Disney+ Is Cracking Down on Password Sharing, but Here’s How to Do It Anyway

This is not the year to stream Disney+ on someone else's dime. During an April interview with CNBC, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed the company had a plan to begin cracking down on password sharing in select countries, before blocking the practice entirely by September. Iger reiterated the September deadline in a Q3 earnings call last month.

Well, it's September. And on Wednesday, the company officially implemented an additional monthly fee if you want to share your password, though this policy has technically been in place since Jan. 25 (for new subscribers) and March 14 (for existing customers).

It's a frustrating development for many subscribers, and not just the ones who want to watch Disney content on someone else's account. There are plenty of users who have unconventional jobs, schedules, and situations that don't fit the mold of the customer who watches Disney+ from the same place every day of their lives. Companies like Disney and Netflix might not care about that, as long as they can keep growing their pool of paying subscribers.

You don't necessarily need too submit to giving the Mouse any more money than you already do, however: If Disney+'s password sharing rules work like we think they do, you might be able to keep streaming for free without too many issues.

How do Disney's password sharing restrictions work?

While we now have more information about when Disney plans to crack down on password sharing, the company is still a bit vague about how it will actually enforce its new rules. The terms of service say Disney can analyze the use of your account to determine compliance," and also defines how the policy applies to users:

Unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier, you may not share your subscription outside of your household. "Household" means the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein. Additional usage rules may apply for certain Service Tiers.

That's similar language to Netflix's policy, the company that kicked off all this bullshit. As a refresher, Netflix treats the TV you sign into your account with as the basis for the household. All devices then need to connect to that household's wifi when signing into Netflix in order to get a pass. Of course, you aren't limited to just your actual house for streaming Netflix: These devices need to stream Netflix on your household's wifi at leastonce a month, but can otherwise stream Netflix from anywhere you want.

How to get around Disney+ password sharing rules on a smart TV

Per Disney+'s official announcement, here's how they'll stop people from sharing passwords. First, there's the "official" way: If you want to add another user outside your household to your account, you can purchase the "Extra Member" add-on for $6.99 per month if you have Disney+ Basic, and $9.99 per month for Disney+ Premium. And that's what you'll get: One extra member per account.

That said, there is also a workaround for signing into TVs outside your household. According to the official explainer, if you try to access Disney+ on a TV outside your household and Disney+ tries to stop you, you can either set the current TV as the official household (which you probably don't want to do) or you can choose a new "I'M AWAY FROM HOME" option. (I'm not shouting; Disney chose to go with all-caps there.) When you do this, Disney+ sends a one-time password to the account holder's email. Ask the account holder for that code, and you can continue watching without messing with household settings.

How to get around Disney+ password sharing rules on mobile

What Disney doesn't mention is how streaming on devices like laptops, tablets, and phones will work. My guess is it is similar to Netflix's policy, which means that, assuming you live near the person whose account you're borrowing, you can bring your devices over to their house at least once a month and stream a few seconds from any Disney+ show or movie. Disney+ will then "remember" your device, thinking it's part of the household for the account.

When you go back to your house, or anywhere outside the account holder's home, you shouldn't have issues streaming, at least for another 30 days or so. (That said, it's possible Disney doesn't even care about smaller devices, seeing as it's being more lax about its TV sign-in rules than Netflix.)