Anyone else have issues with scheduled DVR recordings failing/disappearing without a trace?

General Discussions
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1

It’s as simple as this, really - for some unfathomable reason Plex’s failing to record shows listed in the DVR schedule (ie Air Crash Investigations with ‘record season, old+new episodes’ selected) without giving an error state (ie unable to use tuner, no available storage…).
The weird part is that if I open the EPG, the show is still listed as scheduled in the Guide panel, but not the DVR Schedule and if I manually cancel the recording (again in Guide) and re-select it, it triggers recording. This leads me to suspect that the issue is in Plex itself probably in the way it handles EPG updates from XML and not the network-attached tuner box.
Anyway, at this point I must ask if anyone in the community has had similar issues and how did they manage to resolve them (outside of just scheduling recordings manually) or should I just try to remember that while days end with an -y, bugs* will invariably be ignored in favour of the devs devoting their time and efforts into the next semi-useless and equally unfinished “feature”?

*ie “Slow connection” between Plex and PMS on the same workstation-class computer? The Android app screaming connection issues on the home screen, but working fine in the Library tabs…

2

Would like to see server logs when this happens with details of which programs / channels involved.

Please ensure Debug logging is not disabled on the server - see https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/

If enabling debug logging, please restart the server after that.

Please get screenshots and server logs zip when you notice the problem together with details of which program / time / channel had the issue

3

Will do - I’ve enabled debug logging(I kinda hoped that it was left enabled, but no such luck) and to hopefully expedite things, I’ve also scheduled several other non-overlapping recording sessions, so if it’s the worst kind of issue - an intermittent one - it pops up sooner rather than later. At least the good news is that this particular Plex box is essentially empty, as it’s only really used to record/cache and rebroadcast a signal from my cable tuner to other devices.

4

Good news (I suppose) in that the issue reoccured - the DVR missed/ignored a scheduled series recording, with the episode showing up on the EPG view, but not in DVR schedule nor in the designated TV Recordings folder. I’m attaching the requested debug logs (normal, not verbose as per the instructions) and screenshots. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get those done in time for today’s recording snafu, but the DVR is displaying the same behaviour for a recording scheduled for the 14th, so it’s still good as a graphical representation of expected vs observed behaviour. Also as per instructions - further info/context:
Channel’s NatGeoHD
Scheduled recording time - 12:50EEST to 14:10 (10 minute buffer either way of the 13:00 tv slot)
No postprocessing/commercial detection selected
Partial recording’s enabled
Empty storage folder with plenty (1TB or so free) of space!

Tuner - enigma2 box (Vu+ Uno 4K) to handle recording and decoding of the cable signal (has worked fine with Plex since ~1.14)
EPG source - XML (online source is not an option in the old country) - updated daily, with Plex auto-refreshing from local copy every 24h

dvr_schedule_view

EPG-view
EPG-view1282×159 195 KB

Plex Media Server Logs_2021-09-09_21-06-00.zip (2.4 MB)
record_options
record_options701×490 70 KB

5

I can see a recording complated and a file got moved to a library path

Was it this recording ?

Sep 08, 2021 14:09:56.669 [7180] DEBUG - [Grabber/378fec8071dfb2ddbdb84efc4e54146a5a3e568f] Assimilator: Moving "D:\TV Series\.grab\378fec8071dfb2ddbdb84efc4e54146a5a3e568f-74f83559344d0371986d84bbd12a315c83279068\Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - S12E04 - Катастрофа на р.Потомак Епизод 4 - Сезон 12.ts" to "D:\TV Series\Разследване на самолетни катастрофи\Season 12\Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - S12E04 - Катастрофа на р.Потомак Епизод 4 - Сезон 12.ts"

. . .
Sep 08, 2021 14:10:09.491 [7180] DEBUG - [Grabber/378fec8071dfb2ddbdb84efc4e54146a5a3e568f] Grabber: Operation for 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E4 - Катастрофа на р.Потомак, Епизод 4 - Сезон 12' on channel NatGeo completed with status complete (Success)

And does that file exist

6

@bk109 - further to my earlier response. Is the issue that the DVR schedule is not displaying it or recording not actually happening. You did not mention which 12:50 recording was lost but I did find out recorded - so hopefully that was the one

With regards to 14th September you mentioned - i can only see from the logs up to 13th September for NatGeo channel

Sep 09, 2021 21:05:28.818 [9032] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule:    Between 2021-09-10 12:50:00 and 2021-09-10 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E3 - Изгубени в превода, Епизод 3 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 21:05:28.818 [9032] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule:    Between 2021-09-11 12:50:00 and 2021-09-11 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E4 - Катастрофа на р.Потомак, Епизод 4 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 21:05:28.818 [9032] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule:    Between 2021-09-12 12:50:00 and 2021-09-12 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E5 - Катастрофа в Куинс, Епизод 5 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 21:05:28.818 [9032] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule:    Between 2021-09-13 12:50:00 and 2021-09-13 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E6 - В окото на бурята, Епизод 6 - Сезон 12'

Could you get me the xml returned by this request - this should be what the server returns to Plex Web for the scheduled recordings

http://127.0.0.1:32400/media/subscriptions/scheduled?X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Do this request in browser on the server and replace xxxxxxxxxxxx with the server token

With the extended characters might be best to do it with curl with command line

curl -o "%LocalAppData%\media-subs.xml" http://127.0.0.1:32400/media/subscriptions/scheduled?X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

and the xml will be in the %LocalAppData%\media-subs.xml - you can zip and send it to me
(Note: I only work on Plex on Tuesdays)
Do it nearer the time - and with screenshots and which ones are missing from the DVR Schedule - if you could copy the actual text you can help me for searching for it

7

Yes, that file exists - the issue is with the recording from the 9th (aka ‘today’s recording snafu’), but I should’ve made that statement a bit clearer (especially given how we’re dealing with people scattered around the globe in these forums :slight_smile: ). The recording from the 8th went without a hitch, the 9th disappeared into the ether with a similar case of EPG/DVR Schedule mismatch (EPG says ‘scheduled’, DVR says not scheduled).
Unfortunately, the issue’s rendered moot at this point, because the NUC hosting this DVR got (pardon the pun) nuked by a power surge, so further testing and debugging seems unlikely for the time being. At any rate, I’m going to mark this issue as resolved, so no resources get wasted on this :slight_smile:

8

OK - Thanks

I can see that we cancelled the 12:50 recording for the 9th September on NatGEO after an XMLTV EPG Refresh at Sep 08, 2021 16:30:53

Sep 08, 2021 16:30:53.763 [2496] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity b90afb8a-bb3e-4714-aa14-d08b6a32ef2b - completed 100.0% - Refreshing guide data

Sep 08, 2021 16:30:54.540 [2496] DEBUG - [Grabber/42b53843a98a7db5f153f4f26c1452297b2db509] Cancelling operation for 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E2 - В капан, Епизод 2 - Сезон 12' on channel NatGeo with status cancelled.
Sep 08, 2021 16:30:54.540 [2496] DEBUG - [Grabber/7547a444827a64d97e3ff0d4e555baa3b76efee0] Cancelling operation for 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E2 - 9/11: Нападението срещу Пентагона, Епизод 2 - Сезон 15' on channel NatGeo with status cancelled.

My guess is that it was not seen in the xmltv data for that EPG refresh

Comparing TV Show Разследване на самолетни катастрофи before and after each of the EPG Refreshes in the logs, we have the following

Guide Refresh 1 (Before and After)

Sep 08, 2021 16:20:23.910 [4052] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-09 08:50:00 and 2021-09-09 10:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E2 - 9/11: Нападението срещу Пентагона, Епизод 2 - Сезон 15'
Sep 08, 2021 16:20:23.910 [4052] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-09 12:50:00 and 2021-09-09 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E2 - В капан, Епизод 2 - Сезон 12'
Sep 08, 2021 16:20:23.910 [4052] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-10 12:50:00 and 2021-09-10 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E3 - Изгубени в превода, Епизод 3 - Сезон 12'
Sep 08, 2021 16:20:23.910 [4052] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-12 12:50:00 and 2021-09-12 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E5 - Катастрофа в Куинс, Епизод 5 - Сезон 12'

Sep 08, 2021 16:30:53.763 [2496] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity b90afb8a-bb3e-4714-aa14-d08b6a32ef2b - completed 100.0% - Refreshing guide data

Sep 08, 2021 16:30:54.536 [2496] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-10 12:50:00 and 2021-09-10 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E3 - Изгубени в превода, Епизод 3 - Сезон 12'
Sep 08, 2021 16:30:54.536 [2496] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-12 12:50:00 and 2021-09-12 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E5 - Катастрофа в Куинс, Епизод 5 - Сезон 12'
Sep 08, 2021 16:30:54.536 [2496] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-13 12:50:00 and 2021-09-13 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E6 - В окото на бурята, Епизод 6 - Сезон 12'

Guide Refresh 2 (Before and After)

Sep 08, 2021 18:00:23.389 [7712] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-10 12:50:00 and 2021-09-10 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E3 - Изгубени в превода, Епизод 3 - Сезон 12'
Sep 08, 2021 18:00:23.389 [7712] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-12 12:50:00 and 2021-09-12 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E5 - Катастрофа в Куинс, Епизод 5 - Сезон 12'
Sep 08, 2021 18:00:23.389 [7712] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-13 12:50:00 and 2021-09-13 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E6 - В окото на бурята, Епизод 6 - Сезон 12'

Sep 08, 2021 18:07:30.953 [7104] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity aecb8ea0-8e51-495f-a635-9570392c0a18 - completed 100.0% - Refreshing guide data

Sep 08, 2021 18:07:31.603 [1936] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-10 12:50:00 and 2021-09-10 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E3 - Изгубени в превода, Епизод 3 - Сезон 12'
Sep 08, 2021 18:07:31.603 [1936] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-12 12:50:00 and 2021-09-12 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E5 - Катастрофа в Куинс, Епизод 5 - Сезон 12'
Sep 08, 2021 18:07:31.603 [1936] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-13 12:50:00 and 2021-09-13 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E6 - В окото на бурята, Епизод 6 - Сезон 12'

Guide Refresh 3 (Before and After)

Sep 09, 2021 04:05:25.260 [8072] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-10 12:50:00 and 2021-09-10 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E3 - Изгубени в превода, Епизод 3 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 04:05:25.260 [8072] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-11 12:50:00 and 2021-09-11 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E4 - Катастрофа на р.Потомак, Епизод 4 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 04:05:25.260 [8072] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-12 12:50:00 and 2021-09-12 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E5 - Катастрофа в Куинс, Епизод 5 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 04:05:25.260 [8072] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-13 12:50:00 and 2021-09-13 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E6 - В окото на бурята, Епизод 6 - Сезон 12'

Sep 09, 2021 04:07:24.435 [8316] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 0d0460ca-fa28-4f64-bbb8-7e72bee6ff3a - completed 100.0% - Refreshing guide data

Sep 09, 2021 04:07:25.246 [5592] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-10 12:50:00 and 2021-09-10 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E3 - Изгубени в превода, Епизод 3 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 04:07:25.246 [5592] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-11 12:50:00 and 2021-09-11 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E4 - Катастрофа на р.Потомак, Епизод 4 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 04:07:25.246 [5592] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-12 12:50:00 and 2021-09-12 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E5 - Катастрофа в Куинс, Епизод 5 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 04:07:25.246 [5592] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-13 12:50:00 and 2021-09-13 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E6 - В окото на бурята, Епизод 6 - Сезон 12'

Guide Refresh 4 (Before and After)

Sep 09, 2021 04:07:25.246 [5592] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-10 12:50:00 and 2021-09-10 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E3 - Изгубени в превода, Епизод 3 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 04:07:25.246 [5592] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-11 12:50:00 and 2021-09-11 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E4 - Катастрофа на р.Потомак, Епизод 4 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 04:07:25.246 [5592] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-12 12:50:00 and 2021-09-12 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E5 - Катастрофа в Куинс, Епизод 5 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 04:07:25.246 [5592] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-13 12:50:00 and 2021-09-13 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E6 - В окото на бурята, Епизод 6 - Сезон 12'

Sep 09, 2021 04:09:50.801 [8072] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity e3877769-8c08-4fd8-83cc-a8a1ed567953 - completed 100.0% - Refreshing guide data

Sep 09, 2021 04:09:51.429 [3876] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-10 12:50:00 and 2021-09-10 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E3 - Изгубени в превода, Епизод 3 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 04:09:51.429 [3876] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-11 12:50:00 and 2021-09-11 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E4 - Катастрофа на р.Потомак, Епизод 4 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 04:09:51.429 [3876] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-12 12:50:00 and 2021-09-12 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E5 - Катастрофа в Куинс, Епизод 5 - Сезон 12'
Sep 09, 2021 04:09:51.429 [3876] DEBUG -  DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2021-09-13 12:50:00 and 2021-09-13 14:10:00 on channel NatGeo: 'Разследване на самолетни катастрофи - E6 - В окото на бурята, Епизод 6 - Сезон 12'

If you believe this was not the case then would need the Plex Media Server EPG database files when this arises plus the xmltv files and logs when it arises

9

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