New Feature: Safer deleting with Trash

Me too fired up SageTV setting up my favorites.

It's unfortunate to see these latest responses to a change in core functionality of Channels. A Trash approach is something many of us have been wanting for a long time, and I for one am so glad it is coming to fruition. But of course it is impossible to implement core changes without alienating some that had liked it the way it was. This change in core functionality will happily eliminate those annoying confirmation messages. I totally understand that the devs want to pursue one approach, and not have to still maintain the 'old' approach that requires confirmations. I look forward to seeing Trash support in the native apps!

I am not against the trash feature when I delete something I want it deleted ... and I do not care about prompts all we asked for a way to disable the feature.

Right, and since there is no "select all", you have to do that manually 40 times if you have 40 episodes. which is a pain.

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Letting user interface design dictate functionality is a bad philosophy. Do what makes sense.

Since the feature is here to stay, would it not be acceptable to have this choice of 1 minute?

If I had family/friends using clients that could delete recordings and imported movies/shows, I would set it for 10 days, but for those of us that don't want the trash feature, I think this is a reasonable compromise.

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Don’t envy the devs here. Total “darned if you do, darned if you don’t” scenario. I like the new feature.

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I just hope they've thought through the implications of opening up that "admin" delete feature to the client apps instead of keeping it on the admin web UI.

I can see that opening up a can of worms unless they protect that "admin" feature with a PIN or something.

You login to the app and provide a PIN or whatever to gain that "admin" delete access, otherwise it doesn't appear as an option.

Otherwise they'll be getting a lot of inquiries like why were these recordings deleted and when? Who deleted them and when? How could that happen? How do I get those recordings back?

Wow...what a bunch of whieners.
Yea, u may find it annoying...but I don't see the big deal now that they made a time range.
Set it to delete trash after one day and it is fine. 10 days with no way to change that WAS a very big deal though. But that is not the case now.

I mean, really, if u are so impatient to wait 24hrs for it to auto delete, u can just delete the files ur self manually in a few secs via network file share.

Yes, I do believe that user should have option to disable this, but I am sure as hell not going to nejerk stop using Channels over such a trivial and minor thing.
The service provides something that none other can, TVE and OTA and DVR abilty.
Let me know other DVR software like Channels that has TVE....Plex, Emby, WMC, Kody sure don't.

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A couple people have complained. That is not the same as the userbase indicating something.

I am glad to see this is part of a larger vision that isn't being compromised. However, I think at this stage of completeness, it would be better for this to be in the beta version only, at least until there is a UI for it in the frontend (ATV, etc.) apps.

I'm wondering if the trash "keep for X days" should be (or have an option for) "keep last X deletes". This would mean only the last, lets say 5 delete operations (configurable) would be kept. If someone deleted all of the recordings for a show in a single action, that would count as 1 of the deletes as it was one delete action. This way you get the safety of a trash system, but if you are trying to prune your recordings right now to make room you will actually make room if you delete enough stuff.

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Yeah I personally see more benefit in this than losing some space for at minimum 24 hours.

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Thanks for the button :grinning:
Screenshot_2020-02-24%20Channels%20DVR

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Hey guys, I'd like to address this thread.

Our main goal with Channels is to push the platform forward. We developed the Trash feature as a way to protect users and their content. Fans were losing content by accidentally deleting it, or losing content from aggressive pass settings. With Trash, this protects extremely destructive actions.

For years (wow has it been years?!), Channels has never given any respect to disk space. We, and fans, have always erred on the side of just having a TON of disk space to make sure everything works, while letting pass keep settings do their job. This has never been much of an issue with fans. We believe that keeping some of these bits around just a couple days longer to protect the losses, is no different.

But of course, we need options. If you've been part of our community long enough, you know that we iterate on everything. We release early, listen to feedback, and make decisions. You can see all of that at the top of this actual thread. On the first pass, we didn't even have settings for how long things would last in the trash. With feedback, we added those settings.

We initially shipped Trash to the general public with a default of 10 days. We now consider this a huge mistake. It's now set to a default of 3 days. These things happen. We corrected it immediately. This is why we've empowered ourself with tools to ship early and ship often. This is how we develop software and it's how we will always develop software.

One scenario that slipped through the cracks for us and everyone else during the beta period is the type of pass that can collect a ton of recordings per day. Things like Law & Order. Shows like this air up to 15 times a day. We understand that this kind of pass is practically a weapon for the Trash feature. This is less of a failure in the Trash and more a failure in our keep settings. This has come up in other threads and we'll likely figure out a better keep setting for this kind of show so that it doesn't just record 15 times a day and rather keeps X episodes around until you watch them. Things like this are WHY we are as transparent and involved in our community as we are.

Some of you think it's not a big deal do create an "off" option for this feature. A lot goes into software and the user experience. Allowing for Trash to be off doubles the complexity of the entire feature in reliability and UX. This is a decision we made as the only actual people that are responsible for the reliability and usability of Channels.

It goes without saying that the threats on this thread make us sad. Obviously, you're free to abandon Channels at any time. This is why we made it so easy to cancel. But using it to try to curb our product decisions just feels bad. We love our community. We love engaging with everyone and hearing all the different ways that you guys use Channels. We think we go above and beyond in this category more than any other company delivering media software today.

At the end of the day, we're building a product for lot of people. Some things might not fit your flow, but it's our job to create and maintain the software. It's our job to make sure it's stable and reliable. We're always going to make decisions based on these things.

And while this thread has turned into a bummer of a thread, your complaints have still been heard. We'll continue to iterate to make things more awesome for more people.

PS, I got a puppy this weekend!

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To add to this after the dev posted their long post a bit above.
I get their reason behind adding the trash feature and accept it, like it, even though, in my use case, immediate delete was fine and not even my tech challenged family member would "accidentaly" delete something because the dialog box that pooped up on the tv app warned them they were deleting the recording.

SO, if i read their posts right, they intend to remove that pop up and rely on the trash feature, well, that does seem a odd ball thing.
I mean, every other DVR alike software, even a cable box DVR or TiVo will prompt user for confirmation when user clicks the Delete button. Not having a confirmation, seems to me, to encourage the issue they are trying to prevent...now its easier to "accidentaly press the wrong button", and poof it gone, with no warning/conformation popup...since it won't warn user that they just pressed delete; I can see my mother doing this now, and she then bugging me to go into the server and restore the file.

Where they get their "fact" that having to press one extra time to confirm to delete something is time consuming and annoying to the user...when literally every single other product alike to a DVR does it in the industry. And phones, and computers, any file type manager operation....

I still have to say i think that adding an option somewhere in the server dashboard to disable trash could be a thing. Give the user the choice to customize their experience and function as they see fit to for their use case.

But I do give props for the dev team for listening to users initial suggestions....like for me, i was one of the first to complain about the hard set 10 day delete time and suggested to make the time frame user selectable. And they did add that. As it works now, it is just fine for me.

But, i can certainly see why others would not want it at all. However, large hard Drives are dirt cheap, storage space should be a thing one has plenty of for any proper DVR setup. Sure, some folks may have a DVR setup on a device with limited storage and/or no ability to expand that storage....well, that was the users decision to use that device/setup....u can't blame the devs for that. This software can be used on a large variety of devices and computers for its DVR storage server. If you are one that mass records and is always running out of disk space, your issue is not the DVR software....the issue is you need to get more storage space...period.

Actually many modern UI practices are going away from this. My phone for example does not prompt for deleting things like email. It has an undo queue for this very reason.

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This is one of the reasons why I switched to Channels. You can't please everyone and there are things I wish would be improved or changed. However, it is clear to me that you think through the design and function of the product. Coming from Table and Plex, that structured design really shows.

I don't understand the people who threaten to cancel if they don't get their way. Sure, that is their choice, but when you have a DEV team as open and communicative as you, being so quick to jump ship is more a reflection on them. I'll say it, we are probably all better off without them around here anyway if that is how they are going to react to something like this.

Once you work out the bugs, the impact on hard drive space is going to be minimal. Much better to have a safe delete than have people complaining about lost shows/movies.

Keep up the good work, there are many of us here that appreciate the efforts.

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U mean "archive" instead of delete....that I have seen.
And it is annoying.
I had a text app that only archived message, with no possible way to delete them.
But all the apps on my Phone, a Pixel 3, weather it be Photos, emails, files, every app has a Do u wish to delete this box. and on my folks Samsungs, and Motos.
But we are talking bout DVR boxes here.....have yet to find one that does not have a delete conformation dialog. even the cloud dvrs and service, have one.

I too fail to understand the willingness to get rid of the "are you sure?" (or some type of confirm button) on a delete. It is essential. By removing it completely, it ignores the fact that, without that alert, you might not even realize you deleted something by bumping a button. In that case, it doesn't matter how long the trash holds onto it if the user doesn't realize they've actually deleted it. If they don't know, they're not going to know to go and "undelete" it.

I understand how some might like this functionality and it is a nice feature to offer, but it should not dictate overall UI behavior. This is the mistake being made here.

And comparing a DVR delete to a mailbox delete is not apples-to-apples because that mailbox delete will sit there until I decide to go in and empty my trash folder so no harm no foul

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The option to delete after 1 day seems to me to be a fair and reasonable compromise.
Cancelling Channels DVR due to a lack of 'disable Trash button' also seems to me to be an overreaction.
But this is just my opinion, really.

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Posts on here make some reasonable arguments about the trash feature and are very convincing so I am back in by setting it to one day. Subscription renewed.

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