# Auto delete doesnt work for DVR? **URL:** \ **Category:** Live TV & DVR\ **Tags:** livetv-dvr\ **Created:** [March 11, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379 "2020-03-11T19:27:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![plex\_user\_99111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58f4c7/32.png) [@plex\_user\_99111](https://forums.plex.tv/u/plex_user_99111)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/1 "2020-03-11T19:27:58Z")
Server Version#: 1.18.7.2434 Player Version#: Tuner Make/Model: hdhomerun prime I have my shows set to keep a week and delete after 3 days, yet my dvr hard drives continue to fill and then i lose my new recordings which is extremely frustrating. Besides turning it on for the show, how do we get the auto delete to actually work? I am sick of losing new shows I really want to watch and I dont want to waste time individually deleting items on a regular basis. This is a really important feature for a dvr! EDIT: this is maybe because my recordings are all 4 hour long radio shows i record, i usually watch an hour a day. so all the items are not “unwatched” nor “finished” and i think maybe that is what the issue is. ---
**Author:** ![pl\_5309](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2bfe46/32.png) [@pl\_5309](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pl_5309)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/2 "2020-03-11T19:29:35Z")
Is the Admin account watching the shows or a managed user? ---
**Author:** ![plex\_user\_99111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58f4c7/32.png) [@plex\_user\_99111](https://forums.plex.tv/u/plex_user_99111)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 7:30pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/3 "2020-03-11T19:30:41Z")
It’s the admin account, that is the only account used on my system. I just posted an edit to my OP, it could be related to the issue. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 7:32pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/4 "2020-03-11T19:32:22Z")
Correct. It only auto-deletes after things are watched. If you only watch 1 out of 4 hours, it won’t be marked as watched. ---
**Author:** ![plex\_user\_99111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58f4c7/32.png) [@plex\_user\_99111](https://forums.plex.tv/u/plex_user_99111)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 7:36pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/5 "2020-03-11T19:36:54Z")
but my cable dvr doesnt screw me over and stop recording new things i want recorded, it smartly deletes the oldest stuff even if its not fully watched or partially watched. shouldnt plex do the same or at least have an option to turn on to do the same? filling the hard drive and not recording new shows should never happen on a good DVR imo unless the end user is an idiot and locks it full of content. ---
**Author:** ![pl\_5309](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2bfe46/32.png) [@pl\_5309](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pl_5309)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/6 "2020-03-11T19:42:40Z")
How many episodes do you have it set to keep? ---
**Author:** ![plex\_user\_99111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58f4c7/32.png) [@plex\_user\_99111](https://forums.plex.tv/u/plex_user_99111)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/7 "2020-03-11T19:45:32Z")
I have it to keep unplayed episodes from the past 7 days (which would be a max of 5, 1 per day they broadcast) and delete episode after playing after a day. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/8 "2020-03-11T19:49:32Z")
You have 2 criteria set. Keep for a week and delete 3 days after watched. Plex will make room but only if both criteria are met. Get rid of one of those settings and you should get the result you expect. I would remove the delete after option. That way you will only ever have 1 week of episodes. ---
**Author:** ![plex\_user\_99111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58f4c7/32.png) [@plex\_user\_99111](https://forums.plex.tv/u/plex_user_99111)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 7:56pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/9 "2020-03-11T19:56:41Z")
if that is all it takes you are a gentleman and a scholar! i will try that. edit: are you sure? reading the setting makes it sound like it will not delete played episodes no matter what if i turn it off?? KEEP Set the maximum number of unplayed episodes to keep for the show. DELETE EPISODES AFTER PLAYING Choose how quickly episodes are removed after the server admin has played them. it specifically says “unplayed episodes” not “episodes” wont it just continue only deleting unplayed episodes and leaving episodes partially watched? ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 7:59pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/10 "2020-03-11T19:59:15Z")
Yes, the keep option will rotate files when that criteria is reached. The delete option prevents ^^ until it’s criteria is reached. ---
**Author:** ![plex\_user\_99111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58f4c7/32.png) [@plex\_user\_99111](https://forums.plex.tv/u/plex_user_99111)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/11 "2020-03-11T20:05:52Z")
what will happen to episodes that i fully watch now though? will those episodes never get deleted or will they get cleared out after 7 days if they are unwatched, watched or partially watched? ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 9:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/12 "2020-03-11T21:02:52Z")
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. It really depends on your watching habits. If you are watching everything, then you use that “delete” option to remove them. If you don’t have time to watch all your recordings and want them to roll over, use the keep option. If you are watching sometimes, then you need to set both, but if you can’t meet both settings, the recordings can pile up. i.e. You are recording something that airs daily. Monday’s show is recorded on Monday. The rest of the week is recorded accordingly. You partially watch Monday’s episode on Tuesday (1 day later). It’s not finished so it’s still marked as unwatched. If you do nothing else with this episode, it will stay until the following Monday (keep for 7 days). If you finish watching it some other day of the week, then it will be marked as watched and will deleted X days later depending on your setting. If you finish watching on Sunday it won’t get removed the next day (Monday) like before when it was unwatched. It has to wait for the “delete” time frame to hit. So you can end up with these 5 recordings and then X more recordings waiting for the “delete” time to kick in. If you really don’t need to keep the ones you’ve watched, set it to 1 day so they clear out quickly. Although if you only have enough space to store X number of episodes and can’t always stay below that, you might want to get more storage. ---
**Author:** ![plex\_user\_99111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58f4c7/32.png) [@plex\_user\_99111](https://forums.plex.tv/u/plex_user_99111)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 5:30pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/13 "2020-03-13T17:30:14Z")
well i can tell you exactly what i do for 99% of these shows. i watch like 1 or 2 hours out of 4 and never go back and finish. if i understand you correctly, there are no settings i can set to avoid having to manually delete episodes on a regular basis? ---
**Author:** ![NDInnovations](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ndinnovations/32/143154_2.png) [@NDInnovations](https://forums.plex.tv/u/NDInnovations)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/14 "2020-03-13T17:35:26Z")
Jumping in to confirm here, there is definitely no clean up of partially watched episodes. I’ve got 4 partially watched nba games from the beginning of the season. It would be nice to have those automagically cleaned out as well, as then I don’t have to ffw through the extra hour or remember to manually mark them watched. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/15 "2020-03-13T17:39:21Z")
Hmm. Partially watched should be considered as unwatched. Let be verify and confirm the behavior for these. ---
**Author:** ![plex\_user\_99111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58f4c7/32.png) [@plex\_user\_99111](https://forums.plex.tv/u/plex_user_99111)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/16 "2020-03-13T20:55:35Z")
> [@NDInnovations](#): > > Jumping in to confirm here, there is definitely no clean up of partially watched episodes. I’ve got 4 partially watched nba games from the beginning of the season. > > It would be nice to have those automagically cleaned out as well, as then I don’t have to ffw through the extra hour or remember to manually mark them watched. Thanks, so if you dont go in and delete those unfinished episodes manually, they will never delete and plex will eventually stop recording instead of deleting them, correct? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/auto-delete-doesnt-work-for-dvr/553379/17 "2020-06-11T20:55:37Z")
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