I am realizing that my EPG data does not automatically update itself. I am on FreeBSD version Version 1.5.5.3634 on my FreeNAS server. Everything works well and my shows record just fine, but the EPG data does not auto update. Every week or so, I log in and see that I only have 2-3 days of shows in my Recording Schedule. I go into Settings and update the EPG, and all of the sudden I have 2 weeks of EPG data. Last time I ran into this issue, I missed a show before I noticed. Is there some setting that I’m missing to have it auto update the EPG?
@johnm_ColaSC: Thanks for that! I was just starting to scour the forum to look for an answer to that exact same question. Will check that setting when I get home tonight.
UPDATE: when I checked my server settings, I already had “Perform refresh of program guide data” enabled so now I think I’m in the same boat as the OP – my guide data doesn’t refresh automatically. I’m running 1.7.2.3878 on an Nvidia Shield TV Pro.
Just like IronCroptop, I was very excited to see that there was a Scheduled Task checkbox that I may have missed. However, i am also in the same unfortunate situation in that mine was already checked.
So, I assume there is just an issue where it is not updating automatically. The EPG Refresh link works perfectly fine when run manually, so I am guessing it’s just a scheduled task issue.
Looks like we’re not alone. There’s another thread where people are reporting the same issue:
Thank you. I’ll track that one as well. I tried to find it before posting, so thank you for finding it.
Something you may want to do is check how long it takes for the EPG to be downloaded… do it once manually and try to watch it to completion. I went and checked the flag and found the windows that was their by default was 2am to 5am. That is just 3 hours. I am pretty certain that min will run much longer then that so i extended it out much later. that probablby depends on how many channels you have to sync but it could be a factor. I have cable card and allot of channels that aren’t encrypted so i have like 400+ it is trying to get info for.
@mavrrick said:
Something you may want to do is check how long it takes for the EPG to be downloaded… do it once manually and try to watch it to completion. I went and checked the flag and found the windows that was their by default was 2am to 5am. That is just 3 hours. I am pretty certain that min will run much longer then that so i extended it out much later. that probablby depends on how many channels you have to sync but it could be a factor. I have cable card and allot of channels that aren’t encrypted so i have like 400+ it is trying to get info for.
Mine takes 30 minutes or so. Not too long. Much longer than I’d expect it to. I use mc2xml for other devices and it takes about 5-10 minutes to download the first round of EPG, but then when it runs everyday, it only takes about 10 seconds.
I’m sure that Plex is downloading show metadata at the same time, but it seems it would be much more effective to download the EPG and THEN download all the metadata.
how many channels do you have? this could be relevant as well
@mavrrick said:
how many channels do you have? this could be relevant as well
Yes, of course. I thought of that after I submitted my statement. I have 468 channels with 1 disabled, so 467 enabled non-encrypted channels. About half of them are duplicate, as they are HD channels vs SD channels of the same content. Plex treats them as one show that you can watch in either SD or HD, so it does not have to download the content for both channels. I don’t know how that works in the Plex backend, but I do know that it doesn’t put them up as two shows with the same name at the same time.
I just started a refresh at 1:06pm local time. I’ll update my post when it finishes to get an idea of how long mine takes to download. I did update it 2 days ago, so I am not sure if that will affect the timeframe.
1:21pm local time: 26% done. Since I am not watching it constantly, I figured I’d update as I see changes.
1:38pm local time: 57% done. I have to leave the house, but I’ll have my wife watch it for me! 
Finished right around 2:06pm local time so i suppose it took exactly an hour.
Not sure what the difference is then becuase i am over 2 hours and only at 41% and 71053 airings downloaded. That means a 3 hour windows could very well be two shore.
647 channels with 414 enabled
I am not sure. I have Frontier (previously Verizon) FiOS with a 50/50 fiber internet connection. My HDHR Prime is connected via a 100mbps cable, because it has weird issues with gigabit connections and losing it’s IP address. I am connected to a business class 24 port gigabit switch, which is connected to a Netgear Nighthawk x4s router which is running directly to my ONT through a Cat6 gigabit cable. My Plex is running inside a FreeNAS server that is running FreeNAS v11 RC3 and connected to the gigabit switch through Cat5e. I broke all of this down below as well.
Router: Nighthawk x4s
Switch: Netgear GS324 - 48mbps max throughput
Server: FreeNAS v11 RC3
HDHR Prime: Cat5 cable to reduce speeds to 100mb
Internet: 50/50 Fiber with no static on line. Very clean connection.
Also, my FreeNAS server is quite beefy for how I use it. It has a 6 core 3.4ghz Intel Xeon E5-1650 v2 i7-4930K. It has a SSD drive running as the SLOG, and 32MB of RAM. I only have 2-3 computers connecting at a time, so it has a lot of resources dedicated to running Plex, and my SLOG really helps to offload the memory to my RaidZ1.
In my case, a manual guide refresh finishes in well under an hour (I only have 3 channels; stop laughing. STAHP!) so – at least in my case – it’s almost certainly not timing out.
Plex does not offer an EPG.
you are correct… but still wrong… plex does not give you the epg stuff itself, but it does pass thru gracenotes info
@pallotto said:
Plex does not offer an EPG.
you are correct… but still wrong… plex does not give you the epg stuff itself, but it does pass thru gracenotes info
Yes, I was simply using the terminology inside Plex but I am familiar with how it works. Thank you for taking the time to point out the gracenotes thing.
Today, I got on to check on upcoming recordings, and I somehow lost recording data for everything in front of 3 days ago. It was there a couple days ago, but then it just disappeared somehow. That’s odd, eh?
I am using FreeNAS, so I went in and restarted my Jail, then deleted my DVR, recreated it, rescanned all the channels for fun and started up a new scan of EPG data. Fingers crossed!
What sort of time frame for scheduled tasks does everyone have? I have mine set to 6 hours as you can see from my previous post with screenshot of settings.
I have had a few instances where I discovered that I did not have 14 days of scheduled recordings but that was typically around times when Plex had issues with the feed from their provider. I have also had one instance where I knew there should be programs recording later the same day that were in the recording schedule the previous day. I am guessing that when Plex refreshes the EPG there might be instances where all data is not received but the update process continues and clears current EPG data in Plex before updating with new data received. Manual update of EPG then showed the same recordings for later that day that were missing.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
What sort of time frame for scheduled tasks does everyone have?
Mine is set from 1AM to 6AM.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
I have also had one instance where I knew there should be programs recording later the same day that were in the recording schedule the previous day. I am guessing that when Plex refreshes the EPG there might be instances where all data is not received but the update process continues and clears current EPG data in Plex before updating with new data received. Manual update of EPG then showed the same recordings for later that day that were missing.
I just had that issue that you were referring to here as well. My EPG data was fine for the next couple weeks, but today when I got in and checked it out my “Recording Schedule” was nearly empty. However, after updating the EPG manually, I am now flush with 2 weeks of scheduled recordings.
Plex on Windows 7 Pro, All software is up to date. The EPG failed to update and my schedule ran dry. All settings are correct and manual update worked, slowly, but worked. Auto-update is broken. 
@GroupMaster said:
Plex on Windows 7 Pro, All software is up to date. The EPG failed to update and my schedule ran dry. All settings are correct and manual update worked, slowly, but worked. Auto-update is broken.
Mine has gone and done the same thing, it shows nothing to record this week, yet i have found there are plenty of shows to actually record that its lost.
