# MFSTools 3.2 and "There was an error loading series data"



## jtwhipit (Jan 17, 2007)

*Goal:* To replace the fully functional original 1TB drive on a Roamio Plus (which has been behaving perfectly fine) with a 2TB Western Digital WD20EFRX _before_ it starts to fail. I'm trying to keep all my recordings.

*Procedure: *I used the MFSTools 3.2 ISO in message #131 of the "MFSTools 3.2" thread. I've tried both _mfstool copy -ai /dev/sda /dev/sdc_ and _mfstool copy -a /dev/sda /dev/sdc_.

Western Digital Data Lifeguard has reported no errors on the drive. I've also tried zeroing the entire drive using the tool.

*What works: *TiVo boots new drive correctly. I can tune to HBO with my Cablecard. All my shows are intact.

*Problem symptoms:* There is no guide data and I cannot retrieve any.

System Information shows the TiVo Service Level to be "A" when it should be "C". My service number is displayed correctly.

When I connect to the Mothership, I get "There was an error loading series data."
When I hit the Guide button, I get "Please activate service. Your service is not currently active. (T63)". There is a URL to activate service, but using that results in a message that the TiVo is already active.
*What I've tried, to no avail:*

Connecting to the Mothership six times.
Letting the new drive run in the TiVo overnight, then attempting to connect to the Mothership.

Clear Program Information & To Do List.

Kickstart 57 - Results in endless reboot loop.
Kickstart 58 - Results in endless reboot loop.
Can anyone offer any advice? I've spent my whole weekend on this. Thanks!


----------



## jmbach (Jan 1, 2009)

I would make a copy of your working drive using a drive duplicator or dd. Make sure it boots fine and works getting updates. then run KS 58. If it completes successfully then run KS 57. If that completes successfully then use MFSTools to copy over to your 2 TB drive.



Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


----------



## supasta (May 6, 2006)

I have found myself in the same exact situation.

I recently upgraded my failing TiVo Roamio Pro drive to a 4TB WD Red. 
I noticed that daily calls were failing. I forced connections several times. Each time it would get to 98% and then fail with the message "There was an error loading series data."

I was out of town for a few days, so I disconnected the ethernet cable and let it sit for a few days to chew through the data, as TiVo suggests on their official help pages. Returned today, and cannot complete the connection.

My symptoms are exact as the OP:

System Information shows the TiVo Service Level to be "A" when it should be "C". My service number is displayed correctly.

When I connect to the Mothership, I get "There was an error loading series data."
When I hit the Guide button, I get "Please activate service. Your service is not currently active. (T63)". There is a URL to activate service, but using that results in a message that the TiVo is already active. (I have only seen this once today). 
I am currently in an endless Kickstart 57 reboot loop.

Any help is greatly appreciated! I will be re-installing the factory drive now and ensuring it updates and completed KS 58 and KS 57 on that drive, as suggested by jmbach.


----------



## supasta (May 6, 2006)

Small update:

I entered KS 51 in an attempt to grab the latest update, thinking that might be the cause of my problems (I have been reading some about the latest update causing issues, all of which I was also having: missing channel icons, missing artwork, skip missing, etc.)

I saw a quick update screen, about 20 seconds. Then the unit went back into the reboot loop. During this time I read jmbach's post in another thread discussing the same issue where it is mentioned that a KS 58 fixed the problem. In my impatience, I threw a KS 58 at the unit during the next reboot in the loop. Well, it is not "stuck" at the GSOD. I have my fingers tightly crossed that this is the step that works. I would really hate to have to go back to step one.

(ETA: Link to referenced post in another thread.)


----------



## supasta (May 6, 2006)

Second (hopefully final) update:

KS 58 appears to have worked. The GSOD stayed for less than 60 minutes (guessing, I was watching a movie on the Chromecast and flipped back to check it and it was at the TiVo Home screen). This was far less than the 3 hours the message displays.

The TiVo was about 60% through a connection. It hung at 99% for some time, then the magical word "Done" displayed. All appears to have been corrected. The TiVo has all guide data, and all of the other previous issues are corrected (channel icons, skip missing, artwork, etc.)

As with the first upgrade, a big shout-out to jmbach for the endless information and help. Had I not read your post referring to KS 58, I would have been pulling the drive and starting the overwrite, and was considering a full reformat - something I was really wanting to avoid!


----------



## whatnot27 (Apr 23, 2018)

I failed to connect to mothership for 30 days following an -ai drive upgrade on the Roamio Plus from 1 TB to 4 TB. I was getting error S303. Guide data was still there, which is why I hadn't realized it wasn't connecting. Only other issue I had was a broken OnePass that didn't work and couldn't be deleted. I tried a KS 58 after much reading on here and it fixed all my issues. I never got a GSOD, only a screen about TiVo upgrading. Thanks to the community!


----------



## mmartz (Dec 18, 2007)

whatnot27 said:


> I failed to connect to mothership for 30 days following an -ai drive upgrade on the Roamio Plus from 1 TB to 4 TB. I was getting error S303. Guide data was still there, which is why I hadn't realized it wasn't connecting. Only other issue I had was a broken OnePass that didn't work and couldn't be deleted. I tried a KS 58 after much reading on here and it fixed all my issues. I never got a GSOD, only a screen about TiVo upgrading. Thanks to the community!


Every single detail was exactly the same for me:

Roamio Plus
used -ai flag
1 -> 4 Tb
S303 error after 30 days
KS 58 - no GSOD, but a reboot and a message about installing an upgrade
Finally a successful connection


----------



## supasta (May 6, 2006)

I am curious if it is the _-ai_ flag that is causing this, or if KickStart 58 should just be included in the standard Roamio upgrade procedure.

My Roamio has been working flawlessly since my upgrade (nearly three months ago). It performs better, the menus are faster, reboots are faster (I had to do a few of those to get my Mini to play nice again), and nearly 100% of my stuttering video and audio dropouts have resolved.


----------



## jerrythea (Oct 5, 2018)

I had an almost identical issue.
I had upgraded to a 3 TB WD Red (not Red Pro).

Everything was perfect.

Checked this morning, and it couldn't update software.

I did a KS58, which took less than 5 minutes.

Everything is perfect again.


----------



## 23adrock (Mar 4, 2019)

Nearly identical for me too. Roamio 500 GB upgrade to WD Red 3GB. Kept recordings with MFStools -ai flag. S303 error and couldn’t connect to mothership. Fixed with kickstart 58. Thanks to everyone who posted this solution !!


----------



## tkrotchko (Jun 7, 2007)

I upgraded my HD on a Roamio using MFSTools 3.3 and had the dreaded S303 error. I didn't realize I had it for over two weeks until we got the pop up that the schedule would not be valid in 2 days.

I had a little trouble flipping it into Kickstart mode, but I finally managed to invoke a Kickstart 58 (instructions here: TiVo Kickstart Codes and Information) and it lasted, no exaggeration 3-4 seconds, it immediately went into a software update mode and then it tried itself to update. Loading two weeks of data took it quite some time, but eventually it worked.

I'm not sure why it did the software update thing, but hopefully it's working properly now.


----------



## jmbissell (Dec 4, 2006)

Upgraded my Roamio from a WD 1TB drive to a WD Red Plus 2TB drive yesterday using MFSTools 3.3 copy with -ai. Took 4.5 hours in my Sabrent USB 3.0 dual dock. Everything seemed fine until I initiated a Service Connection. It went through all of the phases but after getting to 99% on "Loading," I got the S303 error. Still, the Guide data seemed to have been updated.

Rather than wait several days disconnected to see if it fixed itself, I went ahead and ran Kickstart 58. As others have reported, it initiated some sort of software update and then rebooted. I restarted the Service Connection. It repeated all the phases and completed successfully. Thanks to those who posted here on the issue as it saved me a lot of time trying to figure out what happened.

BTW, the WD Red Plus drive I bought from Amazon is the "new" WD20EFZX, which has a 128MB cache rather than the 64MB of the WD20EFRX. Works fine and the cache probably doesn't provide any benefit in this application.


----------



## njbuckler (Jan 18, 2021)

Yes, thanks to everyone on this thread. I upgraded my 1TB Roamio (MFSTools) to a 10TB WD Red a few weeks ago. I was able to get through the Service Connection with 100% success, but I didn't realize that soon after this follow up Service Connections were failing during the Loading phase. In my case at 20% I consistently ran into the S303 error. Restarts didn't help, but the Kickstart 58 fixed the issue. I followed this Kickstart 58 approach: TiVo Kickstart Codes and Information
In my case I also saw the software update message and once everything completed the Service Connection was also 100% successful.
BTW, you will definitely know that you did the Kickstart 58 properly (the pause button held for a few seconds (~3 seconds in my case) as soon as you see the yellow/amber light for the first time during the Tivo's restart process, followed by clicking on 5, then clicking on 8) because the front of the Tivo flashes between two lights, back and forth, several times once Kickstart 58 is initiated.


----------



## shaferandrew (Jan 9, 2007)

Also a big thank you to everyone in this thread. I also had a Tivo Roamio (1TB) that I upgraded to 3TB using MFSTools (in November 2020: MFS Tools 3.2). This month (January 2022), I noticed that the service had not connected since December 8, 2021 but guide data was still good so I didn't think much about it. Around January 8, 2022, I received a message on the Tivo that because it had been 30 days since the last update recordings would not be scheduled.

I followed the above steps to perform Kickstart 58 and it was able to immediately connect.


----------

