Recently my father called me in panic.
There were only a few minutes left before Netflix started live streaming the MMA event, and it couldn’t reach my account. For a while, she had used Netflix as an add-on member with her profile through my family account. However, that day, he was logged out and couldn’t use my login credentials to watch Netflix. Instead, he saw a prompt asking him to “add an email address to your profile” to continue.
A Reddit user shared this image of the notification that affected profile owners are seeing.
Credit: scotty_dave/reddit/netflix
A Reddit user shared this image of the notification that affected profile owners are seeing.
Credit: scotty_dave/reddit/netflix
After some frantic phone troubleshooting and a few password resets, we realized that my dad needed to create his own login to continue using the extra profile I paid for. Although I was able to prepare her in time (for a few frustrating encounters), the situation was confusing and uncomfortable.
More users are facing this situation as Netflix has gradually required that each profile under a Netflix subscription uses a unique email address. When preparing things for my father, I was also asked to provide first and last name, but it was not required.
A Netflix spokesperson confirmed to Ars Technica:
This sign-in update is a permanent change that began on June 15, 2026.
The change means each user can now have their own login credentials, making it easier for secondary account users to store or change their credentials, log in to a new device, or use two-factor authentication. As Cord Cutters News notes, this setup enables profile owners to set their own language, audio, and display settings without being the account holder.
<a href