I’ve seen problems kinda/sorta resembling this in the forum, but none of them seem to match mine exactly. When I record single TV episodes, my recording files show up in the location that I’ve chosen for them–they seem to work alright. But when I choose to record a tv series, they never show up in the library. I watched today while plex recorded a couple of shows and observed the following behavior:
folders are created inside .grab directory for show
.ts file is recorded properly in temp directory for show
recording stops at end of program
comskip files are created in temp directory for show
comskip processes show and creates new .ts file
Directory for show is created in destination directory
DIrectory for show is nearly immediately deleted–shows up for a split second then is gone.
checking .grab directory shows that temp directory for show is gone.
That’s it–that’s all the info I have. I’ve not been using show very long.
System is Windows 10 recording to WD Mybook Live Duo 4TB NAS that’s empty via mapped SMB share.
Just got problem to duplicate on an episode of Night Court recorded a few minutes ago. Logs attached.
Dec 20, 2017 16:35:38.696 [4268] DEBUG - Garbage Collector: Deleting expired unwatched content for Night Court (policy: -7 before 2017-12-13)
Dec 20, 2017 16:35:38.704 [4268] DEBUG - Garbage Collector: Deleting episode 7 - Harry on Trial (beyond window of 7 days old)
Is that set as a default somewhere else other than where the recording is set up? In the recording information for Night Court, I’ve got it set to keep all episodes. (same for Odd Squad, which is another that’s been recorded and disappeared today).
I’m sorry----I can’t find a way to get to that screen–do I already have to have had an episode in the library recorded before? Most of the shows that haven’t recorded, I’ve never had in my library before.
Thanks for your help–I know this will probably get a lot simpler for me as I get used to the interface.
If you have no shows currently in the library you can trick Plex into keeping one so you can modify the show settings. Find a current show that just aired. Copy the file from the library for that show. Modify the filename to match something for the show being deleted. Then copy the show back into the library in a folder structure matching the show being deleted. Wait for Plex to find the new episode and you should be able to edit the show, then delete the modified file from the library. The next time the show airs it should be kept in the library. Hope that makes sense.
I just encountered this myself. If Plex is going to go mainstream, stuff like this needs to be fixed or you will never get non-technical people to use this. I can’t deploy this to my home right now because explaining this to my wife or mother in law to record a TV series is a non-starter. They are comparing this to Windows media center–you just press the record button twice, and it works.
I just went through and set up dummy folders/files and hchanged the settings in the libraries. It’s curious that the default was set to “only last x days” when I’d never had either show in the library before. There are episodes of both shows on this afternoon, so I’ll let you know how it goes. Hopoefully Plex devs will have an easier way to deal with this soon…
Many thanks to johnm_ColaSC. This solved a mystery for me too – why Seinfeld episodes would never record despite having “Keep all episodes” and “Delete never” set. In reality, the settings buried in an inaccessible part of the system were wrong. There are actually two issues here. This one is simply a bug. The next recording should be controlled by the settings in the recording schedule, not by the way the last episode was (or wasn’t) recorded.
The other issue is that that “episodes from the past X days” refers to the first-aired date. The behavior is fully documented so I accept this can’t be considered a bug, but it certainly violates the principle of least astonishment. Changing the date from first-aired to when-recorded would make no difference for original airings, but would enable a useful behavior for repeat airings.
I still cant find this setting anywhere in plex… I have some recorded DVR vids i would like to keep forever.
Not sure why there is not a global setting for dvr recordings that we can change (nor why we cant change the default save location of the “Live TV & DVR” library). I have my plex DB folder on a nvme drive (have 150tb+ of plex), so i def dont want content saved on there.
Ive had friends who use my server ask me: “i know i recorded xyz show on the dvr, but the “Live DVR Recordings” library is blank, where did my recording go?” (most are on ios plex app, and i can confirm that “live dvr recordings” is always blank. It would be nice if “live dvr recordings” would show any dvr recordings, regardless of what library they are placed into. (as for almost all plex users, live dvr recordings only make up a tiny percentage of their plex content + the dvr save to location is not clear).
tks
Select the library to record to, the choices for a library will be limited to libraries of the type of show you are wanting to record. TV Shows with Season/Episode data will only display a TV Show type library, shows without Season/Episode will only display Movie types libraries to select.
After selecting the Library to save to you can select the location to save the recording to provided the library selected has multiple storage locations assigned to the library. If there is only a single storage location you will not get a choice of where to store the recording as you have only specified one storage location.
