[mythtv-users] External drive for recordings

Stephen Worthington stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz
Thu Sep 19 12:40:56 UTC 2013


On Thu, 19 Sep 2013 13:21:32 +0100, you wrote:

>On 19/09/13 10:09, Stephen Worthington wrote:
>> On Thu, 19 Sep 2013 07:38:32 +0100, you wrote:
>>
>>> Folks:
>>>
>>> I have been unable to persuade Myth to record to an external USB hard
>>> disc.  For instance -
>>>
>>> /media/gt/HD2012/mythtv/recordings = 775 mythtv:mythtv
>>>
>>> Set this in the Back End Default Directories and it is ignored even
>>> though mounted and accessible by other means.
>>>
>>> I have succeeded previously so I must be missing something basic.
>>>
>>> Myth 1.026 under Ubuntu 13.04 running on a Revo.
>>>
>>> Any thoughts?  Many thanks.
>>>
>>> GT
>>
>> Try moving an existing recording file you have watched and want to
>> delete now over to the drive (use the I key twice on the recording to
>> see its file name).  When it is on the USB drive, is it still visible
>> to MythTV?  If not, then you probably have a typo in your storagegroup
>> setup.  If it is, try deleting it.  Does that work, or are there error
>> messages about the delete in mythbackend.log and it stays listed in
>> the deleted recordings list?
>>
>
>Curiouser and curiouser.
>I can copy a recording from /var/lib/ to /HD2012/
>If I Delete it in the Previously Recorded screen it disappears from that 
>screen but returns to the Watch Recordings screen and both copies of the 
>recording remain intact.
>Deleting from the Watch Recordings screen does not change either of the 
>file copies.
>After restarting Mythtv only the HD2012 copy remains, the /var/lib copy 
>has been erased.
>
>I did try changing the Live TV default to HD2012, then live TV refused 
>to run at all.  Myth appears unable to see that, or another eSATA, 
>external drive.
>
>Thanks for your help.
>
>GT

I am not sure what MythTV does if there are two copies of the same
file in different locations, but I doubt it is good.  As best I can
tell from what you saw happen, MythTV found the /var/lib copy and
deleted it, but probably never saw the other copy.  But to really test
if MythTV can see the external drive, you need to move a file there,
not copy it.

Please bare in mind that deletes are not instantaneous - especially if
you have set MythTV to keep deleted recordings for a while in case you
want to undelete them.  Even if you have not changed that setting from
0, a delete command merely queues the file for deletion at a later
time when mythbackend gets around to doing it.  That can take a minute
or two, depending on various factors.  If you go to Information Center
> System Status > AutoExpire List you may see files marked as
(Deleted) at the top of that list.  Those are waiting to be deleted
when the space is needed or they expire their waiting time.  You can
get them to be actually deleted from there using the D key, but that
only puts them onto the queue to be actually deleted in a short while.
Only after the file has actually been deleted will the matching
database entries be deleted.


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