How to add a PIN to a Netflix profile
It’s no secret that lots of people share a single Netflix account. Netflix limits how many screens you can watch on at the same time but it has no restrictions on how many profiles can be created under a single user account so you can give as many people access to your account as you want. The downside is that anyone can access your profile and check out what you’ve been watching. The only way to prevent this is to add a PIN to a Netflix profile.
This is a new feature that Netflix has just added and it may have been in response to the recent world-wide lockdowns but it’s useful and should have been added ages ago.
PIN for Netflix Profile
Visit Netflix and sign in with your account. Click your profile image at the top right and select ‘Account’ from the menu. This will take you to the settings page for Netflix. Scroll down and select your profile. It will expand to reveal additional options. Click Profile Lock.
In order to proceed beyond this point, you will have to enter the password for the Netflix account that the profile has been created under. Enable the option and then enter the pin you want to use. For certain profiles, you can enable an option to require the PIN for that profile to add more profiles.
The PIN won’t be required automatically the next time you visit Netflix if your profile has already been selected. If you want to lock the profile, click your profile icon at the top right and select the ‘Exit Profile’ option. When you do, the profile will be locked. To get back in, you will have to enter the PIN for it.
A profile that has been locked by a PIN will have a padlock icon under the profile on the profile switcher.
This feature, while welcome, has limitations. The PIN isn’t independent of the account’s password. The PIN can be reset by anyone with the password to the account and if everyone with a PIN locked profile has the password, the PIN isn’t very effective. If you forget your PIN, you can reset it with the account password.
Likewise, if only one person has the password to the Netflix account, they alone can set up PINs and will know the PIN for each account. This is mostly just a parental control that’s been mimicked for adults but you can use it to keep your profile safe from everyone except whoever owns the account.
