No such file (missing key directories?)

Channels DVR Server
#1

Channels has worked great for me and I haven't really examined where it keeps files or how it works.

my 2018 mac mini running catalina 10.15.6 seems to have lost track of all of my previous recordings.

I have Channels version: 2020.06.16.1927

put the channels directory on my desktop I have the following directories:
/Images
/Database
/Streaming

It looks like I'm missing
/tv
/movies

I recall recently updating my iPad iOS 13 now iOS 14 and enabling some advanced library features.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Jon

#2

The folders should be there unless someone deleted them. When you setup your DVR you picked the desktop for your DVR storage?

Can you click Support > Submit Diagnostics at the top right of the DVR web UI

#3

Yes, or at least I think so.

In the settings it is listed as: /Users/.../Desktop/ch4buddy/

My mini was locked up the other night and I had to do a hard reset.

#4

Seems like your harddrive might be failing. That's one reason files and directories would randomly disappear.

#5

turns out there was some issue with the iCloud drive sync functionality. When I did a scan of my system I found the missing directories were still listed on the iCloud drive, but not on the system (flash) drive. as I said earlier, my mini had a major lockup issue; perhaps it ran out of memory and did something crazy. (i've read that apple still has some bugs with the newer apfs, but who knows; it could just be operator error.)

when I first setup my mini I didn't realize that iCloud drive would sync my Desktop and by then I had already setup channels. It's worked fine until now. also, I didn't want to backup these files to time machine, so it was a nice surprise to see the files on my iCloud drive's Desktop folder.

There was a trouble shooting guide that recommended logging into iCloud.com and verifying free space and that the device was listed in the web interface. Then going into the iCloud settings in MacOS Catalina directly. When I checked in Catalina, everything was checked for syncing except the desktop and the documents folders. After turning that on, it seems to have resynced all the files.

I wanted to add a couple error codes for searching:

2020/07/23 21:45:44.203914 [ERR] Could not create backup: stat /Users/.../Desktop/ch4buddy: no such file or directory

2020/07/23 21:48:36.498453 [ERR] Recording 645 (TV/Tough as Nails/Tough as Nails S01E04 Release the Bull 2020-07-22-1959.mpg) missing: stat /Users/.../Desktop/ch4buddy/TV/Tough as Nails/Tough as Nails S01E04 Release the Bull 2020-07-22-1959.mpg: no such file or directory

2020/07/23 21:51:52.507054 [HLS] Couldn't create streaming directory: stat /Users/.../Desktop/ch4buddy/Streaming: no such file or directory

--- one more thing

When I run the diagnostics, it all comes up green, which is what I sent via the web abb support page.

everything looks good, but when i go to play a previous recorded video it gives me an X over a crossed out play watermark in the middle.

I get this message: The media could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported.

2 Likes
#6

2025 Re: Recording Corrupted (-17)

Hello Again,
My 2018 MacMini i7? but only 8gb of ram, has been flawless ever since (2020). Still using iCloud. I went up a level for the last olympics, everything worked great.

I did do a quick search of the user forums and found 3 articles, but they didn't seem to be going in the quite the right direction. Please forgive If I'm adding chatter to a simple problem solved somewhere else.

With in the last week or so, I started to get the following error:
Recording Corrupted (-17) as shown on the iPhone app and the Apple TV app.

We were able to record a new segment of a tv show and that seems to work, but any other show listed in the App gives the -17 error. I even have some shows dating back to 2023 and they give the same error.

When I go to the support menu via the web interface, I don't see the previously mentioned: support > submit diagnostics.

I'm thinking that there is some part of the channels database that is messed up. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks Again,

Jon

p.s. my HdHomeRun Extend tuner needed an update on ~June 23rd, which I just ran.

#7

It's at Support -> Troubleshooting -> Submit Diagnostic Logs.

If you're saying that you've pointed your DVR directory at something that is being synchronized/managed by iCloud Sync (or any cloud sync), we do not support that configuration.

Those services do all sorts of things to the files that are under their management that is incompatible with how the DVR works. For the best experience you'll want to move your DVR directory out of cloud storage.

#8

found it thanks!

3d687d0e-4685-4b3e-81a2-46b60a4a7383

looks like I've been unsupported for the last 4+ years! (I can understand why that might not be the best of ideas for a server)