Netflix’s Profile Transfer feature moves your recommendations, settings and more to a new account ahead of an upcoming password-sharing crackdown. Password freeloaders should be worried…
- What’s happening? Netflix unveils Profile Transfer as an easy way for folks to transition to a new account so that they aren’t starting from scratch.
- Why care? Because it signals a crackdown on password sharing is inevitable.
- What to do? Write to your congressmen demanding that… Just playing, there’s nothing to do about it but at least Netflix isn’t penalizing account sharers… Yet.
What is Netflix Profile Transfer? How does it work?
The Profile Transfer feature moves your personalized recommendations, viewing history, My List, saved games, settings and more to a new account.
To start a profile-transfer process, log in to the shared Netflix account using a web browser on a computer. Hover over your profile icon, then choose the Transfer Profile option from the contextual menu and follow the instructions to continue.
You supply an email address and password for your new Netflix account and the system does the rest. Once the process has finished successfully, the viewing history, recommendations and other settings from your old profile on the shared account will appear in your own one. Read: How to delete your Netflix account
Don’t forget to delete your old Netflix profile
“We will notify the owner of the original account after the transfer is complete,” Netflix explains. A backup copy of your profile will remain intact on the original shared account, but this won’t include any of your saved Netflix games.
Keep in mind that the original account’s owner will still see your profile listed on Netflix along with your watch history, settings and other data. In that case, contact the owner and ask them to delete your profile from their Netflix account.
You can turn off Profile Transfer in your own account settings at any time.
When will this feature become available?
Profile Transfer began rolling out to all Netflix members globally on October 17, 2022. The feature could take several weeks to reach all Netflix subscribers so check back later if you don’t yet see it in the Netflix interface on the web. Profile Transfer is unavailable in the mobile Netflix app [App Store link].
For what it’s worth, Netflix says it will email each and every user as soon as Profile Transfer becomes available for them.
This is about account sharing crackdown
It’s no secret that Netflix has been prepping for an upcoming crackdown on password sharing, which has long been a widespread practice among groups of people who live together like families, partners or roommates.
While Netflix hasn’t done much about account sharing so far, it’s been hinting for quite some time now that account sharing may be ending sooner than later.
Just read the following passage from the Netflix blog where the company lays out its reasoning behind the decision to roll out such a feature:
People move. Families grow. Relationships end. But throughout these life changes, your Netflix experience should stay the same. We’re launching Profile Transfer, a feature that lets people using your account transfer a profile when they start their own membership.
Reading between the lines, the new Profile Transfer feature is clearly yet another indication that a crackdown on Netflix account sharing is inevitable.
Netflix won’t say how it might prevent account sharing but it’s been testing an anti-password sharing feature in a few countries and it seems like Netflix may require that people “buy” additional homes for $3 each to continue sharing their password.
Netflix has also launched a new Netflix subscription with ads, priced at $7/month.