How to stop Windows 10 app downloading on metered connections

Question

Despite setting my mobile connection to metered, the windows 10 Netflix app still automatically downloads gigabytes of data on my mobile connection. Changing Netflix settings such as Smart Downloads doesn't seem to fix the problem. I would like windows to block Netflix on my metered connection.

I would still like to allow Netflix to download on non-metered Connections, and watch previously downloaded shows on my metered connection. Manually blocking and unblocking Netflix is too error-prone and is inconvenient.

How do we configure Windows to block Netflix only on my metered connection.

Answer 1

The Windows Defender firewall does not all you to distinguish between metered and non-metered connections. However, it does allow you to distinguish between private and public connections. If you can safely set you metered connection as private and non-metered connection as public (or vice versa) this will be enough.

To block downloads on Private networks do the following steps:

1. Press the Windows key, search for Firewall and open the "Windows Defender Firewall and Advanced Security"
2. Go to Outbound connections (on left pane).
3. Find the Netflix entry (or other application you wish to block)
4. In the General tab choose "block the connection".
5. In the Advanced tab make sure Private is ticked and Public is unticked.
6. Press OK.

This is a possible workaround rather than a full solution so I will not accept my answer. A perfect answer would work even if both connections were public etc.