "Done" to finish.

If you want to remove all titles at once, tap "Clear All," then tap "Clear All" on the pop-up confirmation. Tap "Done" to finish.

Unfortunately, you're stuck sorting by Recently Added, A–Z, and Z–A, so there is no way to create a custom order for your watchlist. There is also no way to group titles by category or genre. Hopefully, these are things that HBO thinks of in the future, which will give it a leg up on services like Netflix.