"Add Queue"/"Add Profile" Features Permanently Disabled

I'm starting a new thread for this topic, because I thought it was important.

I just called Netflix customer support. I was told that, as of today, Netflix has permanently disabled the "Add Profile" and "Add Queue" features. Apparently, if you have existing profiles, they will remain untouched. However, from today onwards, you do not have the ability to add new profiles or queues.

Since I didn't set up additional profiles or queues before the shutdown, I'm locked out of these features. I don't see "Add Profile" or "Add Queue" anywhere when I'm logged into my account. Sucks to be me!

Tags: add, disabled, profile, queue

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by marty_333 on June 12, 2008 at 8:29am: I just signed up for Netflix last week and was talking to friends that have the service last night and they told me about this great aspect of the service called profiles. I just spent 30 min trying to set one up. Online help still has references to profiles, just not how to set one up. I then found some how-tos on the web that went through the process, but I couldn't find the link on my account profile page. It was driving me crazy until I found this post. Two suggestions for the guy that works at Netflix:

1. If you are discontinuing the feature some documentation in the FAQ would be nice so you don't have people like me banging their head against the wall trying to get profiles to work.

2. If you are going to continue support for all of the existing users that have profiles set up, what's the harm in letting a few more users create profiles? You said that not many people use the service, so you can be pretty confident that the additional load would be small.

It would also be nice to know when the replacement for profiles will be rolled-out.

Thanks.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by jampony on June 12, 2008 at 12:33pm: "2. If you are going to continue support for all of the existing users that have profiles set up, what's the harm in letting a few more users create profiles? You said that not many people use the service, so you can be pretty confident that the additional load would be small."

lol -- He's got you there, Adrian! Great logic, marty! :)

PS: I agree with your first point, too. I've had some of those banging-head-against-the-wall moments, too, because of an un-updated help page.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Profile on June 13, 2008 at 6:12am: I found the same frustration. I signed up on May 30. I had to call customer support also to find out I couldn't do it. If I signed up a month earlier this wouldn't be a problem for me. That doesn't seem very fair. You should remove from all or give to all. grrrrrrr.

Please netflix fix this and fix it fast or I my take my business else where.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Spindaddydad on June 13, 2008 at 6:22am: You should remove from all or give to all
Because Socialism is awesome!

Please netflix fix this and fix it fast or I my take my business else where
Well, with that edict, I'm sure they're fixing it right now. By the way, here's a helpful link - Blockbuster.com; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by arbjrm on June 15, 2008 at 7:50am: Looks like profiles are going away, and since they did serve a useful purpose, I imagine Netflix will be open to suggestions re what we'd like to see in the new system. Here are a few things I've been thinking about, for Netflix to consider:

-Migrate queues and ratings from current profiles.

-Allow separate ratings for different family members.

In general, less clutter in the queue, less scrolling to see what's in the queue, more flexibility in moving items around. One idea is to have an active queue for current rentals, break out the rest of the queue some other way. A few possibilities:
- named sub-queues (DVD queue / IW queue model, with DVD queue being the active queue).
- user-assigned priority/ranking (DVD queue holds all, movies grouped in sections, like the current DVD Queue/Saved DVDs model, with the user choosing or setting more categories in between).
- other groupings (e.g., genre).
- notes: user would determine length of 'active queue'; if sub-queues used, provide easy transfer to active queue.

Odds and ends:
- Allow temporary sort by genre, or have sub-queues/groupings/view by genre as an option.
- Allow listing only the first disc of a multi-disc series, with subsequent discs added automatically (or stopped) on some trigger.
- Allow user to enter a note or reminder entry in the queue as a placeholder.

(If this was not the appropriate place to post this please let me know.); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by ewd76 on June 15, 2008 at 10:49am: You should remove from all or give to all
"Because Socialism is awesome!"

Ha; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by paulmike3 on June 18, 2008 at 5:43pm: Just received this email:

Dear Paul,

We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.

Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.

While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

If you have any questions, please go to http://www.netflix.com/Help?p_faqid=3962 or call us anytime at 1 (888) 638-3549. We apologize for any inconvenience.

- The Netflix Team; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Eric R. on June 18, 2008 at 5:51pm: I just got the same e-mail. I have been a NetFlix member for nearly 5 years now, but have to say that I am very disappointed in this. I feel like Profiles are a great feature and my wife and I use them as an integral part of how we have NetFlix set up. She has a profile and I have a profile and we each have different movies in our queues and when we return our movie, we get a movie back out of the right person's queue. This is a totally reasonable feature for a family and I have to say it was a bit of a pain before we moved to Profiles. I do not relish the idea of going back to the dark ages pre-queues.

I am definitely disappointed in them. It seems like pretty poor customer service to just dump this on their users without any legitimate explaination for why they are making this change and no upgrade path to preserve the basic functionality.

It really makes me wonder what NetFlix is thinking. I have generally had a very positive view of NetFlix, but this definitely taints my view of them.

Better yet, I can't find any place on their site where there is a "Contact Us" feature where I can send them this feedback.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Whatchawatchin on June 18, 2008 at 6:10pm: I have to admit, this might not have been as well thought out as it could have been. Seems to be used quite a bit by people and having this announcement coincide with summer vacation really was bad timing..lol.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by wowwee123 on June 18, 2008 at 6:52pm: Nah, not a bad idea, will drive membership participation here on ning :-p; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sarah on June 18, 2008 at 7:14pm: I really can't believe that NetFlix is getting rid of this feature - that was the selling point of getting Netflix in the first place! I can have my seperate queue, while my SO has his. Now I am going to have to work around his ratings, reviews, movies he wants to watch. This puts Netflix on par with Blockbuster, which I would never want to happen.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ernie on June 18, 2008 at 7:15pm: To Adrian and any other developers who may be working on this feature:

I totally understand re-implementing it in an easier way to use if that's what's deemed necessary for new features. But, could we please find a way to at least preserve or export or somehow not lose all the information that other profiles currently hold until we get to that point? A lot of time and effort has gone into a lot of people rating, reviewing, and creating queues in different profiles that will be lost, and this seems like a needless frustration for many customers who may be a 1% but probably the most devoted 1% because they've taken the time to go in depth into more of the features. If you have doubt that it is much loved and this is a big deal, there is a bit more active thread here as well:

http://community.netflix.com/forum/topic/show?id=1993323%3ATopic%3A...

Just want to give a sense of the distress this is causing. If there's any smaller work that could be done to make it more of a transition rather than just a complete deletion of what a lot of time and energy put into this, I think that would go a long way.; ▶ Reply to This