Successfully recorded but missing files, trying to record consecutive airings on the same channel

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.18.1.1973 on Windows 7 64bit

I noticed that the Plex DVR failed 4 recordings in the past days, all of them have in common that Plex report them as “Successfully recorded”, but no file is present in the library nor in the file system.

A. Fast Forward at 4:40 - 5:30AM of the 31/october
B. Cherif at 1:50 - 3:10PM of the 31/october

recordings1
recordings1.jpg727×499 153 KB

C. Fast Forward at 2:55 - 3:50AM of the 02/november
D. Fast Forward at 3:50 - 4:40AM of the 03/november

recordings2
recordings2.png709×492 365 KB

Case D.
Uploading the log zip for the case D, Fast Forward at 3:50 - 4:40 of the 03/november
Plex Media Server.3.log.zip (883.4 KB)

This TV channel aired 3 consecutive episodes, and the DVR was set to record every aired episode of “Fast Forward”, extending the recording duration of 15 minutes. That’s probably why I see this log line:

Nov 03, 2019 04:05:28.450 [14988] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: Scheduled an operation ‘Fast forward - E7 - Il caso Dominik Fiedler’ on channel 038 on tuner 3 between 2019-11-03 03:50:00 and 2019-11-03 04:55:00

The recording of the second episode of the three started 15 minutes late, probably beacuse it waited for the episode before to actually end. I’m not really sure that’s how it’s supposed to work, I would have expected the second episode to start in time, independently from other episodes being recorded at the moment. I’d be glad if that could be clarified, even if it’s not the core of the issue, it seems to me a bug to be addressed.

General thoughts
Not knowing much about how the DVR works, I can only hypotize on the data I have, and I am thinking that consecutive episodes of the same series on the same channel. I’m gonna try and record again a similar pattern setting a post ending duration to 0, to see if it makes any difference.

Can anyone confirm or prove me wrong? Is there anything I look into to better debug the error?
Thanks

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In the past hours I ran a test recording a few series on the same channel:

A. Profiling, 2 episodes at 9:10PM and 10:05PM, 03/november, 0 additional minutes. Recordings OK
B. Il delitto della porta accanto, 2 episodes at 1:25AM and 2:20AM, 04/november, 15 additional minutes after. 1 recording OK, 1 recording missing.
C. Wolff - un poliziotto a Berlino, 3 episodes at 3:10AM, 4:05AM and 4:50AM, 04/november, 0 additional minutes. All 3 recordings missing.
D. L’investigatore Wolfe, 2 episodes at 5:35AM and 6:00AM, 04/november, 20 additional minutes after and 3 minutes before. Recordings OK
E. Murder Comes to Town, 2 episodes at 6:20AM and 7:15AM, 04/november, 0 additional minutes. Recordings OK
recordingsA1

Server Logs: Plex Media Server Logs_2019-11-04_08-42-38.zip (4.4 MB)

The new data proves me wrong, the missing recording seems not related to the “additional minutes” feature.
I’ll take a look to the logs I just uploaded, I wanted to update the topic as soon as I had the new data, hoping that someone can help me with this problem, cause as of now the DVR is very unreliable.

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I think I found out the key error:

	60930	Nov 04, 2019 02:35:02.475 [15392] ERROR - Couldn't rename file "\\DISKSTATION\video\Serie TV\.grab\80bcc5c49664141f3627fb4f64a086b934dbde4d\Il delitto della porta accanto (2019) - S06E02 - Amori da incubo.ts" to "\\DISKSTATION\video\Serie TV\Il delitto della porta accanto (2019)\Season 06\Il delitto della porta accanto (2019) - S06E02 - Amori da incubo.ts": The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process
	52811	Nov 04, 2019 04:05:03.059 [14332] ERROR - Couldn't rename file "\\DISKSTATION\video\Serie TV\.grab\92601697275c9103a1de40fb5d2aef5232d72a09\Wolff - un poliziotto a Berlino (2019) - 1998-05-25 14 00 00 - Nel nome del padre.ts" to "\\DISKSTATION\video\Serie TV\Wolff - un poliziotto a Berlino (2019)\Season 1998\Wolff - un poliziotto a Berlino (2019) - 1998-05-25 14 00 00 - Nel nome del padre.ts": The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process
	70294	Nov 04, 2019 08:15:02.014 [8588] ERROR - Couldn't rename file "\\DISKSTATION\video\Serie TV\.grab\8ab61e3b0535ec3dc1818d20df151400a28e602d\Murder Comes to Town (2014) - S04E03 - Murder Comes to Town.ts" to "\\DISKSTATION\video\Serie TV\Murder Comes to Town (2014)\Season 04\Murder Comes to Town (2014) - S04E03 - Murder Comes to Town.ts": The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process

The recording can’t be moved from the grab folder cause the file is in use, now the problem is finding out what’s using it, but I’ll find a way into it.
I found other topics discuss about that -> DVR fails to move file from grab folder to library on Windows

What bothers me, and makes me sceptical, is that not all the missing recording have a corresponding error line in the logs. I’m looking at the test C. (Wolff - un poliziotto a Berlino), the log speaks about the 2nd of 3 episodes, but not about the 1st and the 3rd. And later the test E. (Murder Comes to Town) is still successful even if the error line is present.

That logs inconsistency makes me think that the problem is not only the “cannot access the file” thing. I’ll try and clear that up first, and I’ll report back if I find something more.

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It seems that a process of another media management software installed on my pc (Serviio) was constantly trying to lock the files created by Plex in the .grub folder. I uninstalled that software, ran a few tests and all seems ok now.

I also verified that consecutive recordings (with or w/o additional recording time set) on the same channel do not wait for the completion of each other to start, as I was inferring from the logs, but correctly start at the scheduled time, also overlapping if needed. Therefore all fine from this side too.

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