Here's how to stay under the radar on someone else's Netflix account

Are you still using your ex's Netflix?
 By 
Brian Koerber
 on 

Starting at just $7.99 a month, Netflix remains as one of the cheapest options for countless hours of televised entertainment. But let be real -- if you can mooch of someone else's account, you totally should.

While your parents or grandmother may be totally OK with your inability to pay for your own damn Netflix account, others, like your ex, may not be cool with it. But have no fear, there are a few ways for you to be a fly under the radar, as long as the owner of the Netflix account isn't looking super closely.

Now, if you're logged into someone's account and go watching shows all willy nilly, they're definitely going to notice, so you need to create your own profile. The problem here is that creating the profile will draw even more attention to your bumming. However, getting a little clever with your profiles can help you stay incognito.

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Hijack the Kids account

Netflix allows your to have five separate profiles, which may limit your secret watching. If you know the owner of your account never uses the "Kids" profile, your best best is to hijack that.

  1. Under the profile selection, click "Manage Profiles" and select the Kids profile.

  2. Delete the Kids profile.

  3. Add a new profile and name it "Kids".

Unfortunately, Netflix no longer allows you to use your own custom profile picture, but it's likely that anyone that does not use the Kids account won't notice the change.

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Operate under Add User

Now, if the person you're stealing Netflix from does use the Kids profile, your the next best thing to do is to operate under the guise of the "Add User" tab. It's not foolproof, but it will likely trick anyone who is not looking too closely.

When there are four or less profiles on a Netflix account, the site gives you the ability to add a profile. This works especially well if there are four profiles on the account, because it won't have two "Add Profile" tabs.

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Like we did for the Kids profile, click on "Add Profile," but this time, name it "Add Profile." The photo for the profile will be different, but it's your best bet at going unnoticed for a while.

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Now, if you're on the other side of this whole thing, and you feel as if someone has been freeloading off your account, just change your password and it will force anyone using your account to log back in.

[h/t:Reddit]

Topics Netflix

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Brian Koerber

Brian was the Culture Editor and has been working at Mashable on the web culture desk since 2014.

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