Tech

3 quick steps to prepare your Netflix account for Thanksgiving guests

Published

2 weeks ago

24 November 2025

3 quick steps to prepare your Netflix account for Thanksgiving guests

It’s Thanksgiving week in the US. If you’re hosting friends and family, hopefully you’ve already got the food planned. However, one thing you may have overlooked is the entertainment.

If you have a Netflix account, you don’t need to spend any extra, but there are some steps you should take to keep the holiday running smoothly—and to ensure your profile recommendations aren’t messed up by repeated streams of CoComelon.

Create a guest profile

Visitors are bound to want to watch some movies and shows during their stay. Perhaps in the evening, when everyone is stuffed after the meal, you’ll come together to watch one of Netflix’s new movies. Or maybe during the day you’ll need to put on a show to keep the kids entertained.

Whatever the case, it’s best to create a guest profile for visitors. This stops the recommendation algorithm on your profile being compromised by something you wouldn’t normally watch. It also saves you having to tidy the Continue Watching row when it gets filled with incomplete viewings. Furthermore, it means that any changes to settings won’t impact your profile.

Netflix lets you have up to five profiles, including your main one. They’re tied to your account rather than your device, meaning a profile you create on your TV is also accessible on your phone.

Profiles aren’t the same as screen limits, which determine how many people can use your Netflix account simultaneously in the same household. That varies from two to four streams, depending on your subscription plan.

To create a guest profile:

Navigate to the Manage Profiles page.
1. Web: Hover your profile picture in the top-right and select “Manage Profiles”.
2. Mobile: Open the app fresh. Alternatively, select “My Netflix” in the bottom-right, then the three horizontal lines in the top-right, then “Manage Profiles”.
3. TV: Navigate to the top-left to highlight your profile picture, then select “Switch Profiles”.
Select “Add [Profile]”.
Name the profile. For example, “Guest”.
If you want to create a child-friendly streaming experience with a minimal interface and restricted content access, select “Kids Profile”. You could create two profiles, one for adults and one for children.
Select “Save” or “Done”.

When Thanksgiving is over and peace returns to your home, you can return to the Manage Profiles page to delete the profile, if you wish. Personally, I keep it permanently, since it’s handy whenever I have visitors throughout the year.

Build a guest watchlist

If you know what your guests are going to watch or you want to line up some family movies and shows that have caught your eye, you can add them to “My List” on Netflix. This builds a watchlist that is easily accessible, meaning you don’t need to remember what you wanted to watch or hunt for it when the time comes.

To do this, access your guest profile, find what you want to watch, and select the “+” icon. This adds it to your list and turns the button into a checkmark. Select it again to remove the show or movie.

You can access your watchlist through the main navigation; it’s labeled “My List” (web) or “My Netflix” (mobile and TV). Things aren’t removed from this after you watch them, so you may wish to do some periodic cleaning.

Lock your main profile

With your fancy new guest profile set up and ready to go, there’s one final thing left to do: lock your main profile. This secures your Netflix profile with a four-digit PIN and means that no one can accidentally use it.

You need to set this up on the web or on mobile, but it applies everywhere. To do so:

Navigate back to the Manage Profiles page.
On web, select your profile; on mobile, select “Edit” and then your profile.
Select “Profile lock”.
Select “Create [a] profile lock”.
Enter your password to confirm you own the account.
Input a four-digit PIN.
Select “Save [PIN]”.

You need to enter your PIN every time you want to access your Netflix account. For ease of access, you can remove it after your guests leave. To do that, return to the profile lock page and select “Delete profile lock”.

With all that out the way, you can enjoy the holidays knowing that your Netflix account is ready to go.

There are further tweaks you can make if you’re still in the customizing mood. I always disable autoplay previews so that I can browse Netflix’s movies and shows in peace without trailers blasting through my speakers. Considering the volume your Thanksgiving party might reach even without the TV, you may want to do the same.