Netflix Has Finally Fixed One of Its Most Annoying Features
Now you can hide all the movies and shows you started but will never finish.
The Continue Watching row on Netflix has always been traitorous. How many times have you fired up the app to watch something with a friend or a crush only to have a dark secret exposed, like that you're halfway through 365 Days? But the well-meaning feature is more commonly viewed as being a user-unfriendly nuisance. For every show or movie you genuinely intend to finish, the row retains everything you briefly or partially watched that you will never return to.
Luckily, with its most recent app update, Netflix has finally delivered relief to everyone who has ever bellowed, "Please stop reminding me of the 20 minutes I spent watching Gypsy!" Finally being able to remove those pesky purposely unfinished or in-progress movies and shows from that row is a minor miracle. Here's how to do it.
The "Remove from Row" tool, which was introduced on Android and iOS devices at the end of June (make sure you update your app), allows you to cancel out of any unwanted movie or show lingering in the Continue Watching list. To access the feature, click on the icon of three vertical dots in the bar that sits just underneath the movie or show's cover image and you'll find the menu option "Remove from row." Selecting this will remove the pervasive media item into the ether.
This feature isn't available on all TV or web browser platforms yet but any changes made in the app will apply to all devices you use to access Netflix within 24 hours. If you'd like to be able to do this without having to use a phone or iPad app, Netflix has proffered another work-around: Open up Netflix in your web browser, go into the Account page, go into the viewing activity function of the account you would like to sanitize, and click the "NO" symbol next to whichever episode or movie you'd like to forget about. Poof! It will now disappear from your account and Continue Watching row on all your devices within a day. No more awkward "Why are you halfway through The Do-Over?" conversations with your significant other!
Need help finding something to watch? Sign up here for our weekly Streamail newsletter to get streaming recommendations delivered straight to your inbox.