I haven't been able to log onto Netflix for almost a week now. Keep getting: "Unable to sign in. The account name or password is incorrect. Please try again. (117). Netflix runs fine on other computers, just suddenly not on Apple TV. Otherwise Apple TV is working fine, with iTunes, You Tube, etc. Netflix claims it's an Apple issue. Apple won't discuss without a service contract. I know others have this problem from researching. Tried changing passwords, DNS, restoring, resetting, unplugging, etc. Anyone have a suggestion?
Same issue. Neither Netfix nor Apple are taking ownership. So, we cancelled our netflix subscription, have stopped purchasing any iTunes content, and just took back a Macbook Air we purchased for ourselves and two Apple TVs we purchased for family as gifts. Until they can grow up and find a solution I will not be purchasing any of their products. Apple released an update to Apple TV today (12.16.11) but still not a solution. I get the same 117 error but netflix works on every other piece of hardware we own...
I have found a work around that so far has worked. I changed my passedword for Netflix to all numbers and what do you know I was able to login to all 3 of my Apple TVs in my house. For some reason changing my password to all numbers works and has been all morning.
Doesn't work for me. My password was all numbers to begin with. I even tried changing it to another password with all numbers. I found a suggestion on another threat about rolling back the last ATV update, I'm gonna give that a try.
Click on joshuaerda's comments, and it will take you to his two entries about this problem. When you get to the part about downloading the previous software, he says to press SHIFT, but you have to press OPTION. (actually, that's assuming you have a Mac, don't know about windows). Good luck!
Okay, so I got a little lazy and never actually rolled back my AppleTV software. (I was simply streaming Netflix to the iPad and then mirroring onto the TV via AppleTV - in the hopes that the problem would be solved for me somehow.) However, my husband became proactive and actually called Netflix for a solution - which I had never attempted.
They claimed that my password had recently been reset to "12345" about a week before. Had I been the one calling, I would have explained that no, in fact, I had not reset my password, and that actually I had "re-reset my password" via their website to what it had always been just a couple days before in hopes of fixing the problem.
I guess the "re-reset" to my original password never "communicated" itself to Apple TV, because when they changed the "12345" password at Netflix HQ, everything was fine. (Odd, because the iPad, iPhone, and website all required my original password, not 12345. And shouldn't AppleTV just check-in with Netflix to confirm this password, rather than require its own unique one. Hmmmm...)
MORE INTERESTINGLY - the other day I downloaded the new Netflix update to my iPad and...lo and behold...same error! This time on my iPad. Luckily, I remembered the issue and tried to log in with the 12345 password, success! So for some reason the password associated with certain devices appears to reset itself to 12345 periodically - perhaps when an update is installed. I dunno. Anyway, seems I got lucky.
Called Netflix. Did not have a solution. Your suggestion worked like a charm. Hopefully the next Apple TV update will solve the problem for the many users that do not know your workaround. Many thanks.
I had the same symptoms as most others on this thread. Netflix on apple tv was working fine, then I started getting the (117) error. I tried changing the Netflix password, no luck. I upgraded to apple tv 4.4.4, still didn't work. I called Netflix and apple, and they blamed each other. As crazy as it sounded, I tried using the password to 12345, but it didn't work.
I had the exact same problem. After talking to both Netflix and Apple Support, I tried changing my password by adding one letter, and, lo and behold, it worked like a charm. Hopefully they will fix this glitch so others don't have to go through this nonsense.
Same problem, Apple TV 2 stopped playing some TV episodes that could be played on other devices. Tried the DNS trick, tried changing the password, no change - it still didn't work. For the first time it happened while I was watching a movie. The stream froze, then appeared to be buffering, then I got the Netflix unavailable. If this is so wide spread like it seems, why isn't Apple/Netflix fixing this?
Apple blames Netflix and vice-versa. Neither has an incentive to fix the problem as long as they can blame the other. I'm so frustrated that I may install the XviD Codec and go to peer-to-peer piracy!
A fe years ago I let a friend use my iPhone to access his Netflix account and I guess that he must have saved his username and password in 1Password.
Now (when I go to the Netflix page) it autofills HIS username and password.
I have searched for "Netflix", his username, but it does it show up in Password.
Where can it be coming from?
1Password never auto-fills any information (1Password's filling requires your prompting), so as Stephen_C mentioned it is something else (possibly/most likely iCloud Keychain) that is filling those details in.
For example, if Joe tells me the username and password so I can watch Netflix on his account, would it be illegal for me to share it with Bob? Would it make a difference if I created a separate account for Bob (but still under Joe's subscription)?
Assume there is nothing in the terms of service prohibiting accounts from being shared. To my understanding, this comes down to if the license Joe granted me is sub-licensable or transferable. I heard it often depends on if the license was paid for or free. I'm asking this question to learn about the law, obviously the best course of action would be to ask the owner if it's ok to share.
Let's take this a bit further. Perhaps Joe Schmoe gave you his debit card information so that you could make deposits for him and he said you could take $5 out for yourself for the trouble. This is a contract between you and Joe for a service. You can't extend Joe's offer to Jane Doe by saying "here is some debit card information, take $2.50 out for yourself". You have no right to extend your contract with Joe to somebody else.
Now specifically for passwords it basically boils down to the same thing. Unless Joe gives you explicit permission to give that to somebody else, you can't just decide to unilaterally give what Joe gave you to somebody else.
This may be different if Joe said "here, I'm buying you a subscription to service XYZ because you are a nice guy", this may be construed as a gift which transfers ownership. At that point you have control over what is or isn't done with the account.
As another example let's say Joe let you borrow his car. You can't turn around and say to Jane, "here's a car you can use", Joe did not extend the offer to Jane, nor did Joe give you the right to extend the offer to another person.
It's a moot point though, in the original context of this question, Netflix does restrict you from sharing your passwords "outside your household". Almost every paid service has some restriction against sharing with others.
In the end Netflix may shut off Joe's account and Joe may sue you for damages, but you aren't going to be thrown in jail for this. This would be a civil case (tort) which you may be liable for monetary damages.
According to their terms of service, which were accepted when the original account holder signed up, password must not be shared outside of that person's household. If we assume there is nothing in the terms of service preventing you from sharing the password, then the assumption is wrong, so nothing changed.
Joe hasn't given you a license to do anything. Joe has given you a password, that's all. You have no license that could be sublicensed. Asking Joe for permission would be polite, but he cannot give you any permission. Only Netflix can, and Netflix doesn't.
So you are definitely not allowed to share the password with anyone outside the original person's household. But you only have a password, you don't have a contract with Netflix, so most likely you are not allowed to share the password at all - the sharing must be done by the original account holder.
And as a amon's comment said, outside legal considerations, Netflix only allows simultaneous playing on 1, 2 or 4 devices simultaneously, depending on how much the account holder is paying every month. If the account holder ever finds they cannot watch Netflix because you gave the password to someone using it a lot, the account holder will change the password and you are both stuck. The account holder will also likely not be pleased about paying the bill for people they may not even know, and the same thing may happen.
I don't have a Netflix account and never have done. I have a Gmail address which I have never used for public communication. Suddenly I started getting email to this Gmail address from Netflix - not a "Welcome to Netflix" email or one requesting address verification, but what looked like a monthly promo for an existing account. This was addressed to someone with a different real name, with that name not similar in any way to the Gmail name.
After a few of these messages I decided to investigate by going to Netflix and trying to log in with that email address. Using the "forgotten password" option I was able to get a password reset email, change the password and log in. The account appeared to be from Brazil, with some watch history but no other personal details stored and no payment information.
Soon the emails from Netflix started to ask me to update payment information. I didn't, of course, and then they changed to "your account will be suspended" and then "your account has been suspended". The "come back to Netflix" emails are still coming in occasionally.
I don't see how this could possibly be a phishing attempt - I carefully checked that I was on the real Netflix site, used a throwaway password not used on any other sites, and did not enter any of my personal information. I also checked the headers of the emails carefully and they were sent by Netflix. So is this just a mistake on somebody's part, mistyping an email address (although it's surprising that Netflix accepted it with no verification), or something more sinister?
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