Sharing OTT password? Netflix rolls out ‘Profile Transfer' feature to curb practice; here's how it works

The world is increasingly turning to OTT platforms for entertainment, and owing to the soaring popularity of these platforms, billions are hooked to their smartphones and smart TVs.

The wide range of content being streamed on these platforms come with a cost. However, some may be skipping the cost factor and simply freeloading on streaming sites. Unfortunately, this may not happen anymore.

World’s biggest streaming service, Netflix, has announced a new feature called Profile Transfer. While the feature has been developed to assist users with the transfer of their Netflix data, it may potentially to an extent prevent password sharing. This has been one of the biggest issues concerning the streamer - to such an extent that the company had also attributed password sharing as one of the reasons for the massive drop in subscriptions worldwide.


Netflix introduced its new feature with a post on its blog. “Today, we’re launching Profile Transfer, a feature that lets people using your account transfer a profile — keeping the personalised recommendations, viewing history, My List, saved games, and other settings — when they start their own membership,” read the blog post. The new feature is being rolled out to existing members starting today.

All members will be notified by an email as soon as Profile Transfer feature becomes available on their respective accounts. Below are the steps to transfer your profile on Netflix:

• Open the Netflix App on your smartphone or PC.
• Go to ‘Transfer Profile’ option which will appear once you hover over the profile icon in the dropdown menu on homepage
• Follow the instructions
• One can turn off Profile Transfer settings at any point in time

Transferring profiles on Netflix will also transfer all personalised recommendations, viewing history, saved games, my list and other settings. The new feature is seen as a the streaming giant’s crackdown on password-sharing.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Netflix lost as many as two lakh users in the first quarter of 2022 and that the streamer was anticipating 2 million more in the second quarter.