Windows - How to move Channels to new profile? Can't log into old one

#1

I've been running Channels DVR on Windows Server 2022 for several months. Due to a hilarious string of events I had to remove and re-join the server to my Active Directory domain, which means I can no longer log into my old Windows user profile. it also means that Channels will no longer start.

I do have access to the old profile data so I have copied everything in %APPDATA% to my new profile, but when trying to start the app manually I get "Database failure: couldn't open settings.db: open settings.db: Access is denied."

  • I have full permissions on all the files and folders (as far as I know). This error seems to also happen if you've installed Channels as a service, which I don't recall doing and don't see it in the list of Windows servers.

Since I can't start Channels I'm not able to get to the web interface to launch a backup or restore, as recommended in the "move Channels DVR to a new server" article. What's the best next step? I was thinking about re-installing Channels under this new profile and then re-re-copying the userdata over, but wanted to check with the experts in case re-installing Channels would cause some other sort of irreversible mayhem. Thanks in advance.

#2

It's preferable to install fresh and import a backup during setup. The backups sit next to your recordings in the Database folder

#3

Thanks - I didn't need to restore anything actually, just re-install the application and tell it to start as a service.

However - Even though my movies and TV shows are back, all of my virtual channels are broken. They all seem to be populated with the correct items via the admin panel, and show up in the client guide, but if I click on any of them it just spins and never gives any further message. Additionally, the custom images no longer show up. According to the admin page the images are in dvr/uploads/x/content (where x is a specific number) but I can't find any such path on the filesystem so I assume it's some sort of virtual directory.

Would a restore from the most recent database backup bring my virtual channels back?

#4

I'm confused on your messaging. You said your old virtual channels don't work anymore, but you also said you did not restore a back up and instead started from scratch. I'm unclear how you had old virtual channels. The same goes for why you would have custom images applied to anything.

Can you explain in detail how you set up your new server?

#5

If you didn't restore from backup, the new install doesn't have the old databases.
It won't know anything about your previous setup settings, recordings, imports, etc.

Those images are stored in the Images/uploads directory next to your dvr recording directory folders like Database, Imports, Logs, Movies, TV. The fact they exists is stored in your old databases, so you need to do a restore from backup.

#6

Sure. I had a Windows 2022 server that I moved to a new domain. I logged into the server with my DVR user account, but since it's on a new domain, it's now a new user.

I then copied everything from %APPDATA% to my new profile. Then, I re-installed Channels DVR and because I had already copied the stuff from Appdata it knew where to look for my DVR database and other settings. So my favorite channels and media immediately came back.

Oh, I just now noticed - Anything recorded by Channels is still not available. I don't use Channels to record shows, I use Plex for that. I only use Channels for live tv and virtual channels, and assumed that if those worked, everything should. So I may have answered my own question - I'll see if I can restore from an old back up and report back.

#7

I'm getting closer but it doesn't see that I have backups where I have backups.

I initially tried via the /restore link, then did some hunting and found that I needed to uncheck the Network Discovery and "Enable Server" options under General settings. I also found that I could click a Restore button if I went to /welcome instead. However no matter what I try, it doesn't recognize my backups. Do I need to nuke all my local configurations from orbit and start completely clean? Or is there another issue.

Screenshot below; my share has a space in it and I've tried both space and %20 in the address with the same effect, in case there's some sort of whacky character set issue happening. I'm also running this from the desktop of the server.

Screenshot 2024-08-26 121140
Screenshot 2024-08-26 121140889×1118 170 KB

#8

They're in the Database folder where you had the dvr recording directory setup.

Screenshot 2024-08-26 at 09-35-20 Channels Settings
Screenshot 2024-08-26 at 09-35-20 Channels Settings846×298 740 KB

Navigate to that Database directory in the restore directory picker and click the green Open button
Screenshot 2024-08-26 at 09-36-26 Channels
Screenshot 2024-08-26 at 09-36-26 Channels1138×350 27.3 KB

#9

If the Open button isn't appearing maybe there's a permission issue. You can check the Log to see if there's any errors listed

#10

Thanks, that's what I did and the Open button turned green. I have my recordings directory mapped to the T drive but the restore process wants a UNC path, so I browsed to the UNC path, copied & pasted. Here's a gif, hopefully it animates:
RemoteDesktopManager_5xF9VbPjEN

#11

I'm not sure what's going on there..

You can copy the latest backup folder to another Database folder somewhere, and select the backup that way.

The restore process will copy the .db files into c:\programdata\channelsdvr\data

You may need to wipe c:\programdata\channelsdvr away first if its still has permissions associated with the previous user account profile

#12

T: will only exist after the user that creates it logs in to Windows.
You mentioned you are now a new user.
I would check the SMB share you're mapping it to for usernames and permissions.

That's only one of the reasons it's recommended that the DVR recording directory be on a local disk.