# 3/2/21 PyTivo stopped working - No Tivos Found



## datasound (Oct 29, 2006)

Hello everyone, It is March 2, 2021 and I have spent about 5 hours trouble shooting this and I'm at my whits end. I have (2) Macs and (2) Tivos. I have been running PyTivoDesktop for about 2 years with out a problem. Now all of a sudden neither of my Macs are showing up and the Tivos (I generally move videos from the Mac to the TIVO by going to the TIVO now playing list and scrolling down to the Mac device and do a transfer. 

Is anyone else out there having this as a new problem in the last few weeks?

The main Mac that I use is an iMac running OSX 10.14.6. I'm also using the Eeros routers. Both the Mac and the Eeros have had recent updates and I'm guessing that is when the problem started.

Anyone got any ideas? I'm so frustrated.

Thanks in advance for your help


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

datasound said:


> Hello everyone, It is March 2, 2021 and I have spent about 5 hours trouble shooting this and I'm at my whits end. I have (2) Macs and (2) Tivos. I have been running PyTivoDesktop for about 2 years with out a problem. Now all of a sudden neither of my Macs are showing up and the Tivos (I generally move videos from the Mac to the TIVO by going to the TIVO now playing list and scrolling down to the Mac device and do a transfer.
> 
> Is anyone else out there having this as a new problem in the last few weeks?
> 
> ...


You're the same guy that emailed me this morning? No luck huh?

One thing you might try... go into the settings, go to the network tab and set zeroconf to off. Maybe you'll get lucky and that'll work.


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## hjb47 (Jun 11, 2021)

Manually adding it to the pyTvio.conf worked for me

The entry will look similar to the one below

[_tivo_TiVoServiceNumberGoesHere]
tivo_mak = TivoMediaAccessKeyGoesHere
address = TivoIpAddressGoesHere
name = TivoNameGoesHere


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## datasound (Oct 29, 2006)

Thanks hjb47 for the reply. So in case anyone else runs into this I sort-of figured out the problem. If either of my Macs are connected via ethernet-wire then the TIVOs will not see the PyTivo device listed in the now playing. As soon as I switch either Mac to WIFI it works perfectly. I spoke with Eero tech support and they could not figure it out. So basically when ever I need to transfer something I switch the mac to WIFI (also need to physically unplug the ethernet) and it works. 

If anyone has any thoughts or can explain this I'd love to hear it.

Thanks everyone


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Sounds like a firewall issue. Not sure how the firewall on Mac works, but on Windows you can have different rules for wifi and wired networks. So maybe you were on wifi when you set up pyTivo and that opened the ports it needed on the wifi side, but when you switch to ethernet it moves to a different configuration where the ports aren't open?


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## datasound (Oct 29, 2006)

Hello Dan203, Thanks for this interesting idea. I have not had time to fully explore it but I hope to work on it in the coming days. I have however looked on my Mac and I do not see anything that shows that the WIFI versus Ethernet-wired has different firewall settings. My next step is to call Eero support and ask them if the Eero treats the two pathways differently. If I get any headway on this I will post again.


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## dougtv (May 20, 2015)

I've been having issues on my OS X 11.5 with pyTivo/desktop finding any of my TiVos. I even had the issue with the OS X Firewall completely disabled.

It wasn't until I connected to a 2.4ghz instead of a 5ghz where pytivo found my tivos. I'm wondering if this is related to the newer Apple network setting that has a "private option" similar to what I've seen on latest iOS where you can filter your MAC address or hide on the LAN I *think*. I'll do some more digging. I much would rather be on 5ghz of course for better LAN speeds, and I haven't tested hardwired yet or if there are any "private" prefernces in OS X's network settings. I'll do some more digging and if I find anything specific I'll post an update.

Edit for reference: all my TiVos are using wired ethernet connections.


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## datasound (Oct 29, 2006)

Hi Everyone, Sorry I forgot to post but I found a (sort of) solution to the problem that I am just living with. So I have iMac running PyTivo on OSX 10.14.6, Eero Mesh Routers. For some strange reason when the iMac is connected via WIFI (making sure to unplug the ethernet cable) PyTivo works great. However if I plug the ethernet cable back in then PyTivo stops working. I have confirmed this MANY times. I even spoke with tech support at Eero and they were not sure why. They believe all the ports and firewall settings are the same for wired verses WIFI. So I know it sounds strange but if your computer is wired ethernet then temporarily switch it to WIFI (be sure to unplug the ethernet) and see if PyTivo magically starts to work for you. (Also note my two tiros are both on WIFI)


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