It seems I can get things back in order by deleting more stuff. I deleted 300GB of data and now the DVR server happily chums keeping over 20GB free. Is there any explanation?
What data did you delete? Recordings?
Yes. I have a single separate drive. Sorry for not making it clear.
I also have a filer mounted via NFS and sometimes I create symlinks in the import directory pointing to the files mounted via NFS. Not sure if it confuses the server. They take zero space.
We provide ways for you to have the system auto-delete recordings when you're done watching them. Because recordings are the majority of the storage of the system, there isn't really anything we can do to "clean up" something to make room for recordings.
What would we do if there was low space? Just not recording it?
Many systems like the Synology will have an alerting system in place to notify you if you are getting low on disk space, but it isn't something Channels has internally.
Give it a low space threshold when that is hit ...
Empty out trash ...
How about deleting oldest watched recordings that are not delete never ?
I’ve seen mentions of the very large “streaming cache” folder, growing to 20 GB. I have terabytes free so worrying about this isn’t the best usage of my time, but others might be in a different mood about it. So maybe directory should be flushed (or reduced) when space is tight?
or even oldest not watched. anything is better than hitting a wall
Ideally we'd get an alert that asked for confirmation before actually deleting any content we've been told wasn't going to be deleted. Because I'd rather get the warning about low space with that offer, so I can choose to reject it, or not, and/or better yet, consider installing another/bigger hard drive or deleting other content to fix the situation. Yes, even if it means hitting a wall in the meantime. I wouldn't want my DVR deleting any content just because it's “old and unwatched.” I'm keeping that content for a reason and chose Channels DVR because the software and its website makes it obvious, we're the ones meant to be in control of these decisions.
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I don't understand why this topic even exists.
The user provides the disk space to record to (which is relatively cheap these days).
Channels DVR shows available disk space in the web UI.
If you don't provide enough space to record to, it will error out when it runs out of space.
What is the issue?
The dumbest thing the devs could do is start deleting recordings to make room for new ones because a user can't understand this.
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Well yeah, that, too.
I would love to have some kind Of automatic cleanup to make room for recordings and I have 14 TB of space that way I never have to worry about deleting anything.
Once again why do folks always have to downgrade and call somones's idea as dumb ... dumb is chiming in about some idea you do not give a crap about.
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The issue is I am not interested in babysitting this thing. I use my 2TB drive as a 200hr cache and do not care if something gets deleted. Just keep recording new stuff. I might get to watch it if I have time.
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This is how a smart DVR handles it ....
No More Free Space
At some point, if you allow SageTV to manage your recording files for you, there will not be
enough space available for a new recording. When this happens, SageTV will automatically
delete an existing recording to make room for another one. Which show gets deleted is
determined by the relative priorities of all recording types, with lower priority recordings being
deleted before those with a higher priority. From highest to lowest, the priority rankings are:
Manual Recordings and Favorites with AutoDelete off. Note: These types of recordings
are never automatically deleted.
Favorites with AutoDelete on
Intelligent Recordings
Watched Shows
Live TV
Recordings marked as Don’t Like
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also TiVo. TiVo never runs out of space. Period.
The HDHR DVR is the other extreme where it never deletes anything and you have the dubious honor of babysitting the dvr. Channels seems somewhat better but its origins are obvious.
I am one of those that does not want to babysit a DVR. I want the DVR to do the work for me.
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I don’t “babysit” the DVR though. I use a big enough hard drive and far off in the future, if and when that drive approaches being full, I’d delete stuff, or buy another hard drive.
All things considered, I think any automatic pruning on the part of the DVR would make me more anxious and more likely to “babysit” as I wouldn’t want it removing any recordings without my explicit consent.
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So, accoring to Dr. sdust and the devs, we shouldn't keep any recordings we don't have time to watch before our recording space runs out? Just don't use Channels DVR to keep any recordings. Please watch and delete, everyome. Might as well cancel my sub and watch on-demand.
What flavor koolaid is that?
This is my last waste of time posting on this issue, unless the devs decide to do something I consider stupid, which I doubt.
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Nobody is trying to prevent you from doing what you are doing. Imposing your behavioral patterns on others is however a bit extreme.
Maybe the devs could implement an option for ordering a new disk/nas from Amazon when the DVR runs out of space to reduce the amount of babysitting you have to do. I am perfectly fine with losing some recordings in that case.