How can you download netflix movies to watch offline?
One of our favorite features on Netflix is how the ability to download Netflix movies to watch offline. Unfortunately it seems that a lot of people are still confused about how this works exactly. Because of this we’d like to run you through the setup!
Netflix launched this part of their service in November 2016. One thing we should state up front: you will not be able to download everything that’s on Netflix onto your device. All shows and movies produced by Netflix are available, but not all that aren’t produced by them are. Luckily Netflix’ catalog grows every year so you will definitely find something to watch offline, which is also why we include this as one of our budget tips to survive long haul flights in economy.
Requirements for Netflix offline playback
Unfortunately not all devices allow you to store Netflix movies for offline playback. In fact, you can only use:
- Android phone or tablet
- iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
- Windows 10 App
What this means is that you’re out of luck if the device you want to use is a Mac, or a laptop running on an operating system older than or other than Windows 10.
For the other devices, the same logic applies: you will have to get the Netflix app to be able to use this function. That means through either Windows Store, Google Play Store, or Apple Store.
Finding netflix movies to watch offline
Now that you’ve installed the Netflix app, you can go through the offering to see if a title is available for offline playback. The easiest way to do this in the Windows app is to use the left sidebar and look for the category called “available for download”. In the phone apps you can go to the tab “downloads” and click “find something to download” get an overview of titles.
Downloading Netflix content to your device
When you found a title to download, you’ll find a button that says “download”. In the image under you can find it next to “Rate”.
Once you click that button the Netflix content will turn blue and start downloading to your device. You will get a notification saying the content has been downloaded. You can then access your downloaded content from the “My Downloads” folder in your app.
Some other considerations:
- Make sure you have enough space on your device. You can select the quality of the file you’re downloading. Standard quality for a movie of average length would be around 500-600 MB, whereas high quality would be around 2 GB.
- Netflix content also expires after a maximum of 7 days. If you still want the content after this time, you will have to renew your download.
We hope this will make it easier for you to find Netflix content to download. Let us know if you have more questions, and read up on Wheelman and Gerald’s Game (reviews here) to find out if you would enjoy watching those Netflix movies.
