old TV recordings disappearing (2 Viewers)

cewillis

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    I have TVserver > recordings > disk quota turned OFF.
    I have a 1 TB disk well less than half full.
    But I noticed that the oldest recordings out of about 20 recordings of a specific TV show are disappearing.

    Why would that happen and isn't there a general setting to prevent unintended deletions?

    I see that on a recording-by-recording basis, I can use Settings to set retention to Always. Is there a better way?

    Thanks.
     
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    CyberSimian

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    isn't there a general setting to prevent unintended deletions?
    Interesting question. There does not seem to be a general setting (or, if there is, I can't find it). On the other hand, on my system the default is to retain all episodes, so I never have to set the episode limit when I schedule a new series.

    Sorry, but I don't know why your system seems to have a different default episode limit. :( Perhaps someone else knows why?

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    cewillis

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    Thanks --- I would have thought that the disk quota would be The Setting. But it doesn't seem to be. My default individual recording retention setting is 'Until space needed', which can be changed one at a time to 'Always'. How is 'space needed' determined if not disk quota?
     

    CyberSimian

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    My default individual recording retention setting is 'Until space needed', which can be changed one at a time to 'Always'.
    I think that there are two separate settings in play here: "keep until" and "maximum number of episodes to retain". Your post suggests that you are trying to use "keep until" in order to stop episodes being deleted, but I think that you should be using "max episodes".

    "Max episodes" applies only to a series, so you cannot access the setting for a single (one-off) recording. You can specify max episodes when you initially create a series recording schedule, or you can at a later time modify the settting for an existing series.

    Display the EPG, scroll to a future series episode that is scheduled to record, and press the OK button on the remote control. This will display the "Upcoming Episodes" panel. Now press the LEFT button on the remote to display the left side menu. On this menu some selections will be greyed out, but one selection that is active is "Episodes management". Select that, and the "Episodes management" pop-up is displayed, on which you can select how many episodes to keep:

    episode_management.jpg

    On my system, the default is always "All episodes" (top of the list). When I looked in "MP Config" and "TV Server Config", I could not find any setting to control the default for "max episodes", so I think that the default is probably hard-coded as "All episodes". If your default is different, that is a puzzle o_O.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    cewillis

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    I think you're probably right about the 'max episodes' setting -- and I think I see why that is failing in this case.
    I don't record every episode of this series of shows, or record on a regular schedule like once a week -- therefore these shows don't show up as a 'series' for episode management purposes.
    When I look at TV Schedules, and select to look at the schedules by series (I usually look at it by date), and look at the settings for any series, it has 'max episodes' as All . But the one 'series' I'm having this problem with does not show up as a series here in Schedules.
    When I look at TV Recordings, the recordings (including the troublesome one) are grouped together by series title, so I was never concerned about it -- until now.

    So it would appear that I'm just stuck with the current issue: a sequence of shows that are not really a 'series' for parts of MP. (unless there's some other sneaky way to define a 'series')
    I still wonder what's going on with the apparent deletions for space needed - which is completely bogus.
    Thanks for your help.
     

    CyberSimian

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    I don't record every episode of this series of shows, or record on a regular schedule like once a week -- therefore these shows don't show up as a 'series' for episode management purposes.
    If you record a subset of a series by scheduling the required episodes one by one, they are not treated by MP as being part of a series. However, the "grouping" feature of the "Recorded TV" panel will still group these recordings together, because they all have the same title. So superficially they do indeed look like a series.

    I am actually surprised that MP apparently deletes the oldest episodes of this non-series collection of recordings (I have never before heard of that happening when the disk is not full).

    One workaround might be to define a series recording schedule using the "record every time on this channel" setting, and then every few days review the recording schedule and cancel the particular episodes that you don't want. This will then be a "proper" series, and MP won't delete the excess episodes.

    Another possibility might be to enable the disk quota in "TV Server Config", and change the deletion threshhold to a very low value. I don't have disk quota enabled, but my recording drive shows 715GB size, with 97GB free. But the deletion threshhold is 500MB (i.e. 0.5GB)

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    cewillis

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    My deletion threshold is also 0.5GB with a 1000GB disk well less than 1/2 full. I am reluctant to enable disk quota, since something strange is already happening.
    In the meantime, I changed all the show retention settings to 'Always', and that seems to be working.
    I noticed something else: the program files are not actually deleted - just removed from the database. And they cannot be re-imported. Database setting?
     

    CyberSimian

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    the program files are not actually deleted - just removed from the database.
    Very strange o_O. I don't have an explanation for what is happening. :confused:

    they cannot be re-imported
    Apologies if you already know this, but recordings can be imported using "TV Server Config" -- it is the "Database import" tab in the "Recording" section. But I think that you need to have the xml file available for the import to work.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    cewillis

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    Yes, that's where I tried to re-import the recordings, and the .xml files are there.
    I think something different than I thought (recording deletions) must be happening -- but it's a mystery (until it isn't).
    Thanks again -- I'll keep looking and report if I discover anything.
     

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