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Comment by michaelmior | Hacker News Reader

I'm still waiting for Netflix to update their profile transfer tool to allow moving profiles to a new account. I was sharing an account and now also have my wife's account. I'd really like to be able to move my profile from the old account to my wife's account to avoid losing history, but the tool currently only allows moving to a completely new account.

I really think such a feature is necessary if Netflix really wants people to only share with those in the same household. People in a household change over time and their current model doesn't really facilitate that.

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Would it really be that big of a deal to start over?

I get the annoyance of starting over on something like YouTube or Spotify where you've built up libraries of people/artists you follow, videos/music, playlists, etc. But Netflix is just watch history basically. You can't even really trust stuff in "My list" to stick around because their library of content rotates so much. And it's not like their recommendation system does much more than recommend whatever is new and popular. I feel like you could watch 10 movies on a new account and it'll dump you into a bucket of recommendations identical to where you were before.

It seems it would be a big deal for me. Perhaps that's not how I would feel in practice if I bit the bullet and did it. But I really would like to keep my list.

How many items are in your my list?

When Google Play Music ate the dust I had to re-add all the albums in my library to Apple Music. It was a few hour project, and that's with Apple Music's slow, janky Mac interface. On Netflix I feel like you could search for + add like 10 movies/shows per minute.

~200. I'd just rather wait for Netflix to solve my problem for me. What I'm doing now is working fine.

kinda yes. Recommendations that are irrelevant to you because you already watched it are annoying.

Not knowing where you ended up, which episodes you have already seen are annoying. Especially if its between seasons

that is a big part of the netflix value proposition. You sit back in your coach, and just binge watch the next recommended thing

Does this not work for you: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/124844

That is for transferring a profile to a new account which is exactly my point. I have another existing account I want to transfer the profile to. I don't want to create a new account.

Ha. I see. I wonder whether they’ll add that capability. It would also be super useful when people become a couple and move in together… merging your Netflix accounts.

Exactly my situation :)

Unlikely given their goal is to promote splitting of accounts into more paying customers, not merging into fewer.

That's not their goal. Their goal is for accounts to map to households. When I marry someone or live with someone, we're the same household.

I think that is overly charitable. Their goal is to maximize profits and provide their shareholders with value.

And the way to do it is to commission great content that many people around the world with varying tastes want to pay for.

If people are watching but not paying, then there's less money to invest in new, exciting content so subscribers get screwed.

Netflix recommendations are ass anyway, what are you really losing by just starting fresh?

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