How to Download Netflix Movies to SD Card and Save Phone Space
Rejoice, you can download Netflix movies and TV shows to watch offline. Unfortunately, by default, it only loads the on-board storage, which can lead to slow and cluttered phones. If you’d rather use the extra SD card space for all Stranger Things episodes, here’s how.
Method # 1: copy everything to SD card manually
The safest way to rip Netflix videos to SD card is also the most tedious. When Netflix downloads a movie, it is stored in a nondescript folder on your phone’s built-in storage. You can temporarily copy them to your SD card to save space, but you’ll need to copy them back whenever you want to watch them. However, it’s a handy way to save additional movies or shows for later, like for a long flight or car trip when you have nothing else to do.
When you download movies or TV shows to your phone, the files on your device won’t have descriptive names, so you won’t get BojackHorseman_S01_E01 or whatever. Instead, you will see a folder with a long, seemingly random number. If you want to keep a neat, organized library, download one episode or movie at a time and follow these steps:
- Open your preferred file explorer ( we recommend Solid Explorer .)
- Enable the option to show hidden files and folders if you haven’t already. (To do this, in Solid Explorer, click the menu button while browsing, click Folder Options, then select the Show Hidden Files check box.)
- Go to Device Storage> Android> Data> com.netflix.mediaclient> Files> Download> .of.
- Here you will see a folder named string of numbers. Press and hold a folder and tap the scissors icon to cut it to the clipboard.
- Pull down the left pane in Solid Explorer and tap your SD card.
- Navigate to the folder where you want to save the files. Click the round clipboard icon in the lower right corner to paste the files.
- Rename the numbered Netflix folder to add the title of the movie or TV show you just downloaded to the end, but don’t remove the number . You will need this later.
- If you want to watch the movie or TV show again, copy the folder back to its original location in step 3. Remove the mark you added earlier so that only the number remains.
If you rename or change any of the files in the .of folder, Netflix won’t recognize and play them. You can add tags while temporarily storing them on the SD card, but you will need to return all files and folders to where you found them with exactly the same names. The process is admittedly cumbersome – and Netflix may release an update that blocks it entirely – but it allows you to store a lot more downloads than you can fit on internal storage.
If you have an OTG cable – one that you can buy for less than $ 5 – you can use the same process to store files on flash drives or even external hard drives. However, if you are going to go this route, your disk will need to use the exFAT filesystem. If you are not familiar with it, we will explain what it is and how to use it . This is not a very convenient way to store movies, but if you already have a properly formatted disk and want to save a few shows for your trip, this is a handy workaround.
Method # 2: Set up your SD card as shared storage
Technically, Netflix stores downloaded movies on what’s called “primary shared storage.” By default, this means your phone’s built-in storage, but you can let your phone “accept” the SD card to make that space even larger.
This method has several disadvantages. First, it will reformat your SD card . Before proceeding, you need to back up everything on your SD card. If you’ve already installed apps to your SD card, you should move them back to your phone storage and back up any data (like photos) in those apps that you can’t restore later. Ideally, you should follow these steps with a new SD card.
Secondly, it can slow down your entire phone if you are using a slow SD card. Internal storage is faster than some SD cards. When you force-install applications to the card, you may slow down their launch or execution because it takes longer to read this data. Make sure you are using a fast SD card (like a class 6 card) if you don’t want performance degradation.
Finally, after you accept the SD card, you should never remove it . Android will treat your SD card as part of your phone’s internal storage. This means that important files will be stored on your card and you could break something if you delete it. If you go this route, be prepared to treat this SD card like it can’t be removed from your phone.
With that said, to turn your SD card into adapted storage, follow these steps:
- Insert the SD card into your device. If it is already inserted, remove it and then reinsert it.
- A notification will appear stating that a new disk has been detected. Click “Configure” in this notification.
- Click Use as Internal Memory. This step will erase the SD card.
- You will now be prompted to move the additional data to the new storage. You can do it now or do it later by going to Settings> Storage> SD Card> Transfer Data.
You can complete step 4 later, but you probably want to do so before downloading Netflix movies and TV shows. Once you insert the SD card into on-board storage, Android will treat it as one big drive. All your apps will start using SD card space seamlessly, including Netflix. You won’t even notice the difference when you download Orange Is the New Black every season.