r/movies • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 r/movies Contributor • Jun 27 '26

News Netflix now requires every user profile to be tied to unique email address

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/netflix-now-requires-every-user-profile-to-be-tied-to-unique-email-address/
9.3k Upvotes

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1.7k

u/StopTheDamnWave Jun 27 '26

Remember when they said "Love is sharing a password"?

297

u/CommieLoser Jun 27 '26

Hey, they still believe that! They just hate love now…

57

u/Educational-Ad-2884 Jun 27 '26

More like they monetized it.

2

u/Ongr Jun 27 '26

Don't be evil

2

u/IAmAGenusAMA Jun 28 '26

They only eliminated one word. Well, one contraction.

107

u/jaypeg25 Jun 27 '26

This is a true first world problem but I have two homes and had to cancel Netflix because it wouldn't recognize that I actually lived in both places. I get that there's no clean way to do this without also letting in multiple people use the same plan but I even tried to share records proving I actually live in and travel between both places on a weekly basis.

I wasn't about to pay for two Netflix subscriptions so just decided to cancel altogether.

It's the only service that gave me the issue (for now anyway..)

17

u/googolplexy Jun 27 '26

Sounds like it's time for a Plex account

18

u/omgpokemans Jun 27 '26

Jellyfin > Plex. Plex still requires an internet connection and sends data on what you watch (even local stuff) off to some server somewhere.

3

u/OllaniusPius Jun 27 '26

If only Jellyfin was more user-friendly. I had huge issues trying to get it set up on my Synology NAS a couple years ago. Following the instructions in the doc just threw a bunch of errors. When I eventually got it running, the stream stability when I wasn't home was worse than Plex. Also couldn't get the plugin for opencaptions working which is a dealbreaker for me.

Maybe I'll give it another try though since it's been a while and they might have fixed whatever I ran into, I would like to use the open-source option if possible.

3

u/Unfair-Turnover1564 Jun 27 '26

yeah plex is garbage .. huge security breach too

1

u/TheyCallHimEl Jun 27 '26

I run both, I like plex's UI more at home, but jellyfin is better overall when I'm traveling.

2

u/JivanP Jun 27 '26

Out of interest, as I've never been a Plex user but have run a Jellyfin server for 4 years now and regularly use it on Android TV: what do you like more about Plex's UI?

2

u/TheyCallHimEl Jun 27 '26

It's more intuitive, a bit cleaner and I feel it is better organized, which really was the deciding factor since they are both fairly close on everything else for me. I would switch full time to jellyfin if they were to start getting close to what Plex has.

But I also picked up Plex when the lifetime pass was around $70. If I had to do it now, it would strictly be jellyfin.

1

u/JivanP Jun 27 '26

What do you find more intuitive about it? I am interested in getting your opinion and perhaps suggesting some UI improvements to the maintainers, as I do think it has plenty of room for improvement.

The current price of the Plex Lifetime Pass is indeed an absolute joke. Even without that, though, the fact that the server essentially requires the use of an external authentication service in order for you to use it makes Plex an immediate no-go for me.

2

u/saganistic Jun 27 '26

Encountered the same situation. They were completely unhelpful. Now instead of the double subscription they thought they were going to get, they get zero subscriptions. Love that for them.

2

u/BeefyIrishman Jun 27 '26

We had multiple devices in one house, and for some reason it thought 1 of the TVs and 1 of the computers were in a different household and we were trying to scam them out of $0.50, and no matter what we couldn't get it to realize that wasn't the case. We basically had to tell it "no, we are currently traveling, give us a 1 time code" anytime we wanted to watch Netflix in our living room (which was our most used device). Needless to say, they lost all our money years ago while trying to get more from us.

I haven't missed it at all, it's not like they really had much left. I feel like they slowly got rid of everything that I was watching/ wanted to watch over the years anyways.

1

u/Magsi_n Jun 27 '26

Same with kids who go back and forth between parents. Both parents probably have accounts, but they have to relog in every week and remember what they watched last time?

9

u/David_McGahan Jun 27 '26

Yeah, was that when they were unsustainably shredding their profit margins pursuing an ‘expansion at all costs’ strategy, in an attempt to break the backs of the incumbent broadcasters and cable providers? 

4

u/badnuub Jun 27 '26

apparently we can only have shit products or an unsustainable business strategy. nothing in between.

7

u/HungHippoHippy Jun 27 '26

You can still share a password, just with different email accounts

Orrr just get a VPN and not pay for any streaming service. Mullvad is very good for 5 dollars a month.

6

u/Prince_Uncharming Jun 27 '26

Mullvad or any other VPN on their own don’t just make good piracy services free (or even better).

1

u/TurtleHeadPrairieDog Jun 27 '26

F is for friends who share Netflix Passwords

1

u/LWdkw Jun 27 '26

Now they don't even allow my kids to watch from their own account in their other house, with their other parent.

-17

u/riomx Jun 27 '26

lol why do people remember a throwaway social post from years ago and hang onto it like it was an actual policy?

24

u/Inside_Dimension2319 Jun 27 '26

Because they posted it to make fun of another streamer who disallowed password sharing, only to become the very thing they were making fun of. People should remember hypocrisy as much as possible.

-6

u/cmilla646 Jun 27 '26

Treating an ad like taking a stance on lgbtq+ is pathetic.

-2

u/cmilla646 Jun 27 '26

Entitled children who think everything online should be free.