Moving SageTV to a new machine

[Boolah]

I'm trying to move my SageTV installation to a new machine and am following the FAQ (http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...2636#post52636), but I'm running into problems at the first step.

I'm using two UNC paths for my video directories. Since the machine SageTV is currently on will not be available once the move is complete, I need to change my UNC paths to drives paths before I make the move. When I change these UNC paths to drive paths, all but a handful of recordings are moved to the errant directory and EPG information for these recordings is lost.

If I restore my wiz.bin and sage.properties files from my backup and move the recordings out of the errant directory to where they were, everything works fine again, albeit, with UNC paths.

Anyone have any idea how to get around this?

My setup:

SageTV v2.2.7
Java v1.4.2-06
Windows XP Pro

Celeron 2.6 GHz
512 MB RAM
160 GB, 200 GB video directory drives, 100 GB system/library drive, 120 GB x 2 library drives

[stanger89]

What you need to do, when changing directories, is make sure both the old and new paths are accessible, but make sure the files are only available in the new place.

For example, I had my recordings on my HTPC on the D: drive but I used UNC paths so they were at \\HTPC\SageTV, I was moving to a new PC so I had to change that. So I added D: as a recording dir, and changed the \\HTPC\SageTV share to point to an empty directory. Then do the start Sage with setmediafileslocal thingy

[Boolah]

I think that's exactly what I've done. Here's what I did:

1) I edited (with SageTV completely closed) the properties file and changed my UNC paths to drive paths.
2) Changed "make_all_media_files_local" property and set it to "true".
3) Saved sage.properties and closed the file (I'm not running in service mode).
4) Change my UNC shares previously used by SageTV to point to empty directories on my machine.
5) Started SageTV.

One thing that I did notice is that Sage moves all my recordings into the errant directory *except* the recordings it made last night (perhaps because the EPG info for these recordings is still in the EPG?)

Another strange thing I noticed is if I leave the video directory paths alone (still use the same UNC paths) and I move a recording between the already existing video directories, Sage moves that file into the errant directory upon startup.

I'm running out of ideas here, so if anyone else has any thoughts, I'm just about ready to try anything

[Opus4]

Files shouldn't be moved to an errant dir unless this property is set: seeker/use_errant_dir=true. I know the FAQ mentions that, but I think that should only be for older versions, so if you are using the latest one, it shouldn't be neeed. Of course, try just a file or two after this change to be sure you won't lose anything.

Is the drive letter you are using a local drive or a mapped drive? I would try to keep everything local for this purpose.

That FAQ is a tough one to keep up to date, since there have been a few core changes & fixes since I first wrote it. Did I mention that one should be used at your own risk & things can go wrong? Don't do any of this if an EPG update is about to happen; wait until the EPG update has completed.

- Andy

[Boolah]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Files shouldn't be moved to an errant dir unless this property is set: seeker/use_errant_dir=true. I know the FAQ mentions that, but I think that should only be for older versions, so if you are using the latest one, it shouldn't be neeed.

I had that property set in my properties file from an earlier version of SageTV. Nevertheless, if I remove the property or set it to false, the recordings are still not recognized (they're just imported into the Video Library). The files aren't deleted and aren't moved to the errant directory.

Originally Posted by Opus4

Is the drive letter you are using a local drive or a mapped drive? I would try to keep everything local for this purpose.

Both Video Directories are local HDs, but I have them entered as UNC paths in SageTV. I'm trying to list them in SageTV as local drives now (not UNC or mapped drives). The thing that I find so strange is that after I change the UNC paths to local drive paths, the recordings SageTV made last night are available (with full EPG data), but none of my other recordings seem to make it.

Originally Posted by Opus4

Don't do any of this if an EPG update is about to happen; wait until the EPG update has completed.

Yeah, I made sure to check on the next scheduled update and it was hours away.

[Opus4]

Is the video dir also listed as an import dir, by any chance?

I just tried moving a recording using v2.2.7, not in service mode. I shut down SageTV, moved a recording from a UNC recording dir to a drive letter-based dir, restarted, and it worked fine. I then shutdown & moved it back to the UNC dir & that was fine too. I had IR turned off for this test & I also tried it with a Favorite recording & a non-fav/non-manual recording.

I may have missed this above, but did you create a new local recording dir & try moving the file to that location w/o changing the orig UNC path at all?

The fact that recent recordings survive the trip makes it sound like SageTV s clearing out the old recording data when it restarts, which is why I asked whether this was being done during an EPG update... which is when unused db entries would get removed. Try setting an older show to Watched & then move it. A Watched show's data shouldn't be removed from the db.

- Andy

[Boolah]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Is the video dir also listed as an import dir, by any chance?

No - in fact, I removed all import dirs early on in the process (just to eliminate them from the equation).

Originally Posted by Opus4

I may have missed this above, but did you create a new local recording dir & try moving the file to that location w/o changing the orig UNC path at all?

Yup - and the only recordings that survived were the ones made last night. All the other ones got brought into my import dir.

Originally Posted by Opus4

The fact that recent recordings survive the trip makes it sound like SageTV s clearing out the old recording data when it restarts, which is why I asked whether this was being done during an EPG update... which is when unused db entries would get removed. Try setting an older show to Watched & then move it. A Watched show's data shouldn't be removed from the db.

I had a few (12 or so) watched shows in the Video Directories. None of them made it through, but none of them were recorded last night either

Something really strange is going on. I started using SageTV with local drive paths over a year ago and migrated my install to UNCs without a hitch. I've also added video directories, deleted video directories and moved recordings between video directories without any problems before (although I haven't done any of this in the last 3 or 4 months).

My wiz.bin file is over a year old. Do you think it's possible that it's gotten somewhat corrupt through the upgrades? I've fired off an email to Frey to see if they have any thoughts. I wish someone would make a tool so you could edit your wiz.bin (hint, hint )

[Opus4]

It is a mystery to me why these file moves work sometimes & not others, so it is hard to come up with suggestions. (Now watch it be something simple that we are all forgetting. ) You are using v2.2.7, as mentioned in the first post, right? And, you are certain that the service is not enabled & running while this is happening? My java installation is newer than yours (not 1.5, though), but I don't know if that could have anything to do with it. You could try forcing an EPG update & waiting for it to finish before trying again. And, I didn't change the property to set media files to be local, as that really shouldn't be needed unless the PC's name changes, as far as I know. That's about all I can think of at the moment.

If nothing works, perhaps upload your properties file. (_If_ I've got time tomorrow, I'll try to compare it to mine & see if anything stands out.)

- Andy

[Boolah]

Before I started doing anything, I checked to see when the EPG updates were scheduled and none were scheduled until 5 PM. I started working on it around 8 AM and checked periodically to make sure I didn't accidently manually kick one off.

I've now moved my recordings over to my new machine, BUT I had to name my new machine the same thing as my old machine, and setup UNC shares on the new machine to match my old machine exaxtly. I have a new version of Java (v1.5.0-02), new SageTV installation (v2.2.7 - same version as my old installation), and new properties file (I didn't bring my old properties file over). The only thing that's the same is my wiz.bin file. Once I moved everything over (everything works just fine, btw), I tried changing the machine's name (leaving the UNC shares and video libraries alone and setting make_all_media_files_local=true) and the same thing happens. The recordings made Friday night are kept, but the rest of my recordings are brought in as imported media. Since the wiz.bin is the only thing I kept from the old machine's installation, I presume the problem has something to do with that.

Thanks for all the help though. I'll post back here if Frey can figure out what's going on.

[Boolah]

Just wanted to update anyone that was interested in this thread. I heard back from Frey and am posting their instructions below as they were sent to me. I had no problems whatsoever when following their instructions. I was told that I should use v2.2.8, so I don't know if there's a problem with earlier versions or if v2.2.8 was simply what they were using to test with. Of course, you should make a backup of your wiz.bin and sage.properties files before trying any of this

1. Start Sage. Delete your vid directory from Sage. You will notice that your recordings are still there.
2. Close SageTV
3. Move your videos to a temp location like before.
4. Run Sage. You will notice that the videos are not there as well as nothing in your imported video directory.
5. Remove the default directory created by Sage and add in your UNC or Mapped drive.
6. Close SageTV
7. Move your videos back to their respective locations.
8. Run Sage again and your videos should be there with the correct path.

[Opus4]

Thanks for the update. I'll try to add the info to that FAQ entry about this when I've got the time.

A note for anyone else doing this: if I understand things correctly, you still have to be sure that an EPG update isn't going to occur during this process. The last I heard, if there is no file associated with a db entry & it has no history that needs to be tracked for the show (such as watched status, don't like setting, etc), then the db entry will be pruned out during the EPG update & you will not be able to add the recordings again after that.

- Andy