Offline downloads from Netflix have expiry dates attached to them. This means that you can only watch downloaded movies offline for a limited amount of time after which you would be required to “renew” it to continue watching. Downloaded titles expire for various reasons which I have explained in a previous post.
This article would also apply to you if some of your Netflix downloads disappeared or if the renew download button is not working.
Renew Expired Downloads on Android
- Open up the Netflix app on your Android phone or tablet. Make sure you have an internet connection.
- Click on the menu icon to show the list of menus.
- Choose My Downloads.
- Scroll to the title you would like to renew, then click the Renew icon (exclamation icon).
- Choose Renew Download.
Note that you can only renew a movie a limited number of times. After you run out of renews for that specific title, you would have to stream it with an internet connection if you still need to watch it.
Renew Expired Downloads on iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch
On these Apple devices, a wrong date / time might falsely tag a movie as expired. Check to make sure that the date setting on your Apple device is not different from the current date or time by a significant amount.
Follow these steps to change your date and time settings on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
- On your home screen, click on the Settings icon to enter the settings area.
- Choose General.
- Select Date & Time.
- You can manually change the date by tapping on the date and changing the values, or the time by tapping on the time and changing it.
- If you want your date and time to automatically be correct at all times, just turn Set Automatically to On. This way, your phone will always pick the current date and time from your network provider.
Renewing Netflix Movies On Apple Devices
Follow these steps to start watching an expired title offline again.
- Connect to the internet.
- Open up your Netflix app
- Open the Netflix menu by tapping on the menu icon (three stripes).
- Choose My Downloads from the menu.
- Look in the right corner of the screen, and tap “Edit”.
- Locate the movie you would like to renew, then click on the red X icon to remove it from your phone.
- Now search for the movie again on Netflix.
- When you find it, go to the description page of the movie and tap the Download icon (down arrow, one stripe). If you’re looking for a TV show episode, there would be a download icon beside each episode, so you can download the affected episodes or all of it if you wish.
- After downloading the show / movie, it would reappear in your “My Downloads” section (steps 3 and 4), and you can now watch it offline again.
- If you are unable to renew / re-download this movie, it means that you already hit the download limit for it and must stream it online from now on.
Renew Expired Downloads on Windows 10 PC, Phone, and Xbox One
This applies to Windows 10 computers, Windows 10 Phones, and the Xbox One since they all use the same Netflix app from the Microsoft store. Follow the procedure below to renew expired movies on your windows app.
- Connect to the internet.
- Open up your Netflix app
- Open the Netflix menu by tapping on the menu icon (three stripes).
- Choose My Downloads from the menu.
- Scroll to the title you would like to renew, then click the Renew icon (exclamation icon).
- Choose Renew Download.
Note that you can only renew a movie a limited number of times. After you run out of renews for that specific movie, you would have to stream it with an internet connection if you still need to watch it.