DVR episodes and seasons out of order

I reported this on 8/27 and never heard back...

In DVR AppleTV and iPad, episodes are not in correct order and seasons are sometimes not. Restarted apps and DVR many times no change. Example, Alfred Hitchcock season 5 episodes 27, 24, 23.

In the web gui, episodes are in order but season was not. Example, Alfred Hitchcock seasons: 1, 7, 6, 5.

This happened a few months ago, then was fixed, and now with the last Channels update (.26) is back again.

This is very annoying since you have to manually scan all episodes to watch in order, and ESPECIALLY a problem with 2 part episodes.

Again, this was the exact same error months ago, was fixed by and update, and now badly broken again.

Another observation: some shows did not have episode information nut had air dates, this shows used to be in order by air date. Not anymore, this should also be fixed.

I'm having the same issue. I've noticed it on Quest (OTA) Yukon Gold and TVE To Catch a Smuggler Colombia on the National Geographic channel. Some on of the "Catch a Smuggler Colombia" were missing seasons and even titles. I just deleted those today without watching them.

Same here I get seasons out of order also. I see it with 90 Day Fiance on TLC.

Couldn't find your report here. Maybe it was sent privately via email to Channnels DVR Support?

I'm just another paying Channels DVR Customer like you, trying to help other Channels DVR Community members.

I replied to a similar issue that was fixed, is this something new?

If it's new, it may be a guide provider issue or Channels DVR Guide issue.

P.S. What do you mean by "and now with the last Channels update (.26) is back again." Is that a Channels DVR server version or some client version, as the issue would be with the Channels DVR server version and not the app version?

Have you tried doing the "Refresh metadata" option from the series page on the web UI? That fixed it for me previously.

That worked in web UI, but not on the iPad or AppleTV app. Thanks though.

Cannot find "refresh metadata" anywhere, there is no "series page" anywhere. I found a
"refresh" under a gear and a "refresh show description" but no "refresh metadata".

In the web UI, it's Recordings > Shows > All > "Program Name". From there, click on the gear icon on the individual episodes, and select "Refresh Metadata".

Thanks, I found it but I have to do every show? I refreshed metadata on over 80 episodes on two shows then restarted the apps and DVR. After the changes the web GUI had episodes correct but not seasons: 1,7,6. It did not fix the problem at all on AppleTV or iPad.

This is a mess and I had to tolerate this bug for one DVR release a while back, now it's back the last 2 DVR releases. I would think this is a serious bug that needs to be fixed asap, other omissions are annoying but this one really stinks when you have 40 episodes a show and you have to figure out the order manually! PLEASE FIX THIS!

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When was it fixed before. We haven't made any changes in this area so its very confusing when you say it was fixed and now broken again.

Did you report it before or just noticed it and didn't tell us?

On the web UI there are two sorts available- by Air Date and by Record Date. If the air date information in the guide is not correct, the sort will be wrong.

On the Apple TV we sort by episode and season number. If some of the episodes are missing number information, they will not sort correctly.

Note this was not a problem for over a year. I did not report the problem when it first occurred. I think it was about 4-5 levels AppleTV levels back. Wife medical took priority so no report. After then next update all was fine until .5 (I think it's .6 now) and the problem came back.

The problem is with new AND old shows that previously sorted correctly, we have recordings going back to January. Also, it is not one show but ALL shows, we have about 400+ episodes of various old and new shows recorded now. Except for one old show which has air date info all shows have season and episode and they do not sort correctly. Even that old show used to sort correctly by air date and now does not. Sort order was never changed.

Okay thank you for the clarification. That helps us understand where and when the issue started. We will push out some fixes to the beta app via TestFlight this week for verification.

After lot of testing I have nailed it down to 2 different cases:

  1. We have over 60 episodes from 3 seasons of Alfred Hitchcock. The sequence on AppleTV was: S7: 34,29, .....8,7,6,39, 38, .... 4 - S6: 1 show - S1: 25,24...17,28,27...
    Notice that S1 and S7 had half the shows out of sequence. I went through all the shows and found that all shows had season, episode, and air dates except S1E39 missing the air date. I reset metadata for that show and restarted Channels on AppleTV, no change, the air date was still missing. So I deleted S1E39 and it fixed BOTH season 1 AND 7 sequence, both are correct now. So removing the only show missing air date solved the problem.

  2. This one is easy. About 35 Honeymooners had air dates, but all are missing season/episode. Up until a couple of months ago, they were in sequence by air date. No longer, when I delete one the remaining ones scramble. Reseting metadata did nothing. This worked since Jan 2018 but as I previously mentioned, stopped sequencing correctly a few months ago. So it appears Channels is not sorting at all even is there is only air date. The fix here is to put back sorting by air date if episode info is missing.

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Can you email us the recorder.db file from your Database folder in a recent backup. That will let us reproduce this issue and make it much easier to work on a fix.

I emailed the recorder.db file you requested. Keep in mind recorder.db:

  • It has the Honeymooners that don’t sort, all have air dates but no episode info. They are easy to spot because a few are two part shows that have the same air date and belong together but they are not.

  • It does not include the Hitchcock problem I mentioned because I deleted the one S1E39 that had episode info but no air date that caused out of sequence. You may be able to duplicate by adding a dummy S1E39 missing air date if that's possible.

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Could you send us a backup from a few days ago before you deleted that extra episode?

OK sent file dated 9/20 with both problems.

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Note also the “Baantjer Mysteries” and “Undertaker” also both have seasons and episodes out of sequence.

Thank you for the files, that was very helpful.

I've uploaded a new version to TestFlight for you to test and verify the fixes.

Fixed my issues I was having. Thank you.

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