How to Download on Disney Plus and Watch Offline
Disney+ downloads need a plan without adverts and the phone or tablet app, work on up to 10 devices and expire unless you reconnect every 30 days.
The download button in the Disney+ app is an arrow pointing down. These are the steps in Disney+’s own guide to downloads.
- Open the Disney+ app on your phone or tablet and sign in.
- Find the title you want to take with you.
- Tap the Download icon, the down arrow. For a series, choose the episodes you want.
- Follow the progress in the Downloads tab. A tick appears when the download is complete.
- Play it from the Downloads tab whenever you like, online or not.
To clear one out afterwards, select Remove Download.
Two things catch people out. No Disney+ plan with adverts includes downloads, and there are none on laptops, TVs or Windows tablets, whatever plan you have. A third applies to many of our readers: Disney+ is not sold in Nigeria, where disneyplus.com answers “Sorry, Disney+ is not available in your region.”
Plans with downloads, and plans without
In the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia alike, the plan with adverts has no downloads and is also the cheapest. If watching offline is the reason you are subscribing, read the Downloads row of the plan chart before you choose.
In the United States, Disney+ says downloads require Disney+ Premium or a Premium bundle, and names three: the Disney+, Hulu Bundle Premium, the Disney+, Hulu, ESPN Select Bundle Premium and the Disney+, Hulu, ESPN Unlimited Bundle Premium. The plan chart on its US page ticks Downloads for those and leaves the row blank for the versions with adverts. The Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max bundle splits the same way: downloads on the no-ads version only.
The United Kingdom has three plans. Premium and Standard both come with “downloads on up to 10 devices”, and Standard With Ads has none. Australia has the same split: Downloads is ticked for Premium and Standard and blank for Standard with Ads.
Disney+’s Help Centre adds a warning for anyone thinking of moving down a tier: switching to a plan with adverts removes the downloads already on your device.
Phones and tablets only
Downloads live in the mobile app. Disney+’s guide lists that app for iPhones and iPads, Android phones and tablets, and Amazon Fire tablets.
The guide lists a Windows 10 and 11 app as well, then rules it out for this purpose: downloads “aren’t compatible on TVs, computers, or Windows 10/11 tablets”. That rules out a laptop or a MacBook, even though Disney+ streams on both. If you want a film on a bigger screen during a flight, a tablet is the only route.
The limit Disney+ states is on devices: the Help Centre says the same film or episode can be downloaded on up to 10 supported mobile devices. It gives no number for how many titles one device can hold, apart from the cap on Hulu content below.
Downloads last 30 days offline
The Help Centre says a download stays watchable offline for 30 days from the day you download it, unless the title leaves Disney+ before then. Disney+’s guide states the same thing as an instruction: reconnect the device to the internet at least once every 30 days to keep downloads active. You also have to remain a subscriber, because the Help Centre ties downloads to an active subscription.
Saving storage and mobile data
Two settings under App Settings in the Disney+ app matter here. Download Quality offers Standard, Medium and High, and Disney+’s own summary is that lower quality means smaller files and faster downloads. With Download Over Wi-Fi Only on, downloads wait for Wi-Fi and leave your mobile data alone.
Disney+’s pages give no file sizes. Its advice for a phone that is nearly full is practical enough: lower the quality, download the next few episodes instead of a whole season, and remove each one after you have watched it.
Titles you cannot save
Disney+ describes downloads as covering “select” films and shows. If a title has no download arrow, it is not available to save, on any plan.
Hulu titles have a tighter cap. In the United States, the Help Centre says Premium subscribers can download most Hulu content inside the Disney+ app, and that Hulu content may be limited to 25 downloads across five devices at a time.
This guide covers Disney+’s own download button and nothing else. We have left out screen recorders and ripping tools. Save only what your subscription gives you the right to save.
If a download will not play
- The device has been offline for more than 30 days. Connect it and open the app.
- The title has left Disney+, and the download went with it.
- The plan was changed to one with adverts, which removes downloads.
- The subscription has ended.
For anything else, Disney+ has a Help Centre page called Troubleshooting offline download issues. It needs a full web browser to load.
Where Disney+ is not offered
Nigeria is one such place. Netflix alternatives lists the streaming services that do take payment in naira.
India is a different case. Disney’s films and series are in the JioHotstar app there: its Google Play listing names Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic, and calls the app the Disney+ destination. JioHotstar is a separate service with its own plans, so nothing in this guide describes how its downloads work.
For travellers, the Help Centre says that abroad you can stream whatever Disney+ offers in the country you are in, and suggests downloading before you leave. Its pages do not say whether downloads keep playing in a country where Disney+ is not sold at all. The 30-day reconnect applies wherever you are.
