andoemp readan ezidore
Jordan Tucker
Before the crackdown, Netflix said it needed to take a tough stance on password-sharing as it said members sharing accounts were weakening its ability to be one of the best streaming services out there. So with the extra revenue it's getting the service must be better than ever right? Well no; Netflix raised prices yet again and admitted it makes too many bad movies.
If you've been sharing your Netflix account this guide will be a handy tool for deciphering how Netflix will enforce its rules, and what your options are if you're looking to keep sharing your account with a friend or family member.
If you're in one of those regions and have a profile (or profiles) on your Netflix account for someone who's outside of your household, there's a good chance that you've already received an email telling you about your options.
Now, the 'Sharing your Netflix account' section of Netflix's Help Center simply explains the rules. It says that "a Netflix account is meant to be shared by people living together in one household", with a household defined as "a collection of the devices connected to the internet at the main place you watch Netflix".
People outside that household will need to sign up for their own account to watch, or buy an 'extra member' slot for your account. By hiding its precise methods for detecting password-sharing, Netflix can alter its methods to prevent them from being circumvented.
As you can see, that's nearly the cost of a basic Netflix plan on its own. And that price is per person, so if you want to add two people to a Netflix Premium account you'll have to double the amounts above.
Exactly how it will do this is unclear, though it has previously outlined plans to use its email/phone verification method to grant access, and also a limited-use code that lets you access the service for seven days.
If you're planning to leave Netflix when password-sharing restrictions are brought in then here are the best Netflix movies you need to watch before you unsubscribe. And if you're thinking about joining one of its rivals then here are the best Disney Plus shows, and the best Prime Video movies that you might want to check out.
While Netflix no longer allows you to share your password with other people to give them free access, you can still share your Netflix account with someone outside your house by adding them as another member. But is this something you should do?
In May 2023, Netflix started cracking down on password sharing in many regions of the world, so you can no longer share your Netflix password with a friend to let them watch for free. If you share your Netflix password with someone outside your home, Netflix will recognize that they are not on your primary network and will block them from accessing the service.
Extra members each have their own profile (you can transfer your Netflix profile to another account if needed) and enjoy the same quality as the account owner. Notably, the account owner pays for the extra person.
Since you can't share your Netflix password anymore (without taking more drastic measures), let's look at the reasons for and against adding a member to your account, rather than telling them to sign up for their own account. We'll also examine how these reasons have changed with the removal of password sharing.
For example, most people would prefer to have a long-distance girlfriend as an extra user on their account, rather than making her get her own. It's a similar situation for a parent paying for their daughter to use their Netflix account when she moves to college.
In the past, when sharing your password, you needed to consider security concerns around sharing your Netflix password and make sure you were OK with going against Netflix's terms on account usage (which it didn't enforce). Since neither of those points is relevant now, the main drawback to Netflix account sharing is the potential to introduce uncomfortable scenarios around the extra cost.
With all this considered, whether you share your Netflix account is up to you. You might draw a distinction between family members and non-family, or choose to only add people who used to live in your house.
The culprits? My beloved family. My mother, father, brother, and cousin all have access to my account. But, while offering up my password to my entire family might have seemed like a benevolent gesture at the time, I'm starting to regret it deeply.
Here lies my predicament: how do I tell my beloved mother who brought me into the world that I need her to hit pause on Grace and Frankie for a hot sec so I can relax after a tiring day at the office? Do I kick off my dear cousin, an impecunious university student, when she's midway through a Riverdale binge?
As someone who's deeply shy about confrontation, I often choose to do nothing when the too-many-users message pops up. But, my Netflix account has recently become so clogged up that I resorted to signing myself up for Amazon Prime just so I could watch some damn television.
Enough is enough, I thought to myself as I took a sip of wine in an effort to say nothing that'd land me in hot water. I needed to do something about this. But, before I did anything, I investigated my options.
The time has come when you and my Netflix account must part ways. You've had a good innings. You've watched every single episode of Stranger Things. Twice. But, now it's time for you to spread your wings, fly the nest, and cough up for your own account.
The second option was letting them know I was onto them. I access my cousin's profile on my account, clicked on Settings and scrolled down to her Viewing Activity. In among a seemingly endless list of Riverdale episodes, I spotted her dirty little secret: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. Just as I was about to fire off a text saying "really?" I thought about my own shameful viewing preferences. Perhaps shaming wasn't the best option for me given my track record.
Text messages rolled in asking me what was going on with my Netflix. "What's your password again?" I let some time pass before sending a message letting my family members know that I would no longer be sharing my Netflix account.
Everyone took the news well, thankfully. They told me they understood and that it'd had been good while it lasted. I think I felt most guilty for cutting off my parents, but it wouldn't have been fair on my brother, cousin, and aunt if I'd kicked some people off and not others. My wonderful parents didn't mind at all, and they're already setting up their own account to fuel their insatiable Grace and Frankie thirst. I should and could have done it sooner, but finding the right break-up method always takes a little bit of time.
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Based in the UK, Rachel writes about sex, relationships, and online culture. She has been a sex and dating writer for a decade and she is the author of Rough (Penguin Random House, 2021). She is currently working on her second non-fiction book.
do you offer access to Netflix in your listing? If so do you use your own account? Pay for another account? Make them sign in with THEIR account? I have a Netflix account myself and a ROKU I can hook up -- I just today got my first inquiry about Netflix in the unit. I'm wondering how others do it.
I have an additional device account, one for guests. If a guest doesn't have their own account, they can request me to set up access to ours as a guest viewer. Although after 2 years and many bookings, I have had only 2 requests for me to set them up. Most have their own account these days.
We have a guest account for Netflix and Hulu and an old iPhone with nothing else on it signed in for guests to cast to the tv, via google chrome-cast. Old fashioned but does the job at low cost. (We have no tv service.)
Hi Emilia, I'll just be starting to offer Netflix for my guest this coming month and thinking of the same set-up as yours (guest will have access to my account, but with a different user profile). I'd like to ask if you had any instances where your guests have messed with the other profiles on your Netflix account. If yes, what did you do? Or if not, what have you done to prevent this.
@Jose-Feliciano0, just this week I noticed the Grinch was watched on my specific Netflix profile and there were two young children staying in one of my Airbnbs at that time. It doesn't bother me and doesn't happen often. No one has ever messed with my settings or anything like that. I would say it is more frustrating when they log out of my account and into their own. I have to check every time I am turning over the space for a new guest that Netflix is correctly logged into the right account. I would never give my password to a guest so if they get logged out it would require me going over to the apartment to log them back in (luckily, no one has asked me to do that.)
Hi Jose, So I'm a little behind on this thread & I've been looking into all this stuff with Netflix & if you offer up your own account could the guest potentially mess with the other accounts on it. Anyway, their is a way you can lock your other profiles so they would only have access to the one you want them to have..
I have a "guest profile" for Netflix/Hulu/Amazon but it is still my account. The account requires a password to be modified in any way, including ordering movies that are not included in the subscription so there's no way guests could change or charge anything.
The only issue I had once was someone signed in on their own account, then messaged me claiming that someone was watching stuff on their account after they checked out. We didn't have any guests during the time they claimed this was happening and we had logged them out anyways, so I think they had left their account logged in elsewhere.
@Kelly1126 I have the Netflix account that allows for streaming on 4 devices at once. I just leave the account signed in. Same with Amazon: I'm actually not sure how many people can log in at once, but there has never been a conflict, maybe because Amazon Prime is pretty poor in Canada and there isn't much to watch. Some people choose to use their own account, but I do provide mine also so they can use it if they want.
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