I help family members manage the account. (A kind of informal side hustle that all of us tech-minded people do). I know I’m not alone. However, Netflix seems to think it’s quite unusual. Last month, I stopped seeing the settings for the account I pay for.
Pay for. Do not use. I don’t think I’ve watched anything on this account since early 2025, and that was really rare.
This is, of course, a side effect of Netflix’s rabid crackdown on users logging into accounts when they’re not at home. Who travels to other homes or even Entire other citiesamirite? But the stupid part (and I don’t use that adjective lightly) is that Netflix doesn’t just block access to its content.
Banning the content makes sense, given how the company continues to make its own series and also wants to buy another company outright at the moment. But no, Netflix has decided to go the whole distance and even block access to your account settings if you sign in from a location outside of your usual home.
Can’t change password, or in my case, update billing information. I understand that Netflix will likely assume that I will have access to the email address on file and will be able to enter the temporary access code. no. I wrote down the other person’s email address so that if they needed to reset their password, they wouldn’t have to wait for me to complete the process.
So, over the holiday, what I assumed would be a two-minute billing update, turned into a much longer task. I had the option of contacting the account owner to get a temporary access code (…which goes against the reason I’m taking care of the account…) or taking my ass to the person’s house. Fortunately, I live in the same geographical area.
Everyone is raving about the Netflix series. Not me. I just want to pay for dang service and then ignore it.
Ben Patterson/Foundry
I may now have to rethink my approach, so that I can access the codes in a pinch if needed, while also still allowing password resets access to the account owner. (Yes, they know something about password managers, but that’s just a caveat.) But seriously, Netflix. what %*(#.
I can handle this better if it’s at least worded You’ve never logged in from this site and we’ve blocked it because it looks suspicious. But nah. (Also, speaking of why isn’t there 2FA yet?)
This site block may be partly related to the holiday period – a quick check now seems to allow me to access the whole shebang again. But I don’t trust that this won’t happen again, and of course when I desperately want quick access. (I’ll probably mostly have to switch things around or help with accounts during holiday periods. That’s when people have time off to watch most things!)
But do you know what else happens during holiday periods, especially Black Friday? Offers on other streaming services. A few I benefited from. Maybe I should stop letting an $18-a-month subscription continue uninterrupted when I have to deal with this nonsense — and there are cheaper and equally interesting alternatives available.