I have an interesting bug I’m seeing. In the past I had created series recordings for a hand-full of programs. Then I deleted the recordings and their corresponding scheduled tasks. I then came back in later and recreated a series recording again for the same shows. The bug, they now they refuse to record. Or more specifically, they record, but then are not written to disk. Every place in the UI it shows the recordings were successful, but there is no play icon in the schedule view nor do they appear in my TV shows group. I have deleted the scheduled tasks, changed values, etc, nothing works.
Update on this; I’m digging around in the logs and and it seems the DVR thinks folders for the shows I deleted still exist on disk when they don’t. For example, the log for Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood (a show that fails to record) shows:
Sep 22, 2017 09:02:06.585 [0x7ff7cf7fc700] INFO - Library section 3 (TV Shows) will be updated because of a change in /mnt/sda1/TV Shows/Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood (2012)/Season 02
This folder doesn’t exist on disk. Does anyone from Plex actually read these issues or am I just talking to myself?
or that Plex realizes the folder is no longer there during its scan of library shows it has in the database and is updating because those shows no longer exist. When you delete shows and folders Plex at some point needs to scan the library to find new shows added, whether by DVR or you adding shows manually from some other source, and shows you have removed.
This may or may not be the same problem, but I had the same symptom. A while back, I set a series recording for Jeopardy. At the series level in the Plex library, I set “Delete episodes after watching” to 5 days. This worked great while the show was in season.
However, once reruns began, weird things started happening. The recording would complete, post-processing in MCEBuddy would happen, but the episode would never wind up on my Plex library, and was apparently deleted from disk.
So here’s what was happening: the episodes being recorded were reruns of episodes that had previously been recorded, and which I had watched. They’d since been deleted from disk, but Plex kept track of those episodes in the database, and knew that they had already been watched. So as soon as the episodes were added to the library, they were immediately deleted. That’s because technically, they had been watched, and more than 5 days had elapsed since I watched them.
The only way to fix this was to wait for a new episode to air, then go in and change the deletion policy for the show. Seems to be a weird side-effect of how Plex treats shows before being added to the library (ie. scheduled recordings). They’re not associated with the files that get scraped after the file is closed.
This is the same reason there are discrepancies between Gracenote and the EPG - the DVR is just a way to make files that eventually get scraped by Plex. The two sides don’t have a whole lot linking them, unfortunately (but they do have a little, for example: the play buttons in the recording schedule).
@johnlago said:
This may or may not be the same problem, but I had the same symptom. A while back, I set a series recording for Jeopardy. At the series level in the Plex library, I set “Delete episodes after watching” to 5 days. This worked great while the show was in season.
When you set these options on the recording Plex actually sets the settings for the show in your libraries. The library settings are actually how Plex determines when shows are deleted, not the settings in the DVR recording options.
So here’s what was happening: the episodes being recorded were reruns of episodes that had previously been recorded, and which I had watched. They’d since been deleted from disk, but Plex kept track of those episodes in the database, and knew that they had already been watched. So as soon as the episodes were added to the library, they were immediately deleted. That’s because technically, they had been watched, and more than 5 days had elapsed since I watched them.
Actually from what I have seen analyzing logs the shows are actually added to the library. After they are added Plex starts it’s scan/update of the library to show the new episode as being added as part of this process a program called Garbage Collection is run. Garbage Collection sees the episode is outside of your policy for keeping and will delete the episode from the library. So it does appear that they are immediately deleted but they were deleted from the library.
The only way to fix this was to wait for a new episode to air, then go in and change the deletion policy for the show. Seems to be a weird side-effect of how Plex treats shows before being added to the library (ie. scheduled recordings). They’re not associated with the files that get scraped after the file is closed.
Not exactly true. You can fake Plex out so to speak. You can use any other show/episode that is a new airing and copy the show/episode to another location, modify the filename to match the show that is being deleted, then move the file to your library into a folder structure matching the show you need to modify. We just need this files in place to allow us to modify the shows settings in the library. Once Plex picks up the new episode and adds the show back to your library you should be able to make the modification to the show settings. Once you have modified the settings you can delete the episode you copied into the library. This issue is one of the reasons I do not set any delete or keep policies on shows when recorded. Plex saves the settings you set in the recording to the show settings in the library. I personally have chosen to manually delete any shows/episodes I no longer want.
FYI, Plex uses the original air date of shows in determining when to delete episodes, not the recording date.
This is the same reason there are discrepancies between Gracenote and the EPG - the DVR is just a way to make files that eventually get scraped by Plex. The two sides don’t have a whole lot linking them, unfortunately (but they do have a little, for example: the play buttons in the recording schedule).
Not sure I understand exactly what you are saying here. Gracenote provides the guide data. Once a recording has been made Plex does scrape the recording and uses either TheTVDB or IMDB or other agents you specify for adding other metadata for the show/episode.
Thanks for the replies. I do have deletion policies set up which could be interfering with recordings. However, my kids have only watched a handful of eps yet none seem to be saved. I don’t think all the eps being recorded are ones my kids have already watched. Which, to my understanding, should be recorded regardless of deletion policy.
Can you provide logs? If so, when posting please provide the shows in question along with the start/end times of a recording. You can goto Settings/Server/Help and click the Download Logs link. Please ensure that Debug Logging is enabled, Verbose Logging is disabled, and Plex Server Tokens in Logs is disabled.
Here’s the logs from this morning. I was messing with it a bit just now so there’s will be some oddness around 8:30. Curious George eps from 7:30-8 (S7·E5—Honey of a Monkey; Curious George’s Egg Hunt), 8-8:30 (S7·E6—George’s Lawn Service; Curious Goes on a Scavenger Hunt) record and then are deleted. I sat here and watched Plex delete them from my library after they finished recording. My current recording settings are keep all eps and never delete but as noted @johnlago, it seems Plex doesn’t actually adjust the deletion settings until a new eps is recorded (that can’t be true can it?). I had my prior deletion values set to keep 5 eps and to delete after 1 day after watching.
I recorded a show but the recording went wrong and didnt stop at all (Osx plex). I was at 385% recording completion.
I decided to cancel the recording. Nothing appeared in my PVR library.
Until this morning where the show was there. Even if I canceled the recording.
Many shows I record are not instantly available for viewing. 
@jfth24, that’s a different issue which has been reported across the forums (which i’ve also seen, but not in recent versions). My issue is they are recorded and saved successfully, but they are then deleted right away seemingly due to opaque and not obvious deletion behaviors.
As you mentioned it is a deletion policy on the show:
Sep 25, 2017 08:00:04.256 [0x7f16bdffe700] DEBUG - Garbage Collector: Deleting episode 5 - Honey of a Monkey; Curious George’s Egg Hunt (beyond window of 7 days old)
Garbage Collection uses the settings for the show in the library, not the recording settings. To change the settings for the show if the show is not showing in your library you will need to fake Plex out for lack of a better phrase. Take any new episode of a show, should be plenty of choice now that the Fall season has begun. Copy a new episode to a different location. Modify the filename of the episode to match an episode of the show you need to modify and then move the file into your library following the folder structure for the show. Wait for Plex to pick up the new recording and add it to your library. Modify the settings for the show in the library and then delete the file you copied.
@johnm_ColaSC Thanks for the solution. I hope they improve this behavior as it’s extremely not user friendly.
