You pop your popcorn, sit on the couch, turn on the TV, put on Netflix , and… ” Sorry, there are too many people using your account right now. To continue, stop playback on another device or see plan options .” Someone who considers himself your friend has definitely abused your trust and shared your account with someone else without telling you. Someone has snuck onto the ship without paying, but you need proof before you accuse someone. And you have to do it quickly, before your popcorn gets cold. How can you find out who the stowaway is? So let’s go to it.
Netflix and shared accounts
We don’t know how much longer shared Netflix accounts will last. Until now, contracting the service between a few people is usually relatively affordable. In fact, this function is what has allowed the company to place itself in a privileged position.
However, Netflix has already warned several times that it is not satisfied with the shared accounts. Now that the service is starting to lose users, we wouldn’t be surprised if limits were placed on their memberships . Obviously, shared accounts will continue to exist, but there could be new barriers, such as making sure that all users who share an account use the same IP – that is, making sure that the account is used by people who live in the same nucleus, whether they are family or roommates.
The most common Netflix membership is Premium . It allows consuming platform content from four screens simultaneously. Four more devices can also be associated to download the content and be able to watch it offline. In addition, it is the only membership that allows you to view content in 4K. This plan is the cheapest if we decide to share an account, since it is worth about 17.99 euros per month (4.49 euros per user). Everything will work perfectly as long as we don’t get another user in the account. In that case, it will be our mission to identify it . Otherwise, you will be left without seeing the Stranger Things episode.
How to detect an intruder in your Netflix account
Time to remove the mask. To do this process, the most comfortable is to use a computer. However, it can also be done in the browser of a mobile phone.
- Open a web browser and go to the Netflix website .
- Next, log in with your username and password.
- Now, click on your username and you will enter your profile .
- Now go to the top right corner. Click on your username and go to ‘ Account ‘.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page. There is an option there called ‘ Recent Device Streaming Activity ‘.
- A list will appear with the names of the devices that have recently connected to the account and their IP addresses .
If you see something strange in that list, you will not be able to cast that device exclusively. What you have to do is go back to the previous step and click on the ‘ Sign out of all devices ‘ option. Now, change the password and notify the rest of the people who share your account. Not without first noticing that there was an unknown user —or several— using the account.
As an extra step, we recommend that you keep track of the IPs that were on the list and the new ones that are going to reconnect as soon as you change the password. This way you can get an idea of who is leaking the password and whether or not you deserve to continue sharing an account with that person.