Remote access connects but won't play anything successfully

My ports are open, I've tested them. When I try to play recorded content the loading wheel spins and spins. I've tried on an iPhone and FireTV stick 4k. What can I do? AS of now I can play back DVR content locally.

Does it play on my.channelsdvr.net

Does the dvr log show any errors?

it doesn't play there but it plays on my iPhone locally.
Log shows the same error over and over:

Refresh failed: Couldn't create directory in R:\DVR\Streaming\file29-e83b4e6a4475: CreateFile R:\DVR\Streaming\file29-e83b4e6a4475: The system cannot find the file specified.

Huh.

Is your R:\ drive a USB or some type of network mount?

Does R:\DVR exist? What about R:\DVR\Streaming?

just an external HDD in a USB enclosure. Both paths exist. I did copy the folders over from another drive, was that the wrong way to transfer drives? copy and paste? do i need to rebuild the folders properly?

Might be a permissions issue then. Can you right click properties on the Streaming folder and make sure the user running the DVR has write permissions?

its set as read only. I tried to change this yesterday and apply it to all sub folders and files but many couldn't. I hit "ignore all" and let it change the ones that it could. I figured it worked. I'm changing them again now, it will take several minutes.

as soon as i disable read only on the DVR folder it re-enables. is the DVR doing this?

No it's not the DVR.

What file system is the drive formatted using?

exfat. the drive i was using ebfore was also exfat but didn't have this issue.

Maybe the drive is failing and setting itself to read-only.

Crystal Disk Info says it's healthy. Can I just:

  1. back up the Movies and TV folders
  2. format the drive
  3. point to it again for the DVR folder
  4. let it rebuild the directories
  5. move the Movies and TV folders back?

Can you double-check that the user running the DVR is the same user that owns those folders and has write permissions?

yes. I've even added permissions for "Everybody" to have read write access. It still reverts.

I don't understand because I'm still able to write to the drive and most shows are being recorded.

If you want to reformat the drive, back up the entire DVR folder (including TV, Movies, Database, Logs, etc). Format the drive and then copy the data back.

To be safe you can uncheck the DVR checkbox while you do this or shut down the dvr software via the system tray icon.

So my Properties -> Security tab is missing. I've followed these instructions and it worked on one drive but still isn't showing the security tab on my dvr drive so I can't adjust permissions. When I said I adjusted them I did so through sharing thinking that was correct.