Scheduled recordings are failing on some occasions, resulting in a 1 second recording being generated. Logs show that the program is scheduled to record at the correct time but noting starts recording at that point. The logs show that the recording process actually starts hours later at which point it stops when it decides the program will finish in the past.
Jul 13, 2025 18:12:55.129 [0x70000ef60000] DEBUG - [Req#625d2] DVR:NewSchedule: Between 2025-07-14 20:58:00 and 2025-07-14 22:02:00 on channel 5fc76db2cd7e03002e46152b-5fc70603088e7d002d4c7397: 'The Couple Next Door - E1 - The Couple Next Door'
Jul 14, 2025 23:58:38.726 [0x70000efe3000] DEBUG - [Req#62724/Grabber/7077f413b456175cf44a4372f2902c06a6c74c3e] Subscription: No existing library item show 'guid: plex://show/655385df60c0b624a3bfe860 ratingKey: plex%3A%2F%2Fshow%2F655385df60c0b624a3bfe860 thumb: https://metadata-static.plex.tv/b/gracenote/b582a27e370ce7089ef0f6c430473bf7.jpg title: The Couple Next Door type: 2 year: 2023'
Jul 14, 2025 23:58:38.726 [0x70000efe3000] DEBUG - [Req#62724/Grabber/7077f413b456175cf44a4372f2902c06a6c74c3e] Starting operation for 'The Couple Next Door - E1 - The Couple Next Door' on channel 5fc76db2cd7e03002e46152b-5fc70603088e7d002d4c7397.
Jul 14, 2025 23:58:38.727 [0x70000efe3000] DEBUG - [Req#62724/Grabber/7077f413b456175cf44a4372f2902c06a6c74c3e] Activity: registered new activity 1e19afff-a647-4b49-adf9-587eaa1e15d1 - "Recording"
Jul 14, 2025 23:58:38.727 [0x70000efe3000] DEBUG - [Req#62724/Grabber/7077f413b456175cf44a4372f2902c06a6c74c3e] Grabber: HDHomerun starting a media grab on device device://tv.plex.grabbers.hdhomerun/123152A6 (Silicondust HDHomeRun CONNECT, supported) tuner 0.
Jul 14, 2025 23:58:38.727 [0x70000e6ad000] DEBUG - [Req#62724/Grabber/7077f413b456175cf44a4372f2902c06a6c74c3e/HCl#4716] HTTP requesting GET http://192.168.0.163:80/discover.json
Jul 14, 2025 23:58:38.730 [0x70000efe3000] DEBUG - [Req#62724/Grabber/7077f413b456175cf44a4372f2902c06a6c74c3e] Subscription: No existing library item show 'guid: plex://show/655385df60c0b624a3bfe860 ratingKey: plex%3A%2F%2Fshow%2F655385df60c0b624a3bfe860 thumb: https://metadata-static.plex.tv/b/gracenote/b582a27e370ce7089ef0f6c430473bf7.jpg title: The Couple Next Door type: 2 year: 2023'
Jul 14, 2025 23:58:38.730 [0x70000efe3000] ERROR - [Req#62724/Grabber/7077f413b456175cf44a4372f2902c06a6c74c3e] Grabber: found airing in the active list with an end time in the past. 'The Couple Next Door - E1 - The Couple Next Door' on channel 5fc76db2cd7e03002e46152b-5fc70603088e7d002d4c7397 should have ended 6998 seconds ago.
I’ve deleted scheduled recordings and re-added them with no change in behaviour. The server has been rebooted, the DVR deleted and re-added none of which seem to have resulted in the issue going away.
This seems like a strange bug any help or suggestions as to the cause?
Server Version#: 1.41.6.9685
Player Version#: N/A
Tuner Make/Model: HDHomerun Connect
Guide/Lineup name: Freeview (Local listings)
Using XMLTV?: No
Happened again same behaviour started recording after the event:
Jul 16, 2025 00:34:39.813 [0x70000f3fb000] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: device 0 tuner 0 airing 0 between 2025-07-16 20:58:00 and 2025-07-16 22:02:00 on channel 5fc76db2cd7e03002e46152b-5fc70603088e7d002d4c7397: 'The Couple Next Door - E3 - The Couple Next Door'
Jul 16, 2025 00:34:39.813 [0x70000f3fb000] DEBUG - [Grabber/6ef158e47ceb2aa71268d338f1b4d80db08b03ba] Scheduling 'The Couple Next Door - E3 - The Couple Next Door' for timed grab at 2025-07-16 20:58:00 (in 73401 seconds)
Jul 17, 2025 00:45:31.797 [0x70000e6ad000] DEBUG - [Grabber/6ef158e47ceb2aa71268d338f1b4d80db08b03ba] Starting operation for 'The Couple Next Door - E3 - The Couple Next Door' on channel 5fc76db2cd7e03002e46152b-5fc70603088e7d002d4c7397.
Jul 17, 2025 00:45:31.801 [0x70000e6ad000] ERROR - [Grabber/6ef158e47ceb2aa71268d338f1b4d80db08b03ba] Grabber: found airing in the active list with an end time in the past. 'The Couple Next Door - E3 - The Couple Next Door' on channel 5fc76db2cd7e03002e46152b-5fc70603088e7d002d4c7397 should have ended 9811 seconds ago.
Can any Plex staff comment on what might be causing this and how to investigate further?
I’ve attached the server logs covering the last two occasions I mentioned above.
Sadly there doesn’t seem to be any constancy as to which programmes this might occur on, other than every episode of this show has failed in the same way.
The network drops aren’t helping but the main culprit is no space:
[Grabber/6ef158e47ceb2aa71268d338f1b4d80db08b03ba] Grabber: checking for 0 MB of available disk space in grab path and 0 MB in the transcode cache path
Edit.
How large are your com.plexapp.plugins.library.db and com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db
You are a few versions back and there was a bug that caused the databases to grow rapidly but the version you are on was before that.
Thanks for taking a look and helping out. The com.plexapp.plugins.library.db is 320MB and com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db 277MB, the disk these are on has over 200GB of storage left. Not sure if these are large sizes or not. Version got rolled back when the bug with the DVR UI got introduced (recording issue happened before this).
Where is the grab path and transcoder cache? The disks look to have space and some other recordings do work.
Are the network drops happening whilst it’s recording or at other times? I’m not sure I understand how these and any disc capacity are causing the recording process to start late?
When you created the TV Shows Library (and separate Movie) you pointed to a storage location, the .grab will be at the root of that location. What kind of storage is being used?
Possible causes:
Permissions
Network Storage disconnected
USB/SATA disk going to sleep
Network drops were while recording and watching live.
I’m not sure the storage location is a factor in this issue. The files are stored on a NAS which has plenty of space available.
I did some more testing and confirmed that that you can record successfully to that space by setting up some single episode recordings. Both of which completed successfully, one was on a different channel to the one which had seen an issue and one was on the same channel as had the previous recording errors. This verifies that in principle the recording works and storage access can be made. It also confirmed that those channels are recordable.
I then set up a new ongoing show recording on the same channel I have experienced issues with and it if failed with the recording starting after it was finished with the same errors as before.
I setup an on going scheduled recording on a different channel which has recorded successfully.
The issue appears to be linked to something around scheduled multi program recordings on specific channels, possible those with +1 or maybe if there are multiple airings of the same show?
My next test will be forcing the multiprogram recording to pick only from the channel I want it to record from to see if that changes anything.
Thanks for the suggestion @pl_5309 but this isn’t a disk access issue as recodings do work and the logs specifically show the recording starting late and at the time it should be recording nothing is happening.
After some more testing, it looks like its not just a specific channel that has this issues but certain programmes. Setting up another series recording, on the same channel that had the issue, worked with each recording occurring at the correct time.
I’ve tried limiting the recording to a specific channel without any help. I’ve now changed it to only record on a specific channel and a specific airing to see if it’s related to shows with multiple airings (repeats) in the day?
In the latest test I added a selected airing time to the failing scheduled recording, and this time the recoding worked. The program in question has airings on multiple channels and repeat timings on the same day and this appears to be contributing to failed recordings (late start time).
I’ll do some more testing with other shows that have the same attributes to see if I can confirm how to replicate and workaround the issue.
I spoke to soon the recording failed the next day, same symptoms as before the event time came and went (14:08) with the recording kicking in later in the day at 17:52
Aug 11, 2025 23:07:08.200 [0x70000a0d3000] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: device 0 tuner 1 airing 0 between 2025-08-12 14:08:00 and 2025-08-12 15:02:00 on channel 5fc76db2cd7e03002e46152b-5fc70603088e7d002d4c7397: ‘Countdown - E157 - Countdown’
Aug 11, 2025 23:07:08.200 [0x70000a0d3000] DEBUG - [Grabber/4d981746ea25da6377bb5a3078ca77efe4a66323] Scheduling ‘Countdown - E157 - Countdown’ for timed grab at 2025-08-12 14:08:00 (in 54052 seconds)
Aug 12, 2025 17:52:53.985 [0x70000a156000] DEBUG - [Grabber/4d981746ea25da6377bb5a3078ca77efe4a66323] Starting operation for ‘Countdown - E157 - Countdown’ on channel 5fc76db2cd7e03002e46152b-5fc70603088e7d002d4c7397.
Aug 12, 2025 17:52:53.985 [0x70000a156000] DEBUG - [Grabber/4d981746ea25da6377bb5a3078ca77efe4a66323] Activity: registered new activity 020c578a-0812-4e37-9c85-7a3b7ae66fef - “Recording”
Aug 12, 2025 17:52:53.986 [0x70000a156000] DEBUG - [Grabber/4d981746ea25da6377bb5a3078ca77efe4a66323] Grabber: HDHomerun starting a media grab on device device://tv.plex.grabbers.hdhomerun/123152A6 (Silicondust HDHomeRun CONNECT, supported) tuner 1.
Aug 12, 2025 17:52:53.987 [0x70000a156000] DEBUG - [Grabber/4d981746ea25da6377bb5a3078ca77efe4a66323] Subscription: Found existing library item ‘Countdown’ (306052)
Aug 12, 2025 17:52:53.988 [0x70000a156000] DEBUG - [Grabber/4d981746ea25da6377bb5a3078ca77efe4a66323] There were 1 top-level paths for Countdown.
Aug 12, 2025 17:52:53.988 [0x70000a156000] ERROR - [Grabber/4d981746ea25da6377bb5a3078ca77efe4a66323] Grabber: found airing in the active list with an end time in the past. ‘Countdown - E157 - Countdown’ on channel 5fc76db2cd7e03002e46152b-5fc70603088e7d002d4c7397 should have ended 10253 seconds ago.
I’m at a loss as to why it works and then doesn’t it, its not related to network access is it simply doesn’t event try to record at the right time. It seems to be something in the scheduling logic. Any suggestions welcome.
