So over this weekend, I hit this error message stating that my account has been used to watch movies instantly from 4 different computers on my new PC plus an extremely scary message saying that to call to verify that my account is not being accessed by unauthorized parties.
Thinking back to myself, I indeed have used it on 4 different computers but the problem being, some of those computers were friends I was showing to and now do not have access to. This probably would be a big deal if I could de-register a computer from my account. I looked high and low on the Netflix site and the found the device limits in the terms of use.
System Requirements and Device Limitations:To enjoy our instant watching feature, your PC or Netflix-enabled device must satisfy certain system requirements. Click hereto view the various system requirements. As an additional member benefit, you may watch instantly on up to four (4) unique PCs and four (4) unique Netflix enabled devices during the course of a calendar year. Also, for certain plans, you will be allowed to view movies through our instant watching feature simultaneously on more than one PC or Netflix enabled device within your household. To view the number of devices on which you may simultaneously view movies that are associated with your plan, click here.
I ended up calling Netflix technical support for this. As usually, they were extremely helpful in explaining the situation. They told me that it was a studio restriction that and devices reset automatically once a year. They said they could add one more device to my account as a one time courstesy. After the long winded speech from the tech support rep, I asked if devices were registered by IP. They let me know that it wasn’t and it was registered on the device at installation. I let them know that is was frustating that this wasn’t more clear on the website and I had to go digging around for it. I would of been more careful if I had known.
After the call ended, I began thinking on how could I get around this. I started searching my registry for Netflix on the two computers I had access to and comparing the differences. What I found was that the way the Netflix player works is that it stores the device ID in the registry. After noticing the two device IDs on two separate computers, I wondered if copying one to another computer would fool Netflix to let me watch on my new computer. Once I edited my registry, I was able to play movies on my new computer using a device ID from my older computer.
1.) Go to Run
2.) Type regedit
3.) Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER
4.) Expand Software
5.) Expand Netflix
6.) Highlight Movie Viewer
7.) Look on the right hand side and you will see your device ID. It will look like XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX. This is the key you will need to copy.
8.) Right click on Movie Viewer
9.) Go to Export
10.) Save this file with something you can recognize.
11.) If you run this file on a computer that you are getting the maximum device error, it will enter enter this valid device ID and you will be able to play movies.
*This is a little different going from XP to Vista or the other way around since they are stored in different places in the registry depending on your security settings. If you do a search for movie viewer, you will be able to find it.
Filed under: Netflix Watch Instantly | 23 Comments
Tags: error, max devices, netflix, streaming
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Netflix also keeps track of the operating system associated with the viewer.
When I called support reg. the device limit, she was able to tell me the specific versions of windows (XP/Server/Vista) on which the viewers were installed.
I was also told that if you are planning to upgrade your OS, you should back up your registry and that I would need to allow the NetFlix senior engineer to log-in into my machine remotely to verify that it was indeed the same machine!!!
Awesome post.
Thanks for the info!
I too just reached this limit. I believe it is ignorant incase of a system upgrade or such. Thanks for the tip.
worked just fine for me from an xp home sp2 to an xp pro sp2.
i may try this on an enterprise server 2003 and see how that goes as well.
yup, ent server 2003 took to it as well.
good post, good info, thanks!
Installed Vista RC1 on two machines and hit this bump.
I think its plain stupid way of implementation. Its not the number, I am fine with restrictions. They don’t tell you this first. Then you have to wait upto Jan 14th of next year to reset the device IDs.
Anyways good find and great post.
this is so great. thanks a lot. i travel a lot and have installed this on several computers not knowing of this limitation. I understand why it is, but i’m not out to screw over netflix. they are a good company and can keep prices down for rentals so long as no one abuses their services.
Great info ..thank you. I too was really annoyed when I rec’d the message about the 4 computers being registered. I had installed the player on my work PC to check the service out and would have appreciated if I knew that only 4 install were allowed. So I blew one of them at work (like I have time to watch movies!!). I blew one on my older laptop that I replaced and a couple more with my kids messing about. Clearly, Netflix should have a statement when installing the player that you are limited to 4 installs. They were nice when I called them and I asked if they could reset the devices. Claimed they do not have the capability and I would have to wait until next Jan for a reset. Told them really disappointing! I mean Microsoft and Adobe works with you when you have issues like replacing hard drives from crashing, etc. Why can’t they do the same?
IT WORKED! Since I have 3 computers – vista, xp sp2, xp sp1….I now carry 3 exported registry files from MOVIE VIEWER and install it to any computer running those OS.
YAY! IT HAS WORKED ON ALL!!!! 
You are F*CKiNG genius~!
Booya! You = my hero. I owe you a beer.
this is much better than abandoning old account and opening a new one!!!!
Thanks bunches :^)
Just as an FYI for everyone doing this, from one person to another, if a Netflix tech ever comes across your account, and notices 2 computers with identical device IDs because this is a break in the contract with the production studios, youre account gets forwarded to the LP department, and will be locked down. I don’t want to seem cruel but if you want to use a free service don’t cheat the people who give it to you.
“I don’t want to seem cruel but if you want to use a free service don’t cheat the people who give it to you.”
I don’t know what free service it is that you are referring to. I pay for my Netflix account. If they want to give me the option to forego charges in exchange for a device number limit I might go for it. In the meantime I pay for unlimited instant video streaming and since part of the idea is that the service goes with me I’ll work around bugs like this as I please.
What is considered a new computer then? Since this is a registry value, if you get a new hard drive, you need to have a new device ID.
Also, I got the Netflix tech to do this same fix for one of my computers. They did have to log into my machine to do it but they gave me a registry file to import into my registry. They told me to double click on that file if I got into this issue again.
While I understand why it would get “locked down” but it is the fault of the way it was implemented that customers would have to go down this route.
I have yet to try this but I ran into the problem for a different reason than outlined here.
I installed it on my laptop and my desktop then I got a new hard drive and reformatted. On the “new” desktop I created two user accounts which both get counted as “devices.”
This was really sloppy on Netflix’s account. They could easily have stuck this reg key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, but instead its in CURRENT_USER, which means if I want multiple user accounts to access Neflix I dang well better not have more than 4 of those accounts.
I’d be pissed though if I change these and Netflix decides that I’m not suddenly doing something against their terms, it’s even on the same computer for goodness sake.
The last poster is correct. I had this problem as well. I called Netflix customer support (and the gentleman I spoke with was very courteous) and asked why I’m getting this message when trying to watch from my new laptop, since up until yesterday I only had one computer in the house. He asked me if I had 4 computers in the house, and I told him that I only had one until yesterday, and now I had two, a desktop and a laptop. So I asked him if the number of devices was verified by MAC address, and he told me “no, it’s based on a registry entry”.
So he then asked if I had multiple accounts on my desktop. I told him I had 4 different accounts set up on my desktop, and that we watch movies on all of them. So, when I fired up my new laptop, that became the 5th, and it wouldn’t let me watch. I told him that I thought this was a bad way of doing it, that it should be handled by MAC address, and not by account, because even with 4 accounts, it’s still just one computer, and the message I got said I had watched instantly on 4 computers, which wasn’t true. He agreed, but told me he couldn’t reset anything. He did tell me that they recently changed their rules and now the drop-off period for a device is 30 days instead of one year. So he suggested I stop watching movies on one of the accounts for 30 days, and then it would drop off. After it does, I can watch movies on my laptop.
I think that’s bull, though, and since I only have two computers, I should be able to watch movies instantly.
When I contacted tech support I was told the new version of AVG antivirus is creating the 4 computer limit message in error.
Here’s an easier way to add the old registry value onto another computer – If you have a copy of the “Netflix Device ID Restore” application, you can just run that on your new computer and enter the same “device ID” (registry ID value) from your old computer. (see the original post above for how to find the registry ID) I just tried this on a new computer and it works great. If you don’t have the Netflix Device ID Restore application you can probably download it somewhere online or call Netflix customer service, expect to wait on hold for about 20 minutes, and they will gain complete access to your computer to install the application and change the device id for you.
Okay, they could of told me that the registry was important. I was fine with the 4 machine limit and knew about it. Unfortunately, the machine I was using to watch movies on has deep freeze on it. After the fourth day of watching the moview on the pc, I got the message, since deep freeze resets the registry every restart. I was under the assumption that it would track mac addresses and ips. I called netflix and they said that was too easy to fake. Not as easy as exporting the registry keys.
Any way to clear the Device ID (w/o reformatting) and have it re-issued on Mac OS X 10.5? I removed everything related to netflix and silverlight and netflix still says this device (my laptop) is blocked.
Thanks!
This was so helpful! Thanks.
Hey do you know if you can steam movies on two different PCs or devices at the same time?