Find out if someone accessed your Netflix account

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 6, 2016
Updated • Sep 14, 2018
Music and Video
|
0

A hacked Netflix password can be purchased for as little as $0.25 on black market sites, and it is often the case that account owners or users don't realize that their account is being used by someone else.

There are a handful of indicators that someone unauthorized may be using your Netflix account, but there is only one surefire way of telling whether that is indeed the case.

The guide that follows provides you with information on finding out if your Netflix account was accessed by a third-party, and methods to regain full access to the account.

Find out if someone accessed your Netflix account

Your Netflix stream lists shows or movies you did not watch

If you notice that someone binged a full season of "That 70's Show" or "Spartacus", and you know it was not you on that one weekend where you had one drink too many, you may conclude that someone else accessed your account.

The main issue here is that the whole thing is not overly reliable. For instance, if you share the account, someone you share it with may have picked the wrong profile which happens in the best of families.

More problematic than that is that anyone with account access may remove traces of watched shows or movies from Netflix.

You can do that at any time by loading the url https://www.netflix.com/WiViewingActivity directly or by clicking on the profile icon at the top right corner, selecting Your Account from the context menu opening up, and on the page that opens the "viewing activity" option under "My Profile".

There you find listed all shows and movies sorted in chronological order, and options to remove any or even all of them with a click on the x-icon next to each listing.

Netflix notes that it may take up to 24 hours before the show or movie is removed from the profile's viewing activity.

Account is already in use messages

When an account reaches its viewing limit, which is based on the plan you are subscribed to on Netflix, error messages are displayed when you try to watch Netflix using it.

Up to four devices can be used to watch Netflix depending on the subscribed plan. The following messages may be displayed when that limit is exceeded:

  • Your Netflix account is in use on another device.
  • Too many people are using your account right now.
  • Sorry, too many people are using your account right now.
  • Your Netflix account is in use on too many devices.

These messages may be a good indicator depending on the plan you are subscribed to. These messages confirm unauthorized access if you are the only user for instance

Recent Account Access

The only 100% foolproof method of finding out if someone has unauthorized access to your Netflix account is to check the "recent account access" listing on Netflix.

It displays the date and time of the last five account activities detailing for each the country, IP address and device used to access the account.

Hacked? Those are the next steps

There is the possibility that someone you shared your Netflix account password with handed it over to another person if you share the account.

So, the account or your computer may not be hacked necessarily. Still, the first thing you may want to do is change your account password on Netflix unless you believe that your computer is compromised.

Open https://www.netflix.com/password in the web browser and sign in if you are not already. Type your current password and then the new password twice.

You can enforce use of the new password on all devices Netflix is being used on, and should keep the option enabled on the change password page

If you believe that your computer is compromised, changing the password may not do you any good as the new password may already be in the hands of others due to the state of the system.

Use a program like Bitdefender Antivirus Free or Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to scan the system for malicious files.

Also, what you may want to do is make sure you don't use the same account password for other services. If you do, it is suggested to change the password everywhere it is being used. Check out Do this if a company’s user database got hacked and your account is in it for instructions on how to do that.

Summary
Find out if someone accessed your Netflix account
Article Name
Find out if someone accessed your Netflix account
Description
How to find out if your Netflix account is being used by someone without authorization, and what you can do about it if that is the case.
Author
Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
Logo
Advertisement

Tutorials & Tips


Previous Post: «
Next Post: «

Comments

  1. Anonymous said on August 1, 2010 at 12:43 pm
    Reply

    Why not make use of the mplayer.conf?

  2. Mike J said on August 1, 2010 at 2:58 pm
    Reply

    Huh, I have never even seen this “font cache” pane; videos play at once for me, using VLC & XP SP3.

    1. Martin said on August 1, 2010 at 3:39 pm
      Reply

      Mike, in theory this should have only been displayed once to you, at the very first video that you played with VLC. The time this window is displayed depends largely on the number of fonts in your font directory.

      1. Mike J said on August 2, 2010 at 2:30 pm
        Reply

        huh, I lucked out for a change?? Amazing!!
        Apparently VLC keeps this info through version updates, but I didn’t see this message after a fresh OS install about 8 weeks ago, & a new VLC.

  3. myo said on August 1, 2010 at 5:52 pm
    Reply

    yes, yes, i have the same problem. sometimes, VLC crashes when it is playing .mov file.

  4. Kishore said on August 13, 2010 at 2:55 pm
    Reply

    Error:
    Buidling font Cache pop-up

    Solution:

    Open VLC player.

    On Menu Bar:

    Tools
    Preferences

    (at bottom – left side)
    Show settings — ALL

    Open: Video
    Click: Subtitles/OSD (This is now highlited, not opened)
    Text rendering module – change this to “Dummy font renderer function”

    Save
    Exit

    Re-open – done.
    Progam will no longer look outside self for fonts

    Source – WorthyTricks.co.cc

    1. Martin said on August 13, 2010 at 3:10 pm
      Reply

      Great tip, thanks a lot Kishore.

  5. javier said on August 14, 2010 at 1:50 pm
    Reply

    @Kishore, I’ll try your tips, but does this mean it will no longer show subtitles either?
    I do use subtitles, but the fontcache dialog box pops up (almost) everytime I play a file.

    Could this be related to the fonts I have installed? Or if I add/remove fonts to my system?

    I’ll try to do a fresh install also, if your tips does no work. I’ll post back here later…

    /thanks
    /j

  6. Kishore said on August 15, 2010 at 12:38 pm
    Reply

    @ Javier, The trick i posted will show up subtitles too. If not,

  7. Kishore said on August 15, 2010 at 12:39 pm
    Reply

    @ Javier, The trick i posted will show up subtitles too. If not,Dont worry, VLC is currently sorting out this issue and the next version will be out soon.

    No probs @ Martin !! Its my pleasure

  8. Ted said on October 22, 2010 at 3:57 am
    Reply

    Try running LC with administrator privileges. That seemed to fix it for me

  9. Evan said on December 8, 2013 at 1:48 am
    Reply

    I am using SMplayer 0.8.6 (64-bit) (Portable Edition) on Windows 7 x64. Even with the -nofontconfig parameter in place SMplayer still scans the fonts. Also, I have enabled normal subtitles and it is still scanning fonts before playing a video. Also, it does this every time the player opens a video after a system restart (only the fist video played).

  10. Mike Williams said on September 6, 2023 at 1:26 pm
    Reply

    Does that mean that only instrumental versions of songs will be available for non-paying users?

Leave a Reply

Check the box to consent to your data being stored in line with the guidelines set out in our privacy policy

We love comments and welcome thoughtful and civilized discussion. Rudeness and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Please stay on-topic.
Please note that your comment may not appear immediately after you post it.