Troubleshooting - Netflix says my account is already in use when I try to watch.

If you see an error that says

“Your Netflix account is in use on another device. Please stop playing on other devices to continue. Visit Netflix.com/help for more information”  ...your Netflix account has reached the limit of active streams.  

There are two common causes for this

  1. Too many people are using the account.  If you've shared your Netflix account with friends or family, they may be using Netflix while you're trying to watch some content. The number of users that can stream at the same time will depend on your Netflix plan. You can see the limit for your account, as well as other plan options, from the Change Plan page on the Netflix Website Account page.  Standard plan is 2 users.  Solution: Make sure that no one else is using your account before trying to stream again.
    • If you're not sure what other device were streaming, check out your recent viewing activity. If you see anything that you don't recognize, you can sign out of all devices on your Netflix account and change your password. This will require you to re-authorize your Netflix devices before they can be used again.
  2. Playback was suddenly interrupted.  Netflix detects that you've stopped watching a movie or TV show when you press Stop on the player, or when you've watched all the way through. If Netflix playback is interrupted while a movie or TV show is still streaming (like losing Internet connectivity or turning off your device mid-stream), Netflix may not receive the message that playback has stopped. In that case, trying to play content again will result in an additional Netflix stream, which counts against your stream limit.​  Solution: The error message will go away on its own, but it may take up 2 hours.
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