[mythtv-users] database surgery or not?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 10/11/2009 11:00 PM, Gavin Peters wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 07:34:26PM -0400, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>   
>> On 10/11/2009 07:14 PM, Gavin Peters wrote:
>>     
>>> I can't delete these from inside the MythTV user interface: nothing
>>> happens.  The recordings on disk are long gone (I think).
>> Go to Watch Recordings (or Delete Recordings), and hit MENU (M), the  
>> Change Group Filter, then select the LiveTV group, then go to the LiveTV  
>> group and delete the recordings.
> I guess what I meant by "I can't delete these from inside the MythTV
> user interface: nothing happens" is that I have tried to delete these
> using this, and similar methods, from inside the UI before and the
> result was that Myth did nothing.  I wish I'd communicated that more
> clearly.

So they disappear and then come back?

You won't be able to delete them using a playlist, because the files are 
missing, so it won't actually delete them without permission.  
Therefore, you need to delete them one by one and answer yes when 
prompted whether to delete the metadata since the file can't be found.  
You may have to do this /very/ deliberately, too, since the frontend 
will attempt to create a preview for each recording, so the preview 
generator will try 12 times to open the file before giving up.  During 
this time, the state seen by the frontend may /not/ be the correct 
rsNotAvailable state, so it may think it's a normal delete and may not 
prompt you correctly.  So, highlight the recording, wait a bit 
(depending on theme, it may "gray out"), then try the delete.

If you have a bunch of recordings, you can put them all in a playlist, 
then MENU|Playlist Options|Change Recording Group and select the Deleted 
recording group (or, if not listed, type in the word "Deleted"--exactly 
as show (capitalization and all) but without quotes).  Then, run 
http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/browser/trunk/mythtv/contrib/maintenance/flush_deleted_recgroup.pl?format=txt 
with the --force option (though it's trunk, it will work with 
0.21-fixes).  Note, however (as stated in the --help text), doing so 
will delete /all/ Deleted recordings.  So, if you have a bunch of 
deleted recordings you want to keep, before putting the bad LiveTV 
recordings in Deleted recgroup, put the Deleted recordings into a 
temporary recgroup, then put LiveTV in Deleted, flush deleted with 
--force, then put the temporary recgroup recordings in Deleted (no need 
to Delete them again, just change their recgroup and you won't have to 
worry about changing the "allow re-record" you selected when you 
originally deleted them).

Mike