After emptying trash, files still exist at the OS level

Channels DVR Server
#1

Hi All,
My Channels drive has been at a high storage watermark for sometime. We have been deleting shows and movies but usage has stayed fairly high so I finally took a deeper dive. I found that all shows that have been trashed daily still existed on the hard drive. I manually deleted the unwanted shows and then ran a maintenance scan but that does not solve the root problem of not trashing shows when requested.
I don't know if the movies are having the same problem because last week I moved a ton of them to my Plex server to offload Channels. I ran a maintenance scan just now and I confirmed they were gone as well.

Thanks,
Larry

1 Like
#2

Does the Log show errors about deleting?

#3

I only found comskip and recording logs. The recording log has today's date. The modified date of the comskip log is 1/24/2023.

#4

Support > Log on the DVR web UI is how you view the log

Are the recordings piling up in your Trash or are they gone from the Trash but still on disk?

#5

Thanks for the reminder of where the logs are.
The only errors I'm seeing are "404" for missing custom channels which I need to clean up. There are entries for nicely pruning shows and movies I removed manually while cleaning up the programs not showing in the library. I don't see any errors related to file deletions or emptying trash or permissions. I checked directory properties and Everyone has permission for read/write Full Control, etc access.
This has apparently been an issue for more than two months and the log only spans ~24 hours.

Thanks for your help.
Larry

#6

The full log can be found in c:\programdata\channelsdvr\data\channels-dvr.log

Are the recordings piling up in your Trash or are they gone from the Trash but still on disk?

#7

They were gone from the database, made it to "Channels Trash" but never actually got deleted. The files were still in their original directories - TV/program-name as appropriate. I manually deleted them. I ran maintenance and only a few files were pruned because I hadn't clicked "trash" in Channels.

#8

Ok, let’s be more clear about this.

Are you seeing files on disk, that are not also showing in Trash?

What we’re trying to determine is if Channels DVR Server is doing the right thing by eventually deleting things from trash, but not removing them from disk.

So, are you seeing items on disk still, that are not showing in trash.

And just as a reminder, items go to the trash for several days before being removed from disk. Just trashing things does nothing to clean up disk space. If you need to reclaim disk space immediately, you’ll need to manually empty the trash (which deletes from disk). Trashing items just puts them in a queue to eventually be removed from disk.

2 Likes
#9

I'll try to be as clear as I can.
The files are getting flagged as trash and getting deleted only from the database. The same files never actually got deleted and were still in their original folders.
Due to the ongoing space usage issue, I have been manually deleting trash daily in the Channels client UI instead of waiting for a day. I have now deleted a ton at the OS level and have plenty of space.

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#10

Do you mean that you can’t see it in the library, or they are also not showing in trash.

#11

Go ahead and submit diagnostics from your Channels DVR Server.

#12

Both longer in Channels trash and not in the library but still on the disk in their original directories.

I am logged into the server but see no diagnostics selection. I did submit from the client though.

Thanks,

#13

If you go into trash and click delete, does the Log say "[DVR] Deleted.." or "[ERR] Failed to delete"

But the mpg file is not actually deleted?

Usually this could only happen if something on your OS or drive was preventing the software from making the delete.

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#14

There are no file deletion errors in the log. The files are not getting deleted by Channels.

#15

Are either of these messages present?

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#16

Edited.
There are no DVR or ERR messages in the log related to file management (deleting or failure to delete).
I will be deleting evening programming tonight. I will trash them normally and not manually empty trash. I'll check the logs the following day.

1 Like
#17

Title changed for clarification.
As mentioned above, I would be deleting Shows. The Shows deleted are no longer listed in Recordings or the Library but are listed in Trash. Shows from the 9th and 10th still were not deleted (Scheduled to be removed today.) It seems that the shows from the 9th and 10th should have been removed.
Next, I manually emptied trash and checked afterward. The message shows that "The trash is currently empty.". However, the files still exist at the OS level.
There are no ERR or DVR messages regarding failure or successfully deleting files.

The same thing is likely happening for Movies but I don't know the titles my wife may have deleted over the last couple of days.

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#18

Update to prerelease and note what appears in the log after removing an item from Trash

#19

The results for the prerelease look great so far. The log is reporting that many files I deleted manually at the OS level are missing and those that had not been deleted at the OS level are now being deleted by Channels DVR. It is okay that "missing file" errors are occurring. I deleted them previously to save space.

Sample:
2023/03/12 10:48:38.364514 [DVR] Deleted #26246 J:\TV\Jeopardy!\Jeopardy! S39E129 High School Reunion Tourn 2023-03-09-1629.mpg (user)
2023/03/12 10:48:39.156535 [DVR] Deleted #26245 J:\TV\Daytime Jeopardy\Daytime Jeopardy S39E64 2022-12-08 2023-03-09-1529.mpg (user)
2023/03/12 10:48:39.986913 [DVR] Deleted #26244 J:\TV\5 on Your Side at Noon\5 on Your Side at Noon 2023-03-09-1159.mpg (user)
2023/03/12 10:48:40.131558 [ERR] Missing file to delete #26243 J:\TV\Ciao Italia\Ciao Italia S30E04 2022-10-27 Crepes Plus Broth Abruzz 2023-03-09-0759.mpg: CreateFile J:\TV\Ciao Italia\Ciao Italia S30E04 2022-10-27 Crepes Plus Broth Abruzz 2023-03-09-0759.mpg: The system cannot find the path specified.
2023/03/12 10:48:40.450433 [DVR] Processing file-26242: TV\Perry Mason\Perry Mason S07E10 1963-12-05 The Case of the Devious D 2023-03-09-0759.mpg
2023/03/12 10:48:42.656678 [ERR] Missing file to delete #26241 J:\TV\Today\Today 2023-03-09-0659.mpg: CreateFile J:\TV\Today\Today 2023-03-09-0659.mpg: The system cannot find the path specified.
2023/03/12 10:48:42.814703 [DVR] Processing file-26240: TV\Perry Mason\Perry Mason S04E01 1960-09-17 The Case of the Treachero 2023-03-08-2229.mpg
2023/03/12 10:48:44.697898 [ERR] Missing file to delete #26239 J:\TV\5 on Your Side at 10 PM\5 on Your Side at 10 PM 2023-03-08-2159.mpg: CreateFile J:\TV\5 on Your Side at 10 PM\5 on Your Side at 10 PM 2023-03-08-2159.mpg: The system cannot find the path specified.
2023/03/12 10:48:45.669451 [DVR] Deleted #26238 J:\TV\Not Dead Yet\Not Dead Yet S01E06 Not Ready to Share Yet 2023-03-08-2031.mpg (user)

I will monitor this closely and report back if anything looks strange.

Thank You!

#20

This error occurred at the time shown in the message. I'm only listing the first two lines. The DVR process appeared to recover by itself.

*2023/03/12 13:27:41 [Recovery] 2023/03/12 - 13:27:41 panic recovered:*
*write tcp 192.168.1.112:8089->192.168.1.112:62946: wsasend: An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine.*

Later this afternoon we deleted some additional files from the trash manually. These files were removed from Channels trash but not removed from the OS directories. There are no messages in the log regarding the files we removed. Below is just one of them.

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In the below directory for "Unsellable Houses", there are 27 shows (54 files including vprj). The Library only lists 16 shows (32 files). The prerelease update did not clean this directory up. We have deleted 2 shows from the Library since the update and followed up with emptying trash. No files have been deleted at the OS level.

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Thanks,
Larry