DVR deletes recordings on its own

roso2606

I've been having endless problems with Spectrum DVRs. The latest problem is that I will schedule a show, I will see the red light turn on at the appropriate time, I will check the DVR and it will say it's In Progress, I will see the red light go off at the appropriate time, but when I go to watch it, it doesn't exist. This has happened at least 10 times in the past month.

Let me answer some questions you'll probably ask to save you some time. 1) I am the ONLY person who uses the DVR. 2) I do NOT have multiple recordings scheduled for the same time or overlapping times. 3) I tried getting a different box from the Spectrum store but I still have the exact same issue. 4) Rebooting the DVR box does nothing. 5) This does not happen everyday and seems to be completely random. 6) It seems to happen mostly with one particular show, but I have noticed that other shows will disappear from time to time. 7) Don't bother suggesting the Cloud DVR because I tried that and it's even worse.

For the amount of money that Spectrum gets out of me on a monthly basis, I should not be having any issues at all. I understand that hiccups can occur here and there, but this is ridiculous. The employees at the local Spectrum store are of no help whatsoever. If I don't get a satisfactory resolution, I will definitely switch providers.

William_M

Hi @roso2606, welcome to our community!

I'm sorry our DVR hasn't been recording consistently. It looks like you've done a lot of great troubleshooting already. If you are having the same issue even after exchanging the DVR it's most likely a signal issue. An appointment with a technician can be scheduled to resolve this. I recommend calling 1-855-707-7328​​​ to set that up.

roso2606

How can a recording just disappear because of a signal issue? And even if I was having signal issues, how come I never notice anything like that when just watching channels live? This answer doesn't make any sense at all. We're talking about a scheduled show that starts when it's supposed to, says it's In Progress, then stops when it's supposed to, but then does not show up in my list of recorded programs, and on two different DVR boxes. This appears to be more of a software and/or firmware issue than anything else.

William_M

If you never see it in your list it at all, it sounds like it is failing to record, rather than being deleted or disappearing. While such issue could be a problem with the DVR itself, you've already tried exchanging it and signal issues can cause all sorts of weird problems with the service, even sometimes an issue with just one channel or one feature. An appointment with a technician is the next step to resolving this issue. We can send you a private message here to get your account information and schedule that if it would be more convenient for you.

roso2606

I just discovered something else that pretty much puts your "signal issue" theory to rest once and for all, and it raises even more questions than it answers.

Since I was having trouble getting my program recorded at its original airtime of 10:00 PM, I changed the series recording to record ALL episodes instead of just new ones so I could pick up the rebroadcast at 3:00 AM. I verified in the schedule that recording times were set for BOTH of those broadcasts.

Well, after the DVR failed once again for the 10:00 PM program (exactly as I described in paragraph one of my original post), I checked the DVR schedule and the entry for the 3:00 AM broadcast was gone. That's right, gone! I certainly didn't delete it and it disappeared hours before it was supposed to be recorded.

So, now that we can say that this is definitely NOT a signal issue, can you please find out what on Earth is causing this? I find it hard to believe that I'm the only one who has ever had this problem given how frequently it occurs and with two different DVR boxes.

Let me know what details you need about the make/model of the DVR, software/firmware versions, etc. Hopefully, when that information is forwarded to the appropriate person, we can finally get this resolved.

HT_Greenfield

Never had any reason to audit it but "all episodes" doesn't necessarily mean multiple recordings of the same episode. Point being, of course the logic is going to schedule every airing of every episode but once the clock strikes 10 and there is no power outage and the DVR is online and there hasn't been any short-order schedule change and the airing of the episode does indeed kick off and the recording of it does indeed kick off albeit failingly, why wouldn't the logic expunge any current later airings of the same episode from the recording schedule at that point.

You don't understand the signal-to-noise ratio thresholdology of live TV versus instant-replay/playback of live TV versus storage recording any better than i do but i can tell you that scheduling a friendly neighborhood Spectrum tech house call would be the next thing i'd do at this point. ☘️

🔗https://www.spectrum.net/contact-us

Satch

Yes,

OP needs a service call.

Satch

roso2606

I decided to conduct an experiment and the results didn't surprise me at all.

Since I was getting frequent failures with a series recording (both New Only and All), I instead scheduled just that day's episode each and every evening for the past two weeks. And how many failures did I get? ZERO!

With the series recording, I was getting at least one, usually two and sometimes three failures on a weekly basis. But without any changes to the any of the equipment whatsoever, I now have zero failures simply by changing how I record the episodes.

I have been saying since the beginning that this is NOT a signal issue and that it's most likely a software issue of some kind, and this test proves it. I would have had the usual number of failures with this alternate method if it was the alleged signal issue.

So, my original question still stands without a satisfactory answer ... can someone please figure out why some of my recorded episodes, as well as some of the future scheduled episodes, will just disappear out of the DVR when setting up a series recording and, more importantly, what needs to be done to correct it?

Satch

decided to conduct an experiment and the results didn't surprise me at all.

Since
I was getting frequent failures with a series recording (both New Only
and All), I instead scheduled just that day's episode each and every
evening for the past two weeks. And how many failures did I get? ZERO!

With
the series recording, I was getting at least one, usually two and
sometimes three failures on a weekly basis. But without any changes to
the any of the equipment whatsoever, I now have zero failures simply by
changing how I record the episodes.

I have been saying since the
beginning that this is NOT a signal issue and that it's most likely a
software issue of some kind, and this test proves it. I would have had
the usual number of failures with this alternate method if it was the
alleged signal issue.

So, my original question still stands
without a satisfactory answer ... can someone please figure out why some
of my recorded episodes, as well as some of the future scheduled
episodes, will just disappear out of the DVR when setting up a series
recording and, more importantly, what needs to be done to correct it?

In light of the above information update. This sounds like a software glitch with Spectrum Guide. I had an issue where when I first got my Arris-210 box that series recording times that were padded to add extra minutes were being ignored. Unfortunately, the series that I watched most frequently that was doing this )Lopez vs. Lopez) NBC is on hiatus until September. They ran 10 episodes back to back. )Programed "New") from 7:00-7:30 and another followed from 8:00-8:30. Set up series to record and add 2 extra minutes (End 2 mins. late) First episodes when played back ALWAYS ended at 7:30, so one would miss maybe 20 seconds of dialogue. The 7:30-8:00, set to end at 8:02 was fine.

This issue seems to happen most if two episodes of a series are back to back with padded recording times to end set up for that series. The first episode ignores the extra time and the second episode records properly. I think this has corrected itself. No problems with DVR deleting episodes on its own though. @roso2606, what box do you have? This is a software glitch for sure.

Satch

roso2606

Arris 210 (SP210AE)

Satch

Hey @roso2606.

I'm interested in have you gone in to delete the series in question and set up the series to record again to see if that changes anything? I wonder if this is a data listing problem? What is absolutely insane is that Spectrum Guide needs to see that a series is in the guide for up to two weeks. If the series is not in the guide up to two weeks out, you will get an error message when you try to delete the series! This was brought to Spectrum's attention years ago, escalated, and never got fixed.

See if you can go in and delete the series that keeps giving you problems and reprogram that series. Also tell us the name of the shows that you are trying to record and the times that they air. This way, others can test to see how the series is behaving when recorded. What does your DVR percent of recording used space show? Report back.

Satch

roso2606

First of all, my usage rarely shows any higher than 10%, so it's definitely not a matter of running out of space.

You mentioned that there are some problems with the Spectrum Guide and I did notice one interesting thing a few weeks ago. The show that I try to record on a daily basis is Gutfeld! on FNC at 10:00 PM and at one time the Guide was not showing them as New even though I know that they are. So, I switched the series recording from New Only to All thinking that could be the issue, but I still encountered problems. However, when I deleted the series recording and started scheduling them on a daily basis two weeks ago, I eventually noticed they were being listed as New again in the Guide, though I'm not sure exactly when that happened.

But what still doesn't make any sense is the sequence of events that occurred when I had it setup as a series recording, and this is something I saw at least a dozen times ...

1a) I see the program scheduled for 10:00 PM in the DVR, and no other programs are scheduled or overlapping during that time

1b) In the case of the ALL series recording, I would also see that the rebroadcast was scheduled for 3:00 AM

2) I see the red light come on at 10:00 PM like it's supposed to

3) I check the DVR and it says the recording is In Progress

4) I see the red light go off at 11:00 PM like it's supposed to

5a) I go into the DVR and it is NOT listed as a recorded program

5b) In the case of the ALL series recording, I would also see that the rebroadcast that was scheduled for 3:00 AM has been deleted out of the list of upcoming recordings

I set up the series recording again as New Only starting Tuesday evening and had success on the first try, but this doesn't mean anything yet. I'll let that continue for the rest of this week and we'll see if I get the same problems again, but honestly I'm not too hopeful at this point.