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How to Use Windscribe with Netflix & Fix It Not Working
Our Verdict
Windscribe Pro works with 32 Netflix regions, which is more than any other VPN we’ve tested. The free version works with 6 countries: the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Turkey, and Romania. If it isn’t working, make sure you’re connected to a compatible location and clear your browser or app cache.
Using a VPN with Netflix is the best way to unblock its entire catalog of TV shows, documentaries, and movies.
A high-quality VPN changes your IP address and lets you bypass Netflix’s geo-blocks, to stream videos unavailable in your country.
Windscribe is a popular VPN service available in two versions: a free VPN, known as Windscribe Free, and a premium VPN, known as Windscribe Pro.
We regularly test and review Windscribe, and we can confirm both its free and paid versions work well with Netflix.
Quick Guide: How to Watch Netflix with Windscribe
- Sign up for Windscribe and download the app to your device.
- Open the VPN app and connect to a server in the country you want to watch Netflix content from.
- Open the Netflix app or website.
- Start streaming the content you want to watch.
If you can’t see or access the geo-restricted content, see our workarounds below.
Why Trust Us?
We’re fully independent and have been reviewing VPNs since 2016. Our advice is based on our own testing results and is unaffected by financial incentives. Learn who we are and how we test VPNs.
Does Windscribe Work with Netflix?
Our ability to bypass Netflix’s geo-blocks varied significantly depending on which version of Windscribe we were using.
You can read more about our experience using both Windscribe Pro and Windscribe Free in the sections below.
Windscribe Pro
Windscribe’s premium app is one of the best available for unblocking Netflix. It works with 32 Netflix libraries, which is more than any other VPN we’ve tested.
We unblocked 32 Netflix libraries using Windscribe.
In our tests, Windscribe Pro unblocked every popular Netflix region, including the US, UK, Australia, Canada, India, and Japan. Notably, it’s the only VPN we’ve found that can also access the Netflix libraries in New Zealand and Portugal.
Even top VPNs, like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and PIA accessed far fewer regions (17, 18, and 6 respectively).
In addition, the first Windscribe server we connected to always worked. With ExpressVPN, we often had to connect to specific servers like New Jersey, or PIA, which required using its ‘Streaming Optimized’ servers.
You can see a visual comparison of how Windscribe stacks up against other VPNs in the chart below:
The main downside to using Windscribe for Netflix is occasional poor streaming quality. Although it maintained a relatively fast download speed (average global speed loss of only 14%), some videos took over 10 seconds to load and did not stream in Full HD or 4K resolution. We’ve experienced much more consistent performance with other VPNs.
Windscribe Free
Windscribe Free is one of the only free VPNs that reliably work with Netflix. Using it, we could access the exclusive Netflix libraries of the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Turkey, and Romania.
However, unlike Windscribe Pro, it does not work with US Netflix.
This is still extremely impressive given its rarity. To put it into perspective, PrivadoVPN is the only other free VPN capable of unlocking any Netflix libraries, yet it only support 2 regions.
However, PrivadoVPN Free does provide access to US Netflix, which Windscribe Free does not.
Windscribe Free reliably unblocks UK Netflix.
You can see our full test results of Windscribe Free in the table below:
During our tests, we found that Windscribe Free could not access Netflix using servers in the US, Canada, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Norway.
Additionally, Windscribe does not offer free servers in popular regions like Australia, India, and Japan, so there’s no possibility of it accessing Netflix libraries from these countries in the future.
The most significant limitation of using Windscribe Free for Netflix is its 10GB monthly data limit. While this limit is consistent with other free Netflix VPNs, it only allows for about 4 hours of HD streaming per month.
Watching longer movies like ‘Titanic’ or ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, we consumed almost all of our entire monthly data allowance in one sitting.
How to Use Windscribe for Netflix
Here’s step-by-step instructions on how to watch Netflix with Windscribe:
- Get a Netflix account if you haven’t already: We recommend an ad-free plan, otherwise you won’t be able to roam between every region.
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Create your Windscribe account: For the free tier, providing an email address is optional but doing so increases your data limit from 2GB to 10GB per month. For paid plans, an email address, along with a username and password, is required.
- Download and install Windscribe on your device: It’s available for desktop, mobile, Fire TV, and Android TV.
- Open the Windscribe app and log in using your account credentials.
- Connect to a server in the country you want to appear to be in: Select the country from the list of servers. Locations with stars beside them are reserved for paid subscribers.
- Open Netflix and stream the content you want to watch.
Windscribe’s intuitive apps allow you to quickly and easily watch region-locked Netflix content.
How to Fix Windscribe Not Working with Netflix
To comply with its agreements with content providers, Netflix is always working to try to enforce its VPN ban.
You’ll know if Windscribe is not working with Netflix if you can only see Netflix Originals, receive an ‘Incorrect password’ error, or encounter the “There’s a problem. You seem to be using a VPN or proxy” message.
Netflix’s ‘Pardon the interruption’ streaming error message.
To get around the Netflix VPN ban, try these workarounds and fixes:
1. Enable ‘Unlock Streaming’ in Your Windscribe Account
Windscribe has an option called ‘Unlock Streaming’ that needs to be enabled to access Netflix and other streaming services. If the VPN isn’t working, your first step should be to ensure this is turned on.
To do this, go to your Windscribe account settings in a web browser. Scroll down to the bottom and make sure the ‘Unlock Streaming’ toggle is ticked. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to do this from the Windscribe app.
To access Netflix, ‘Unlock Streaming’ needs to be enabled in your Windscribe account settings.
This feature is not mentioned in Windscribe’s troubleshooting guides, so many users may not be aware of it. It’s unclear why Windscribe even offers this as an optional setting, as there isn’t a downside to enabling it.
2. Connect to a 10Gbps server
While most Windscribe servers are compatible with Netflix, we’ve observed more reliable performance with servers marked with a ’10Gbps’ icon.
Windscribe’s 10Gbps servers are more effective at bypassing Netflix’s geo-blocks.
These are simply servers that have more bandwidth than standard ones, which means they can transmit data faster. However, the vast majority of these servers are only accessible with a paid Windscribe subscription, meaning fewer users have access to them.
This reduced usage makes it harder for Netflix to identify and block these server IP addresses, enhancing their likelihood of circumventing VPN detection.
3. Upgrade to Windscribe Pro
With Windscribe’s free tier, access to Netflix regions is quite limited. By upgrading to Windscribe Pro, you can access 26 more Netflix libraries, increasing your chances of being able to access the library you want.
Windscribe Pro works in the following regions that Windscribe Free does not:
- Australia
- Brazil
- Canada
- India
- Italy
- Japan
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- South Korea
- Spain
- Thailand
- US
If you want to access Netflix content from any of the above regions, you’ll need a paid Windscribe plan.
4. Clear Your Browser or Netflix App Cache
Temporary files and data stored in your browser and the app, like cache and cookies, helps Netflix identify your true location.
This step removes previously stored data, allowing Netflix to reassess your location based on the VPN server details.
To clear the cache in Google Chrome, go to settings, click ‘Delete browsing data’ and choose ‘All Time’ as the range. On a mobile or streaming device, we found restarting the device usually suffices.
Clearing Netflix’s cookies and cache files in Google Chrome.
