You can now transfer your Netflix profile to an existing account

Last October, shortly before cracking down on password sharing in the US, Netflix introduced a new Profile Transfer feature for its streaming service.

The feature allows users to transfer profiles to another account while keeping their personalized recommendations, viewing histories, My List, saved games, and settings. The problem was that users could only transfer their profiles to new accounts, but starting this week, the feature now allows profile transfers to existing accounts as well.

Netflix updated the original blog post from October on July 11 with the following message:

Starting today, the profile transfer feature has been updated to allow transfers to an existing account (instead of requiring a new account).

Initially, the intent of the Profile Transfer feature was to allow users who were sharing accounts with others to take all their data with them when the Netflix password-sharing crackdown started. That way, they wouldn’t have to start from scratch when creating their own accounts. But that is not the only reason someone would want to transfer a profile.

Say you are moving in with your partner or a roommate who already has a Netflix subscription. Rather than paying for two accounts, you can now transfer your profile to their account. Prior to the update, this was not possible with the Profile Transfer feature.

It’s a small change, but one that should make life slightly less miserable for Netflix subscribers who are still coming to terms with the death of password sharing.