DVR recordings disappeared

[michael_smith1]

I only have 1 box @RobertWy . Why would I see any other devices listed here? But overall, am I to understand that the recordings are not retrievable? If that's the case, I think I'll just call back in to support and complain some more until I get some traction there. Tanks

[RobertWy]

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@michael_smith1 wrote:

I only have 1 box @RobertWy . Why would I see any other devices listed here? But overall, am I to understand that the recordings are not retrievable? If that's the case, I think I'll just call back in to support and complain some more until I get some traction there. Tanks

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You are correct.

[Rustyben]

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@michael_smith1 wrote:

I only have 1 box @RobertWy . Why would I see any other devices listed here? But overall, am I to understand that the recordings are not retrievable? If that's the case, I think I'll just call back in to support and complain some more until I get some traction there. Tanks

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what do you see on 'device' option line when viewing recordings?

[Henry87]

Add me to the list of people with DVR recordings suddenly vanishing. When I went to bed last night, the DVR capacity was at about 52%; now, it's at 11%. I checked the recently deleted folder, and the only recordings in there are the ones I deleted; none of the vanished recordings are in there. They're just . . . gone.

Some of these vanished recordings are old: from April 2018, for example. Some are recent: within the last four weeks. Some are from this past summer. Of the remaining 11% of recordings, some are older, and some are newer; some are movies; some are shows. This vanshing of recordings appeared to have occurred indiscriminately.

This is the first time I've experienced this problem. It is a significant problem.

It will now cost me money to watch these vanished movies and shows; and this issue has already cost me time. I want my recordings back, in their original quality; and if this cannot be done, I demand just compensation.

[OSUBuckeyes]

Every time I get a new X1 box the DVR shows from over 6 months disappear

and yes I have the cloud on my iPad but it doesn't matter.

where do they go?

[Rustyben]

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@OSUBuckeyes wrote:

Every time I get a new X1 box the DVR shows from over 6 months disappear

and yes I have the cloud on my iPad but it doesn't matter.

where do they go?

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The change of the DVR removes local recordings. the cloud has the last 60 hours recorded.

[ggcon1776]

Hi,

A bunch of my DVR recordings disappeared overnight last week.  It was at only 70% full and after the disappeared shows it went down to 15% full.  Some shows were over a year old and some just recorded in the last month or so.  Two phone calls to customer support, one nearly an hour long, didn't resolve the issue.  I was given an Xfinity ticket number when on the phone but that seems to have resulted in nothing.  This is very frustrating.

Has this issue been resolved with people getting their recorded shows back?

Thanks.

[Bhick6]

Hi! Unfortunately they can’t restore the recordings. We lost a few things that we can’t watch anywhere else.

Just waiting for my husband to watch a few things so we can get a new box as random recordings are still disappearing.

I feel your pain!

[lesmikesell]

If your current recordings are recent enough to be in the cloud - or weren't pushed out by others, you won't lose them when you swap boxes.

[salad3]

No, it has not. After a bunch of back-and-forths on here, two customer service calls (one at least an hour long), 2 visits to Xfinity stores, and a swapped out box we weren't told would destroy any chance of retrieving our lost recordings, we never got anything back. After all that - over the course of months - and some hardcore relentless assertiveness, we did get a bunch of credits on our bill. We talked to a ton of different customer service reps, and it was the first time most of them heard this was a problem. Not one of them admitted they did not know how to retrieve the recordings, which almost certainly seems to be the case.

[jimmywcw]

I spotted this thread after making a new one of my own about the same issue running rampant here. Sad to see there does not seem to be a solution yet. Is Comcast Ken still on this so I can send him a personal message to hopefully get some help?

[ggcon1776]

I sent him a private message yesterday and got a message from him today asking for additional information and saying he would look into it.  So, yes, you should get a response if you send him a private message.  So far nothing to report.

[Rustyben]

all of you, please check your recordings as reported in the xfinity TV remote app. do the recordings show up there?

[skintime]

This has been happening to me for years. All my recorded movies, old boxing matches from espn etc... just disappears. I am from Philly and when the Eagles won the Super Bowl I recorded the game and all of the post games stuff and that is all long gone. I think after a certain amount of time they just disappear. What can you do? I don't know anything about this tv remove app. I go under saved and then recordings. If there is another way to find old recordings please let me know. I've probably had more than 50 recordings vanish over the last year or so

[Henry87]

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@Rustyben wrote:

all of you, please check your recordings as reported in the xfinity TV remote app. do the recordings show up there?

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I don't use a cellphone, so I can't comment on the Xfinity TV remote app; however, I did check out the X1 Cloud DVR on the Xfinity Stream portal (via my laptop), and I actually have less recordings on there then I do when I use the cable boxes! The recordings which are missing on the portal work fine on my TV; they work on both the main box and the secondary boxes.

Additionally, I was on the phone with Comcast for hours last Monday: I spoke to several people and was put on hold several times for long periods of time; no issues were resolved, and no explanations were given. The issue was clearly beyond what the representatives with whom I was speaking could effectively handle. I was told other customers were having my problem, that they did not know what was causing it, and that someone from Comcast would call me within 48 hours. It is now Wednesday of the following week, and nobody from Comcast has gotten back to me.

Abysmal cable service, abysmal customer service. Comcast ought to be publically addressing this DVR problem, as it is totally unacceptable. I for one will not let this issue rest.

[lesmikesell]

The cloud copy stores the last 60 hours recorded and things less than 6 months old.  Your physical DVR 'should' store things forever until you delete them but if you swap the box or anything goes wrong with the hard drive - and things do go wrong with hard drives - you will lose things out of the range of things stored in the cloud.  Just guessing, I suspect the DVR tries to recover from errors and keeps working even if some recordings are lost.  I'd swap the box if you haven't done that already.

Personally I've never been too concerned about the limits on the cloud backup because I know if I get that far behind in watching something I will never catch up, but that probably doesn't apply to everyone.

[Henry87]

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@lesmikesell wrote:

The cloud copy stores the last 60 hours recorded and things less than 6 months old.  Your physical DVR 'should' store things forever until you delete them but if you swap the box or anything goes wrong with the hard drive - and things do go wrong with hard drives - you will lose things out of the range of things stored in the cloud.  Just guessing, I suspect the DVR tries to recover from errors and keeps working even if some recordings are lost.  I'd swap the box if you haven't done that already.

That will explain the discrepancy between the two, then. Good to know.

However, the sudden vanishing of the vast majority of my recordings has yet to be explained, and that is my main, and really only, concern.

Comcast has not yet suggested that I swap the box, and I am sceptical that the problem stems from my individual box. I'm encountering no other issues, and I was told that others had been calling about the same problem. Some of the shows that vanished were recent, some were from earlier this year, and some were quite old; some of the shows that did not vanish were recent, some were from earlier this year, and some were quite old. Whatever happened, it seemed to have followed an indiscriminate procedure, somewhat like a DVR version of the Leftovers: it happened all at once. I've continued to record over the past week, and I've experienced no additional problems. The two channels worst hit were PBS and TCM, but I didn't lose all of my recordings from them (just most). 

One of the representatives I was speaking with could not find any records on their end of a series I had recorded which had vanished; it vanished from even the records she could access!

[rworkman4]

This is happening to us as well. Physical DVR is deleting saved shows. Would like to send a PM to @CCKenF  or someone else with comcast to take a look at our account. Thanks!

[lesmikesell]

Is there any chance someone is sitting on the remote's 'd' key accidentally? It doesn't have to be pointed at the box to work.  Or maybe the key is stuck.   There are some posts here about remotes sending the down arrow button or something that triggers showing the timeline on the screen all the time until they replace them or replace the batteries.

[Henry87]

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@lesmikesell wrote:

Is there any chance someone is sitting on the remote's 'd' key accidentally? It doesn't have to be pointed at the box to work.  Or maybe the key is stuck.   There are some posts here about remotes sending the down arrow button or something that triggers showing the timeline on the screen all the time until they replace them or replace the batteries.

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For me (and I reckon for everyone else here too), definitely NO. As I said, the vanished recordings didn't even show up in the recently deleted folder; when I checked it, only the recordings I purposely deleted were in there. Hypothetically, even if I were to delete dozens of random recordings whilst in a state of sleepwalking, shouldn't I expect to find some traces of them in my recently deleted folder the following day? Especially since recordings I had deleted before the sudden vanishing of recordings were still in there?

And my batteries are fine.

Btw: Two weeks later and I still haven't heard back from Comcast. Not even a 'we are still trying to figure it out' update. Comcast needs to address this problem; there is a significant problem on their end, and the higher ups have apparently made a decision to keep us, the paying customers, in the dark.

[JustAnAnswer]

My recordings are deleted after one month. My recordingbox is about 20% full. During the last month I've had six phone conversations for a total of about 5 hours on the phone, one two hour home visit, and another hour home visit yesterday. He thought it was fixed but today recordings from one month ago were deleted. If it is a known problem why don't all the techs know about it? What can I do?

[RobertWy]

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@JustAnAnswer wrote:

My recordings are deleted after one month. My recordingbox is about 20% full. During the last month I've had six phone conversations for a total of about 5 hours on the phone, one two hour home visit, and another hour home visit yesterday. He thought it was fixed but today recordings from one month ago were deleted. If it is a known problem why don't all the techs know about it? What can I do?

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Have you ever used the "recover" option?

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/x1-recover-a-recording

[JustAnAnswer]

Yes I have checked the recover a recording option and just checked it now. The recordings that I deleted are there. But the recordings that comcast deleted automatically after one month are not there nor are they in the on line streaming program. Thank you for your suggestion.

[sb2780]

This happened to me as well. DVR under 30% full, and then 20-30 recordings disappeared overnight. Anything older than 1 month was gone.

[michael_smith1]

@Rustyben the devices says 'All Devices'. However, when I select the name that I've assigned the new box, I see less recordings. It's clear to me now that these are local recordings and when I've selected 'All Devices' I'm viewing both cloud and local recordings. So what I'm understanding based on review of other posts is that anything which was local on the old box is unrecoverable. Since I have no way to verify that the content was local vs. cloud; I'm basically out of luck.

So the real question is how do I tell a recording to go to the cloud vs. my local storage? Obviously going forward I'd like to be able to determine a target while setting things up for long tail recordings that I want to save.

[Rustyben]

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@michael_smith1 wrote:

@Rustyben the devices says 'All Devices'. However, when I select the name that I've assigned the new box, I see less recordings. It's clear to me now that these are local recordings and when I've selected 'All Devices' I'm viewing both cloud and local recordings. So what I'm understanding based on review of other posts is that anything which was local on the old box is unrecoverable. Since I have no way to verify that the content was local vs. cloud; I'm basically out of luck.

So the real question is how do I tell a recording to go to the cloud vs. my local storage? Obviously going forward I'd like to be able to determine a target while setting things up for long tail recordings that I want to save.

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your assumption is incorrect (personal experience).  the xfinity tv remote app (iOS) has a DVR manager tab and shows all recordings that are supposed to be actually on your home DVR(s). to see only cloud go to the xfinity Stream TV app and view saved/recordings. the selection of a particular device is apparently not fully functional yet but the 'reason'/function seems worthwhile when they get it running. 

to know if a recording is 'local' or cloud only go to your DVR (not a mini-STB) and play the recording. when the screen progress bar etc. fade away press OK button. lower left corner will be letters DVR for local DVR and a 'cloud icon' DVR for cloud recording being streamed by the set top box. 

[stephen1236]

I too lost many of my saved recorded shows. I now only have 7 out of 48 and it says I am 51 %full. That seems impossible. Since the shows are in the cloud would a defective DVR be the problem. If I exchange it for a new one will the shows reappear?

[salad3]

No,  then you definitely will not get them back. That was something they did not inform me of until AFTER they switched out my DVR box. However, you probably won't get them back anyway, because nobody seems to know what is happening or why or how to fix it.

[RobertWy]

Desperate reply:

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/x1-recover-a-recording

[JustAnAnswer]

After two weeks my recordings sudenly stopped disappearing. Background information: I had a new box installed 10/31 and despite being told I would not lose my recordings I immediately lost all but the last month of recording. For the next two weeks 2-4 recordings were deleted every day as I continued to record 2-3 new recordings each day. This continued until all I had left on the cloud and on my new box were recordings from 10/31 and November. It has stopped deleting for now. So it looks like the cloud did not save anything that was recorded on the older box. It is currently recording every day and keeping it all everyday since 10/31. 60 hours of recordings since 10/31 are on the cloud and the rest are on the new box. I have been recording 5 or 6 shows every day and deleting nothing just to test the system. I currently have 41% full. 

[michael_smith1]

Hi @Rustyben I'm not sure if I understand the point of discussing the iOS app as I'm not referencing that aspect. I'm speaking solely to the STB in my home. But I do understand the points you're making... albeit I haven't looked at the app.

Either way, I'm excusing myself from this thread as we all know, xfinity will do nothing to restore any lost recordings. I'll just be more diligent on where I record and/or when I upgrade my box in the future.

Good luck to you all!

/smoke bomb!

[Fedupwthcmcst2]

I have had this issue several times.
This needs to get fixed!

[Redgecko]

This started happening to us about a week ago.  Our DVR box said something about a weak signal and wouldn't do anything.  So we turned the box off and then turned it on.  It booted up but it asked questions as if we were first time users.  When it was finally done asking questions, we saw that everything we had recorded earlier than November 11 was missing.  We didn't do anything about it.  Then tonight we saw that anything recorded earlier than November 26 was missing.  We are at 20% so it's not a capacity issue.  Does anyone know if getting a new DVR box fixed this problem?? (and I know the cloud only retains anything recorded in the past 60 hours so we'll lose most of our recordings)

[Plpierro]

How do I PM you, @CCKenF ? I clicked your name but no PM option...

anyway, having the same issue. Just moved to new house and account in August, then yesterday everything older than Oct 29 disappeared. Various things I can’t watch on demand as well. Assume there is no fix or way to find? Not in trash...

[Jphoskins]

I clicked your name, but i did not see an option to send a message. I am having this issue as well. I currently have 50% of my storage available and its still deleting recordings

[RobertWy]

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@Jphoskins wrote:
I clicked your name, but i did not see an option to send a message. I am having this issue as well. I currently have 50% of my storage available and its still deleting recordings

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This is an example; the "send a message" is on the right of the display:

[EG]

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@Jphoskins wrote:
I clicked your name, but i did not see an option to send a message. 

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FYI. Since you are a new poster, the employee has to enable it for you to be able to, or you have to make a certain number of posts before its allowed.

[Flash121212]

I have the same issue. I only have 19 recordings and now only have 16 because recordings consistently disappear. Do I need to exchange my cable box?

[Flash121212]

I have the exact same issue and the recordings aren't even listed under deleted recordings, they just disappear and one recording we had partially watched. It isn't space because we got a new cable box a month or so ago and only had 19 recordings. The recordings that disappeared aren't in the cloud either

[Redgecko]

Unfortunately our missing recordings weren't in the cloud.  Count yourself lucky!

[yamo]

We just ran into the same/similar issue and my wife’s new year recordings all disappeared. I pay extra for tv Japan. There were lots of older programs that could have been deleted but it seemed to randomly delete more recent ones but not all recent ones.

So first and foremost the described behavior of it not recording new shows to avoid deleting seems patently false.

Second the delete oldest first seems false as well.

Incredible to search for this and find a months old thread!-(

[mead_ray2611]

I would recommend writing off any chance of getting them back. Comcast will keep you on the phone for hours avoiding like the plague simply saying they recordings are gone. But the fact is they are gone. comcast claims to have no knowledge of how or why they disappear, but thye continue to disappear. Plus, the ability to even record programs seems to vanish fromtime to time. But at those times even trying to get in touch with comcast a a waste of time. The sad part is there is no other provider that can compete with them, and if there were comcast would find a way to eliminate the competition. And we just keep paying for it.

[Andywr0231]

Hello,
I’m
Having this issue too and am unable to send PM to ComcastChe. Are these issues going to be fixed?

[abouttogiveup]

I am in the same situation. New X1 box acquired on January 11. I recorded a bunch of gymnastics meets on the 12th and 17th, and it looks like they all disappeared overnight (30 days after recording). I am only at about 32% of hard drive recording so there is plenty of space. Has anyone found a fix to this?

[Rustyben]

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@abouttogiveup wrote:
I am in the same situation. New X1 box acquired on January 11. I recorded a bunch of gymnastics meets on the 12th and 17th, and it looks like they all disappeared overnight (30 days after recording). I am only at about 32% of hard drive recording so there is plenty of space. Has anyone found a fix to this?

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do the recordings appear on your DVR in home set top box? on a smart device (phone/tablet)?

[foxes-1]

Rustyben,

Through careful trouble shooting, I have found the following:

All shows that are programmed to record through the internet interface are recorded ONLY on the cloud.

All shows that are programmed to record through the DVR interface are recorded on the device AND on the cloud.

When the cloud reaches 60 hours, the older programs auto delete.

If the program was recorded through the DVD interface, the older cloud program will auto delete, but the DVD copy will not.

It is very possible to have a low percentage of used space on your DVD hard drive, but have the cloud space completely full.  This explains why the hard drive seems so empty, yet programs are dropping off the menu.  All programming should be through the actual DVR interface, and not through the internet, to avoid this problem.

[abouttogiveup]

Thanks all. This makes sense to me in theory, but I ONLY record things through the DVR interface. I never even looked at the internet interface until investigating the missing recordings yesterday. I recorded an Oklahoma gymnastics meet on Jan 17 on the DVR, and it disappeared without being watched or deleted on Feb 14 or 15. (I believe a few others disappeared too but I know for sure one from the 17th disappeared.) We never hit more than 35% full on the hard drive, and I never recorded in the cloud. It does not appear in the recently deleted folder, nor on the cloud interface Sounds very similar to a few other situations earlier in the chain. Ideas to prevent this going forward very welcome. The DVR is the only reason at this point we keep cable...

[foxes-1]

I discovered the solution to my recording problem by comparing the recorded programs on "All Devices" vs. the recorded programs on the DVR (in my case "Media Room").  I did the same for the scheduled programs and that's how I found the pattern to how the recordings wound up where they appeared.  You might want to compare your "All Devices" shows against your DVR shows.  It may help you spot why things are happening as they are.

[abouttogiveup]

Appreciate the idea but we only have one device (the DVR). We have 35 recordings on the DVR and 35 on All Devices. Between that and the fact that I have only ever used the DVR interface to set up the recording, I am confident this wasn't an issue of a cloud recording (at least not one caused by me).

[Rustyben]

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@foxes-1 wrote:

I discovered the solution to my recording problem by comparing the recorded programs on "All Devices" vs. the recorded programs on the DVR (in my case "Media Room").  I did the same for the scheduled programs and that's how I found the pattern to how the recordings wound up where they appeared.  You might want to compare your "All Devices" shows against your DVR shows.  It may help you spot why things are happening as they are.

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other than using 'all devices' that feature has current problems. the 'only' way to tell what you are watching (source) is to begin playing it on the home DVR then when play symbols and progress bar fades away press the OK button. if it says DVR you are watching the home DVR copy. if it has a white 'cloud' icon before DVR it is playing the cloud copy. I had  of 4 older (clock on front) DVRs that had failing hard drives so got many cloud version on playing back recordings.