How to watch movies without wifi on netflix

Netflix is great for binging shows and films, but what do you do if you have slow internet, or no access to the web whatsoever? Well, you can actually download content straight from Netflix – its an excellent way to get around internet issues. 

Netflix allows users to download TV shows and movies via its app for iOS, Android and PC for offline viewing. It isn’t immediately obvious how to make the most of the feature, so here’s our guide to downloading your favourite Netflix titles – including a workaround for the shows and films not included in the official download programme.

Smart Downloads, available via the Netflix app for smartphones and PC, automatically deletes episodes of the series you’ve watched and downloads the next one, making watching your favourite series offline much easier.

If you are planning to download any shows, the file sizes are going to be quite large – we recommend doing this over Wi-Fi, so you don’t eat up all your data.

Downloading content via the Netflix app

Launch the Netflix app and select the Downloads tab. Ensure that Smart Downloads is turned on at the the top of the screen (if it is not, tap this and slide the toggle to enable it). Now tap ‘Find Something to Download’.

This is a shortcut to the ‘Available for Download’ section in the menu. You should see a huge selection of shows available to download, as well as some of the most popular movies. 

Any show or movie that is available to download will have the downward facing arrow symbol next to it, which you can see in example below, to the right of the episode ‘Hyde Park Corner’. 

Once you’ve found a show you’re interested in and want to watch offline, perhaps on your commute or on a long flight, select it and then tap the Download icon next to the episode you’re after. You will then see a blue progress bar along the bottom of the app. Once downloaded, you’ll see a blue icon next to that episode.

You can find your downloaded shows by navigating to the menu and tapping My Downloads. Simply press play and watch away. You can have up to 100 downloads on your device. 

If you have enough space on your phone or tablet and some time before you’ll be disconnected from the internet, you might want to download in higher video quality. To do so, go to the menu and scroll down to App Settings. Under Downloads, tap Download Video Quality and choose the option that suits you.

Note that not all content from Netflix is available to download, sadly. This could be due to a number of factors including cost, popularity, availability and complications surrounding content rights. It may be that the show/film is available through another provider for offline viewing, so check that out before you discount it completely.

Author: Chris Martin, Reviews Editor

Tech Advisor's Reviews Editor, Chris has been reviewing all kinds of tech for over 10 years and specialises in audio. He also covers a range of topics including home entertainment, phones, laptops, tablets and more.

Netflix introduced downloads back in November 2016, and the service has beefed up its features for downloading since. Now you can tweak your Netflix settings to get automatic downloads and deletions once you've finished watching a movie or episode, as well as an endless supply of new downloads to make sure you always have something to watch offline.

Learn how to adjust your downloads settings to get Netflix to automatically manage it for you with its Smart Downloads features, and how to manage downloads for countries with restricted licenses. For more, learn about Netflix's hidden menu or see CNET's reviews of all the streaming services

How can I download Netflix shows?

If you're familiar with using Netflix on your mobile device, you've probably noticed the dark "Download" button that sits right below "Play." Clicking that button starts a download of a local version of the movie or TV show you want.

You can download Netflix movies and TV shows on iPhone, iPad, Android and Amazon Fire devices, as well as computers with Windows 10 or 11 and some Chromebooks and Chromeboxes. Netflix downloads are set by default to only use Wi-Fi, though you can change that in your app settings.

There's no Mac app for Netflix yet, so unfortunately, that means no downloads for Mac laptops (unless they're running Windows too).

TV shows can be downloaded individually by clicking the download icon next to each episode. On Android devices, you can download an entire season of a show by tapping the separate Download Season button next to the My List, Rate and Share links near the top of a movie or show listing. 

Netflix allows you to keep a maximum of 100 downloads on as many devices as are included in your subscription plan. Each of the downloads has a different expiration date based on its content license -- some expire as early as 48 hours after you first start watching. Downloads can be renewed, but some have a limit on how many times per year. If a movie or show leaves the Netflix service, all downloads for it immediately expire.

You can delete individual movies and shows by unselecting the check box next to each title. You can remove all of your downloads by going into your App Settings and clicking "Delete all downloads" under Downloads.

A "Downloads" tab (called "My Downloads" on Windows) that sits at the bottom of the Netflix app shows you which downloads are in your library and lets you play them. It also lets you customize your download settings, such as Smart Downloads.

How does Smart Downloads work on Netflix?

Netflix's Smart Downloads option provides an easy way for you to manage the movies and TV shows that you've downloaded. It basically contains two download options -- Download Next Episode and Downloads for You.

When turned on, Download Next Episode will automatically delete TV show episodes once you've watched them and then download the next episode in the season. It's a no-brainer for anyone who downloads TV shows, which is probably why the feature is turned on by default in Netflix apps.

In the Windows Netflix app, toggling on Smart Downloads enables Download Next Episode, even though it's not called out as a separate feature.

What is Netflix's Downloads for You?

Downloads for You expands the automatic downloading and deleting options for Netflix that are used in Download Next Episode. The feature is available in the iPhone, iPad and Android versions of the Netflix app, as well as some Chromebooks and Chromeboxes.

After Downloads for You is turned on, Netflix uses your viewing habits and preferences to download movies and TV shows that the service thinks you will like. Once you watch them, they're automatically deleted. 

If you don't want to watch a downloaded title, you can delete it the same way you would delete downloads that you initiated manually. You can also click the icon of a square surrounded by a broken circle to cancel downloads in progress. Downloads for You only works over Wi-Fi. 

To turn on Downloads for You, click into the Smart Downloads settings (via the Downloads tab or App Settings) and then toggle on Downloads for You. 

Turning that feature on will then open up options for limiting how much data Netflix will automatically download for each user profile, anywhere from 0.5GB to 9.5GB. (Netflix notes that one hour of video at normal quality is about 0.25GB.) 

Which movies and TV shows can't be downloaded from Netflix?

Whether a movie or TV show can be downloaded on Netflix depends on its content license, and licenses vary from title to title. Netflix says that it tries to make as many titles available for download as possible, and when a movie or show is not downloadable it's usually because of three reasons:

• Another company has exclusive content rights
• The content rights aren't available for purchase
• Popularity, cost or seasonal factors

A quick survey of Netflix's most popular titles shows that all of the Top 10 movies and Top 10 TV shows in the US are available for download as of Oct. 3.

In my informal survey, the titles I found mostly likely to be excluded from downloading are popular TV shows from cable or broadcast networks. "Grey's Anatomy," "Gilmore Girls" and "The Walking Dead" are three shows you can stream on Netflix, but not download.

Can I watch Netflix downloads in any country?

It depends on whether Netflix has the content license in the country you're visiting for the movie or show you want to watch.

Geographical restrictions that limit streaming titles in certain countries also apply to downloaded movies and TV shows. If you're traveling in a country where Netflix is not showing the title you downloaded, you won't be able to watch it, even though you already downloaded it in your home country.

Trying to watch a downloaded movie in a country where Netflix doesn't show it will result in an error message in the Netflix app: "Download Not Available in This Country -- Not all downloads are available to watch in every country."

VPN software that create virtual private networks can be used to get around geographical restrictions, but Netflix makes a strong effort to block VPN from working with its service. Using a VPN to bypass geo-blocking could also be considered a violation of Netflix's terms of use.

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