DVR recordings disappeared

[CCKenF]

Hey All, 

Appreciate you all taking the time to let us know about your missing recordings. Losing recordings can be a frustrating experience especially if you have some old recordings that you love. I have a few shows I watched when I was younger on my DVR that I have recorded whole seasons. If I lost these shows, I'd be heartbroken.  Please check your trash folder to make sure they are not there. If they are not, please let me know. Send me a private message with your full name for help. Just click my name and then on the next page, you'll see an option to send me a private message on the top right-hand side.  

[Janglea]

Hello,

I'm having the same issue. My physical DVR is working perfectly. It will record every show that I want and the show will not be deleted until I delete it myself, or I run out of space. However the cloud is a different story. For example I currently only have 24 recordings on my DVR and the oldest recording is only 4 days old. On the cloud I only have 15 recordings. Overnight the oldest 9 recordings were deleted as if I had run out of space however my cloud DVR settings on the Xfinity Stream app are showing that I'm only 19% full.

[CCKenF]

Janglea, 

Thanks for taking the time to post on the forums about your DVR and cloud DVR concerns. 

There will often be a mismatch between the storage amounts you see on the DVR and the cloud DVR because the units of measurement are different. For example, your DVR will store up to 500GB of content to its internal hard drive. The Cloud DVR feature will only store up to 60 hours of content. And that content will only be 60 hours of the most recently recorded programs. 

Overnight the oldest 9 recordings were deleted as if I had run out of space 

Do you see these recordings in your trash can folder? Were these programs removed from the cloud as well? 

Ken

[Fedge]

Hello Ken

Thanks for reaching out.

I did not see these in Trash. If you could provide a simple set of steps to test the cloud question, I would be happy to test that.

I would like to avoid starting up a smart device in the house and streaming content and searching for these missing recording. Hoping there is a easier method. I have limited time to do this test.

[CCKenF]

Fedge, 

You don't need to start a smart device to test the cloud content! You can also log into your account via your computer to check what is on the cloud: https://www.xfinity.com/stream/

From there you can log in as necessary and then navigate to the "recording's" pane on the left side of the screen. Then click "My recordings" and there will be listed all of your cloud recordings. 

Ken

[Fedge]

Easy steps - thanks

I Posted that I had

Had 16 classic doctor who's saved on Friday evening

I see in Cloud

2 Doctor Who Classics today

               But I also see that the cloud space is 100% full

               Also nothing in Cloud deleted folder

I could see that the cloud 100% - caused deleting to occur

But my local DVR's had plenty of local space 40% to retain these

     How would the system handle this (no space in cloud but space local)?

[Jlfoot1]

That is exactly my question, too. Why would the cloud delete items when there is plenty of space on the hard drive of the DVR??  I thought the recording should go to the DVR first and then to the cloud.  

[CCKenF]

🙂 

Glad you were able to locate them! 

The cloud isn't able to delete items on your physical storage on the main DVR if it runs out of space. The DVR is supposed to record the content (up to 500GB) and the newest 60 hours of that content goes to the cloud. If you are recording a ton of stuff, the cloud will continue to move the older recordings out of the cloud to make room for the new content on the cloud. So for example, if you record 50 hours of Seinfeld but then record 20 new hours of Game of Thrones, your cloud would show the 20 hours of Game of Thrones and the 40 hours of Seinfeld. All 60 hours of Seinfeld and 20 hours of Seinfeld would remain on the actual DVR storage unless those totals were more than 500GB (I think that equates to about 150 hours). 

If you exceed the 60-hour limit, your most recent recordings will replace older recordings unless the older recordings are marked as Save for 1 Year.

If you're missing recorded programs on both the cloud and the internal harddrive, please let me know. I will attempt to troubleshoot and get tech ops involved as necessary.  Just click my name and then on the next page, you'll see an option to send me a private message on the top right hand side.  

[Fedge]

I am missing the 16 doctor whos from cloud and local.

I had no space on cloud

But I had plenty of space on local DVR.

I would like to see these restored, but I also would understand if these cannot be restored.

The more important issue is moving forward - resolving the unexplained deletions of DVR recordings from local/cloud when there is plenty of space available. This is being reported to Comcast in multi threads.

There is a great deal of expense laid out to record and preserve these recordings and if we take the time to manage thee space, we should feel confident that the recording will be preserved.

I hope I worded this in a constructive and positive way to ensure that we have eyes on a possible bug that is causing DVR recording to be removed when space exist.

Feel free to reach out to me in a PM for any private info needed as I share the same goal as you - to resolve for the future.

If Comcast finds cause and resolution - this should be posted publicly for all (IMHO).

Thanks Ken

[CCKenF]

Fedge, 

I'm right there with you. We will post a resolution if this is a known issue. A few weeks ago I did work with a few customers who saw some missing recordings and we were able to trace it to a known bug in a previous firmware code. It has been corrected since then so I'm happy to investigate if there is an issue with your firmware/ see if we can get these recordings back. 

Can you send me a private message with your full name? This'll allow me to access your account and start troubleshooting. Thanks for being so understanding and patient. My goal is to get to the bottom of this and report here on this thread, assuming the issues are linked (and otherwise for that matter). 

Ken

[tvines1616]

Hi I tried to send you a personal message but can't figure out how.  I clicked on your name and it brought me to your about page.  I am experience the same problem with my recordings deleted.  There was room, they were not over a year, and they are not in my deleted folder. 

[butterdov]

All of my recordings have disappeared also. I cannot figure out how to send you a private message. Once I hit close to 60 hours it deletes everything that is old. It used to save a lot more than that. I read you said 500 GB is saved on the local DVR and that should be about 150 hours in HD I assume. Other sites say 60 hours HD total period. I am so confused. Having had U-Verse in the past which is at least 150 hours in HD I have never had this problem until I moved and had to get Xfinity. 

[CCKenF]

butterdov and tvines1616--

As per our forums guidelines, your private message access is deactivated until you post publicly at least one time. Now that you have done so, you should be able to send a private message. Thanks for posting on the forums! Please send me a private message so we can begin troubleshooting 🙂 

Ken

[PatWME]

I am having the same problem: recordings suddenly deletng themselves and we are never more that at 45% capacity. Any ideas?

[CCKenF]

I am having the same problem: recordings suddenly deletng themselves and we are never more that at 45% capacity. Any ideas?

PatWME, I'm opening an investigation on the missing recordings for some customers. Please feel free to send me a private message so I can look into this for you as well! (Just click my name and then on the next page, you'll see an option to send me a private message on the top right hand side)

Ken

[Fedge]

Working with Comcastken already 

may want to combine to see common symptoms 

[CCKenF]

Fedge, nice speaking with you in private message! All, we discovered that the particular Doctor Who's recordings they were missing because of a failed recording by the scheduler--these type of failures will cause the program to continue to fail moving forward. To resolve and prevent future recording failures, the recording priority will need to be deleted and the future scheduled recordings. Then a new recording request for the series would need to be redone. I'd be happy to check if this back end error is similar to what others are seeing! Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there is a way to bring back the missing recording in this instance. 

Ken

[Janglea]

Hello Ken,

I apologize for the late reply. My recordings that were deleted were not in the trash folder. They are still on my DVR. They are only being deleted in the cloud. I also understand the differences in storage vs cloud. My DVR will hold much more recordings than the cloud and I understand that is normal. For the DVR it holds a certain amount of GB of data, while the cloud only holds the last 60 hours of recordings no matter the size.

My DVR works perfect. My recordings never get deleted from it unless I delete them myself. I can watch any of my recordings from my X1 Box. However, the problem is with the cloud itself. The cloud is deleting the oldest recordings while I should still have space. A recent example below:

I had 26 recordings on my DVR. These recordings were from only the last week. Sunday through Tuesday. All recordings were still on my DVR. However while I was at work, I tried to log into Xfinity Stream to watch my stored recordings on the cloud. Only the last 14 recordings were in the cloud. Also before going to bed on Tuesday I checked the cloud and all 26 recordings were there. They were deleted from the cloud overnight even though nothing else was added and it was less than half of the 60 hours that it should have held.

[Bhick6]

Hi, I see that this issue is marked as solved;  however yesterday we lost 60% of our recordings.  The ones deleted were random, it made no sense.  Our space went down from 70% to 10%.  Can you advise the best way to address this since reading through the thread it appears firmware was pushed down to address this issue but it is still continuing.  Thank you!

[CCKenF]

Hey Janglea, appreciate the follow-up! No worries on the delay, I'm here all day! 🙂 

Can you try resyncing your DVR to the cloud? You can do so on your X1 DVR via this order path: Settings--> device settings-->sync DVR. 

Bhick6, the solution was improperly marked. Were any of the missing recordings marked as "save for 1 year"? 

Ken

[Bhick6]

Hi!

Unfortunately I can’t confirm for all recordings but one of the series we are currently recording had 4-5 from the first season on the DVR that were deleted. I checked the remaining and they were marked as “until space is needed.” I understand the cloud deleting but we had 30% left on the physical DVR. We’ve had much less space left before and never lost old recordings. Thank you for the response!

[CCKenF]

Hi there! 

That is definitely quite odd. Especially if you haven't swapped the DVR and you had the space for the recordings. Let's look closer into this. Please send me a private message with your full name for help. Just click my name and then on the next page, you'll see an option to send me a private message on the top right hand side. Can you also include the name of the recording in your message as well so I can check the provisioning for it on the back end? Thanks! 

[KBell18]

Hi - our DVR recordings disappeared as well.  We were not near limit.  Some may have been over a year, but not most.  Many recent recordings are gone as well. I checked online in my account and only those that are on my DVR show online as well.  Help! 

[Bhick6]

Same with us, the cloud recordings are gone as well.

What’s really weird is that the DVR is showing only 13% full and we have about 45 shows recorded so that doesn’t make sense. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[CCKenF]

KBell18, thanks for letting me know--I got your private message and will follow up with you there shortly. 

Ken

[EVERYTHINGJ]

All but 28 saved recordings were deleted from my DVR today too.  This is the second time this year. 

[Imnotrt]

Mine is the same issue. It is a rolling two months. So my recordings yesterday included the first week of May 2019 and now those are gone and only those from the second week to present are available. I have adventure box so nice should disappear.

[RachelJF]

Hi, I too am having problems. In the last three days I have gone from 91% full to 22% full. Everything older than 7/16/19 has been deleted. Posting here so I can PM for help.  Thanks.

[JeffG4]

Hi,

I'm having the same problem ... but as far as I know I have only the physical DVR (no cloud). It was 85% full, and today it's deleted an entire week's worth of various shows (none of which was close to a year old). Is there anything I can do to stop it doing this in the future?

Thanks!

[seanaohara]

I was gratified to find this thread reporting the bug we are currently STILL having with our DVR.  We were esnt a new DVR box because of a different problem and I installed the new DVR box on July 3 2019 according to xfinity's instructions (written and over the phone) with no problem.

Since installing this new box, many of our previously recorded programs have been dissappearing.  Some from before the new box installation, some from after.  Storage capacity has always shown less than 35% full.  For some series, all episodes except the last were deleted, then a few days later, that episodes was also deleted.

We have been calling regularly and trying to explain the problem, with mixed results (we are often told that we must have deleted these shows, yet the disappearing shows NEVER appear in the 'Recently Deleted' section).  I've even visited a local xfinity store - they believed me and were sympathetic, but said they could not help and to call again!!

This problem continues.  Wondering what to try next - hoping this forum yields some results!

[tmtaki22]

This is happening to us. No one warned us that this might happen. Is there no way to retrieve many years worth of recordings? This is really unacceptable.

[RobertWy]

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/x1-dvr-cloud-technology-general-faqs

[mbchevy]

Do they plan on restoring the missing recordings or just work on it?

[DGK3]

I have been told the recordings are permanently gone.

[Bhick6]

Hi Ken! I’m not sure if you are still monitoring this issue/thread. I sent you a PM so please forward to the appropriate person if someone else is working on this.

We have the most recent firmware (you kindly confirmed about a month ago) and things seemed back to normal.

Then a random movie disappeared, but we didn’t think too much about it. Now between Sunday and yesterday, at least two movies disappeared and a sporting event as well (that didn’t go over well!)

Can you or another Comcast employee assist?

Thank you!

[CCKenF]

Bhick6, got your PM! 

I have been told the recordings are permanently gone.

DGK3, if the recording disappeared due to an error with the scheduler, we are not able to get them back. Otherwise, we can try a couple things on the back end. Let me know if you need help. 

Ken

[kaza67]

Same as others, DVR went from 75% to 39% full overnight, with many recordings disappearing randomly. Example - had all episodes to date of Marrying Millions and now only 3, in random order. Similar issue with other series, and lost VMA awards recording after just 3 days. The only items in the trash/Recently Deleted folder are programs I personally deleted.

This is the second time this has happened in the last few months. I let it go the first time but now am very irritated. We left horrible AT&T and are new to Xfinity (since April), had been happy with it until this. Never had this issue with our AT&T DVRs, whether Uverse or DirecTV (but their customer service is atrocious!).

[RH-5]

I didn't have many recordings, yet several have been deleted. I suspect I had some scheduled recordings which are no longer scheduled. They're neither recorded nor scheduled.

I was really looking forward to viewing some of the classics.

Looks like this has been a problem for some time.

[wilso1]

My dvd recordings disappeared 3 times this week.  

[RobertWy]

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@wilso1 wrote:

My dvd recordings disappeared 3 times this week.  

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Are you saying they came back, or are you saying different recordings disappeared?

[wilso1]

On Friday, 9/6, 22 programs disappeared.  They were deleted without anyone in the household deleting them.  Also, most series recordings were deleted.  And 12 programs turned into partial recordings.  They were recorded correctly, and then part of the recording just vanished.

 On Tuesday 9/10, 12 more disappeared.  The tech man was here,  and after he finished with all of his work, he saw the 12 shows gone. He replaced the x1, modem, and wiring.  

On Thursday 9/12 , 7 more disappeared.

It did not delete the oldest first, they deleted at random.  It was from a variety of channels.

There was plenty of memory left on the dvr.  It was around 40% full at the first deleting.

I am wondering if it is some kind of bug in the software.  Many were recently recorded shows.

I am at a loss as to what to do since the tech guy was here and was unable to fix the problem.

[wilso1]

None of the recordings came back.  All have not been retrievable.

[NotResolved2U]

So with Comcast or any other large provider many issues occur and do not have a viable explanation. I have multiple years in Tech Support several at Comcast. I say this as a truth in the industry.....Technical issues occur and many times a cause is not known, but if you knew the cause it still doesn't bring the recordings back! You will get different answers from people at Comcast because nobody wants to say "I don't know" because they end up with a poor survey from customer, when ultimately a made up explanation sets the expectation that the issue was identified and customer places blame on Comcast. Tech issues happen all the time in our world, many without explanations. I don't call Verizon if I drop one or two phone calls a week, it's just Technology related is why recordings dissappear. I told customers the truth, if they are deleted unfortunately they cannot be recovered. Today it is different as they are stored remotely, but it's best for customers like us to hold companies accountable for service failures, but understand it happens in every industry. I'm much more concerned with my Windows Computer vulnerability then my cable service! My goal is to provide a little insight into both sides of the issue. Now let's talk about the continued Rate hikes! Lol

[tmorczyn]

My DVR suddenly lost a lot of recordings. One was a very special recording of my son-in-law on the news before he passed away. I was saving the recordings for his wife and kids (they were living with us at the time and this was their only recording). My DVR went from 40% full to 3% full a few days ago. I checked deleted recordings and none if these recordings were in that folder. Why did this occur... and can the recording(s) be retrieved?

[michael_smith1]

I too have lost multiple recordings after a tech upgraded my stb to the 4k model. I'm unable to PM @CCKenF as I don't see the option but please let me know if it's possilble to recover some things... we just did this upgrade about a month ago.

[RobertWy]

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@michael_smith1 wrote:

I too have lost multiple recordings after a tech upgraded my stb to the 4k model. I'm unable to PM @CCKenF as I don't see the option but please let me know if it's possilble to recover some things... we just did this upgrade about a month ago.

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The X1 system now has a selectable box at the top of the Recordings and Scheduled Recordings that lets us select a specific X1 box.

[Icwowner]

Hello, I have been having this exact same problem for last few weeks and it’s insanely frustrating!! My new recordings are deleted before I even get a chance to watch them. When I say new recordings I mean NEW! They record and either a couple of days or a week later they’re already gone! My DVR is nowhere near it’s full percentage limit. I’ve lost I don’t know how many recordings at this point already, if it wasn’t for HULU I wouldn’t be able to see my shows! Which luckily we have and are going to be using more frequently because, it seems like that’s the only thing that works correctly and efficiently from what I’ve seen in this thread.

[Rustyben]

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@Icwowner wrote:
Hello, I have been having this exact same problem for last few weeks and it’s insanely frustrating!! My new recordings are deleted before I even get a chance to watch them. When I say new recordings I mean NEW! They record and either a couple of days or a week later they’re already gone! My DVR is nowhere near it’s full percentage limit. I’ve lost I don’t know how many recordings at this point already, if it wasn’t for HULU I wouldn’t be able to see my shows! Which luckily we have and are going to be using more frequently because, it seems like that’s the only thing that works correctly and efficiently from what I’ve seen in this thread.

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go to the TV and use voice command "recordings'. at the top there is a 'location' that should say "all devices". if it says something else press down and then up. navigate to that setting and press ok. select all devices. all recordings 'back'?

[mbchevy]

I beg to differ, I have been a database administrator for 20 years and in data processing for 30 + years.  You learn that common practices is to back and back up often.  Then the backups are backed up.  Using indexes all recording can be restore if wanted.   It is obviously this is a programing issue that should be addressed.

[Rustyben]

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@mbchevy wrote:

I beg to differ, I have been a database administrator for 20 years and in data processing for 30 + years.  You learn that common practices is to back and back up often.  Then the backups are backed up.  Using indexes all recording can be restore if wanted.   It is obviously this is a programing issue that should be addressed.

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you did not quote the post you are replying to, so not possible to know context of your reply.