# Deleting Shows



## Lambtron (Oct 7, 2015)

Can the recorded shows on a Roamio OTA (ver.5) be permanently deleted in bulk, rather than deleting them one at a time?


----------



## manhole (Apr 15, 2005)

Have you tried using the "Clear" button on the remote. It deletes episodes and entire folders very quickly.


----------



## Lambtron (Oct 7, 2015)

Yes, but it still will only delete them one at a time in 2 separate steps. But thanks for the reply.


----------



## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

With kmttg you can permanently delete in bulk very easily.


----------



## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

manhole said:


> Have you tried using the "Clear" button on the remote. It deletes episodes and entire folders very quickly.


I think the OP is referring to shows in the Recently Deleted folder. Your answer is for the Now Playing list.

OP -- often asked, not possible thru TiVo. Only third party (eg, kmttg).


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Why do you need to permanently delete? The shows in Recently Deleted are considered free space and will be overwritten if your TiVo needs the room. If it's because it's something you don't want the wife and kids seeing then I understand, but if it's just regular shows then you can essentially treat anything in Recently Deleted as if it's permanently deleted already.


----------



## Lambtron (Oct 7, 2015)

Dan203 said:


> Why do you need to permanently delete? The shows in Recently Deleted are considered free space and will be overwritten if your TiVo needs the room. If it's because it's something you don't want the wife and kids seeing then I understand, but if it's just regular shows then you can essentially treat anything in Recently Deleted as if it's permanently deleted already.


Why would I want the overhead of the deleted files? These files need to be tabled and read at every level. Good question though.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Lambtron said:


> Why would I want the overhead of the deleted files? These files need to be tabled and read at every level. Good question though.


There is no overhead. They're only displayed if enter the recently deleted folder and IIRC they're stored in a separate portion of the DB so they have no effect on the indexing or accessing of the main My Shows list. Even if I'm wrong the overhead is minimal at best and any performance you might gain from deleting them would be offset by the hassle of emptying the list manually.


----------



## Lambtron (Oct 7, 2015)

Dan203 said:


> There is no overhead. They're only displayed if enter the recently deleted folder and IIRC they're stored in a separate portion of the DB so they have no effect on the indexing or accessing of the main My Shows list. Even if I'm wrong the overhead is minimal at best and any performance you might gain from deleting them would be offset by the hassle of emptying the list manually.


If they weren't indexed the GUI wouldn't know they exist to be able to recover them.

By the way.....the original question was Can it be done. Why ask why?


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I think they are indexed into a different table though, so the effect on performance should be nill. 

The reason I asked why is because I thought you might have a bad reason for doing it, which turned out to be true. Honestly unless you need to hide something from your family you should just leave them alone. This is NOT like the recycle bin on your computer that needs to be manually emptied to free up space. The space they occupy is considered free and will be overwritten as needed. If you want them replaced more quickly then you can enable Suggestions. With Suggestions enabled they will be overwritten within hours of being sent to Recently Deleted.


----------



## Lambtron (Oct 7, 2015)

I would like to thank Astrohip for giving me a succinct yes/no answer to my original question. It seems there is always a poster on forums that want to prove their knowledge or lack of but never answer the original question.

Thanks again all.


----------



## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

Lambtron said:


> I would like to thank Astrohip for giving me a succinct yes/no answer to my original question. It seems there is always a poster on forums that want to prove their knowledge or lack of but never answer the original question.
> 
> Thanks again all.


Please don't get defensive. There's no reason to be embarrassed because your position is indefensible nor to act snarky to one of the most helpful and least hostile contributors active in these forums.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Lambtron said:


> I would like to thank Astrohip for giving me a succinct yes/no answer to my original question. It seems there is always a poster on forums that want to prove their knowledge or lack of but never answer the original question.
> 
> Thanks again all.


Hey man if you want to waste time emptying the Recently Deleted folder have at it. However I'm speaking from years of experience, having owned every single model of TiVo ever made, and I can tell you with certainty that permanently deleting things from Recently Deleted provides no detectable performance advantage. The only thing it's useful for is deleting those late night skinamax movies you don't want your wife/kids seeing you recorded.


----------



## Lambtron (Oct 7, 2015)

ej42137 said:


> Please don't get defensive. There's no reason to be embarrassed because your position is indefensible nor to act snarky to one of the most helpful and least hostile contributors active in these forums.


Which position is that??. the one where i would like an answer to a simple question or the one where guys like you chime in to hear yourself talk?


----------



## Lambtron (Oct 7, 2015)

Dan203 said:


> Hey man if you want to waste time emptying the Recently Deleted folder have at it. However I'm speaking from years of experience, having owned every single model of TiVo ever made, and I can tell you with certainty that permanently deleting things from Recently Deleted provides no detectable performance advantage. The only thing it's useful for is deleting those late night skinamax movies you don't want your wife/kids seeing you recorded.


Let's just say after 38 years of being in the field, I have a fetish for clean data drives. No offense intended.


----------



## gespears (Aug 10, 2007)

Lambtron said:


> Let's just say after 38 years of being in the field, I have a fetish for clean data drives. No offense intended.


Offense taken. Dan is one of the best and most helpful users on this forum and in reading his post I did not think he was challenging you in any way. He was simply providing a thorough answer for everybody who reads this thread in the future. His answer was helpful and provided data that I did not know before. As is usually the case with his input.


----------



## Lambtron (Oct 7, 2015)

gespears said:


> Offense taken. Dan is one of the best and most helpful users on this forum and in reading his post I did not think he was challenging you in any way. He was simply providing a thorough answer for everybody who reads this thread in the future. His answer was helpful and provided data that I did not know before. As is usually the case with his input.


Good! Offense should be taken. My OP was a yes/ no , can and how is it done. My question was answered and I was satisfied however Dan203 thought he would throw a little of his own judgements about "why" I wanted this done which was non of his business. My wife and grown kids were all cracking up at the stupidity of your replies. If you want to play technicians, focus on the request the person is asking for and save the bible thumping for elsewhere. Also, Learn the basics of computer operation and mostly stop getting involved in trying to be heroes to your hero in situations that don't involve you. He can handle himself.


----------



## Beaveroamio (Jul 30, 2015)

Lambtron said:


> Can the recorded shows on a Roamio OTA (ver.5) be permanently deleted in bulk, rather than deleting them one at a time?


Count me as one who is also baffled about lack of simple action you had asked about. From personal experience, Such ability is readily available from Windows media center based DVR, and from other cable/Sat DVR providers. I understand some forum members may not have any use for such an option due to their personal experience/preference, but I think having such "option" would be a great enhancement, and win-win for everyone. No one HAS to use it, but those of us who would like to keep things tidy would benefit from it. BTW, I am a recent convert to the Roamio platform (from WMC).


----------



## Lambtron (Oct 7, 2015)

Beaveroamio said:


> Count me as one who is also baffled about lack of simple action you had asked about. From personal experience, Such ability is readily available from Windows media center based DVR, and from other cable/Sat DVR providers. I understand some forum members may not have any use for such an option due to their personal experience/preference, but I think having such "option" would be a great enhancement, and win-win for everyone. No one HAS to use it, but those of us who would like to keep things tidy would benefit from it. BTW, I am a recent convert to the Roamio platform (from WMC).


The fact that the OTA doesn't come with a user manual doesn't help either. It appears the only way to find a function like that would be to accidentally stumble upon it.


----------



## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

https://www.tivo.com/support/how-to


----------



## Lambtron (Oct 7, 2015)

Now that's info I can use! Thank you.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> Why do you need to permanently delete? The shows in Recently Deleted are considered free space and will be overwritten if your TiVo needs the room.


Personally, the only reason I've found to delete shows from the Recently Deleted Folder is to keep its contents limited to the episodes that TiVo has automatically rolled-off from their respective show folders -- only necessary to keep the "recoverable" listings uncluttered for the less advanced/patient users in the house after I've archived one to several series offline and deleted the associated episodes from the TiVo.

Oh, plus "late night skinamax movies."


----------



## gespears (Aug 10, 2007)

Lambtron said:


> Good! Offense should be taken. My OP was a yes/ no , can and how is it done. My question was answered and I was satisfied however Dan203 thought he would throw a little of his own judgements about "why" I wanted this done which was non of his business. My wife and grown kids were all cracking up at the stupidity of your replies. If you want to play technicians, focus on the request the person is asking for and save the bible thumping for elsewhere. Also, Learn the basics of computer operation and mostly stop getting involved in trying to be heroes to your hero in situations that don't involve you. He can handle himself.


Wow. Unbelievable. Good day to you sir.


----------



## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

Either somebody has a huge chip on their shoulder or they woke up on the wrong side of the bed.


----------



## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

Beaveroamio said:


> Count me as one who is also baffled about lack of simple action you had asked about. From personal experience, Such ability is readily available from Windows media center based DVR, and from other cable/Sat DVR providers. I understand some forum members may not have any use for such an option due to their personal experience/preference, but I think having such "option" would be a great enhancement, and win-win for everyone. No one HAS to use it, but those of us who would like to keep things tidy would benefit from it. BTW, I am a recent convert to the Roamio platform (from WMC).


Not baffling at all. There is -zero- need to do this for any logical reason. Yes, you can hunt and dig and find _some _reason, but the reality is, no one _should _need to do this.

Hence, TiVo doesn't offer it as an option.

[Disclaimer: My answer doesn't negate someone from wanting to do this. Hell, we can all be as weird as we want. My TV OCD habits make me the last person on earth to judge others. I was merely explaining _why _TiVo doesn't offer it, so Beav won't be baffled.]

[Disclaimer II: YMMV]


----------



## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

astrohip said:


> ... My TV OCD...


We should start a 12 step program.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Lambtron said:


> Can the recorded shows on a Roamio OTA (ver.5) be permanently deleted in bulk, rather than deleting them one at a time?


Yes, TiVo offers you an option to bulk delete all your recordings permanently, should you wish to remove all clutter from your system.

Just follow the TiVo-bricked road...

TiVo Central
> Settings & Messages
> Help
> Restart or Reset
> Restart or Reset
> Clear & Delete Everything​
You'll have some reconfiguration to do, but your recordings will have been permanently deleted.


----------



## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

krkaufman said:


> You'll have some reconfiguration to do, but your recordings will have been permanently deleted.


For those with OCD it might be better to throw the TiVo in the trash and get a new one. We can't have HDs with all their bytes written to cluttering up the place.


----------



## Rey (Oct 6, 2015)

Does the recent deleted folder organize the recordings in order of date deleted? If it doesn't then that would be a big reason for me to have an option to bulk delete. This was possible with the Hopper with sling on Dish. Also one push button deletes.


----------



## Beaveroamio (Jul 30, 2015)

astrohip said:


> Not baffling at all. There is -zero- need to do this for any logical reason. Yes, you can hunt and dig and find _some _reason, but the reality is, no one _should _need to do this.
> 
> Hence, TiVo doesn't offer it as an option.
> 
> ...


With respect, people may have different ideas of what seems "logical." The original poster had made an observation and a request, and there are some users who would agree with his way of wanting to delete shows en mass. Now, if others prefer a clutter of shows in their "deleted folders" because Tivo automatically deletes them as the drive gets full, that is fine. It should not negate the option of providing a simple "delete all" once that folder is navigated to. I don't see why this is such a contentious issue!


----------



## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

There are much more important things to be addressed by Tivo programmers. That is the real rub.


----------



## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

waynomo said:


> We should start a 12 step program.


It's going to take a lot more than 12 steps for me. A. Lot. More. 



Beaveroamio said:


> With respect, people may have different ideas of what seems "logical." The original poster had made an observation and a request, and there are some users who would agree with his way of wanting to delete shows en mass. Now, if others prefer a clutter of shows in their "deleted folders" because Tivo automatically deletes them as the drive gets full, that is fine. It should not negate the option of providing a simple "delete all" once that folder is navigated to. I don't see why this is such a contentious issue!


I'm not sure you understood my reply. I totally agree that some people would see the need for this, and consider that need logical. Hence my original statement of "My answer doesn't negate someone from wanting to do this".

That doesn't mean it's logical in the broader sense.

Sometimes opinions are just wrong.


----------



## ramiss (Jan 30, 2014)

Lambtron said:


> Good! Offense should be taken. My OP was a yes/ no , can and how is it done. My question was answered and I was satisfied however Dan203 thought he would throw a little of his own judgements about "why" I wanted this done which was non of his business. My wife and grown kids were all cracking up at the stupidity of your replies. If you want to play technicians, focus on the request the person is asking for and save the bible thumping for elsewhere. Also, Learn the basics of computer operation and mostly stop getting involved in trying to be heroes to your hero in situations that don't involve you. He can handle himself.


1) if you want a simple yes/no answer then ask TiVo. Instead don't post the question in a public forum where (heaven forbid) people are free to add their own info - using their time and not getting paid to do so.

2) As someone "in the biz" your ocd probably forgot that, even deleting files from a drive, the data still remains - unless you do a proper wipe of all bits to 0.

And before you criticize....I'm specifically not answering your OP. I'm responding to your rude responses thereafter to people who were giving their time and knowledge to try and help you.


----------



## VicV_1 (Feb 5, 2006)

There's one reason why I would like to delete all the recorded shows in the recently deleted folder is for example. The wife and I like to watch Big Bang Theory a lot. If that episode is in the recently deleted file it will not record it again. So it would be nice if you could delete everything all at once in the deleted folder or just allow the same episode to record as many times as you want unless it was in My Shows.


----------



## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

VicV_1 said:


> There's one reason why I would like to delete all the recorded shows in the recently deleted folder is for example. The wife and I like to watch Big Bang Theory a lot. If that episode is in the recently deleted file it will not record it again. So it would be nice if you could delete everything all at once in the deleted folder or just allow the same episode to record as many times as you want unless it was in My Shows.


See, this is why it's important to ask *why* somebody is trying to do something instead of just blindly answering the initial question. Because permanently deleting it from the deleted folder doesn't do what you want. If it did, activating suggestions would also make your TiVo forget it had recorded something.


----------



## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Agreed. Potentially sounds like a good application for "record all, keep 25" or something similar (I do this for shows my family finds great at any time and without argument- i.e. King of the Hill or Seinfeld). 

28 days is 28 days.


----------



## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

ej42137 said:


> See, this is why it's important to ask *why* somebody is trying to do something instead of just blindly answering the initial question. Because permanently deleting it from the deleted folder doesn't do what you want. If it did, activating suggestions would also make your TiVo forget it had recorded something.


Well deleting an episode from the deleted items won't override the 28 day rule for repeats - it still won't record again until the 29th day after it was last recorded; prior to that it's considered a duplicate.

However shows are _also_ considered a duplicate after that 28 day windows if they're still present in Now Playing. That type of duplicate is indefinite. I haven't experimented with the duplicate recording logic since before TiVo got its recently deleted folder. So I don't know if, for the purpose to deciding whether something is a duplicate, it considers shows in that folder or not. But I wouldn't be significantly surprised to find that it does...


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Jonathan_S said:


> Well deleting an episode from the deleted items won't override the 28 day rule for repeats - it still won't record again until the 29th day after it was last recorded; prior to that it's considered a duplicate.
> 
> However shows are _also_ considered a duplicate after that 28 day windows if they're still present in Now Playing. That type of duplicate is indefinite. I haven't experimented with the duplicate recording logic since before TiVo got its recently deleted folder. So I don't know if, for the purpose to deciding whether something is a duplicate, it considers shows in that folder or not. But I wouldn't be significantly surprised to find that it does...


It doesn't. Shows in the deleted folder are considered gone by all scheduling logic.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Rey said:


> Does the recent deleted folder organize the recordings in order of date deleted? If it doesn't then that would be a big reason for me to have an option to bulk delete. This was possible with the Hopper with sling on Dish. Also one push button deletes.


The recently deleted folder is sorted by date deleted.

Originally it was sorted by date recorded and it was a huge PITA to find things when you needed to restore them. They changed that a few years ago.

Although shows are still overwritten based on their record date, so you may see things at the top of the list disapear before things at the bottom if the shows at the top are technically older.


----------

