# Failure to record or partial recording due to (fake) “power loss”



## iconoclast (Oct 27, 2014)

Several times this past week, programs did not record or only recorded last ½ & History claims due to power loss.
Several different channels & times.
There was no Power loss.
One evening, when 5 different shows failed to record, I was actually using TiVo to watch other prerecorded programming&#8230; for hours!

I suspect a recent software update since I have used TiVo for years & never had this issue b4.

I found a 10 year old thread dealing with the same issue:
TivoHD not recording b/c of "Power Loss"

I have restarted a couple times & forced a communication with host. 
No help.
Tonight I tried unplugging TiVo for 2 minutes. Don't know whether that "solved" the issue yet.

Is there a solution?

Thanks!


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

Don't use standby, don't use power save. Done.


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## iconoclast (Oct 27, 2014)

Thanks for the reply!
I don’t use Standby.
I did have Power Savings set to Medium. Automatically enter Standby if not used for 4 hours. I changed it to Manual, never enter Standby.

Not sure this was the problem since I have had these settings for years w/o this issue. Also, Last Saturday, TiVo failed to record 5 shows on 2 different channels, while I was using TiVo to watch other, previously recorded shows, for several hours, during the time it was supposed to record.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

Having settings for years does not stop Tivo from screwing it up with new bugs that are introduced. Always been that way with updates, they break stuff when they fix stuff.


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## iconoclast (Oct 27, 2014)

OK, So you’re saying despite being able to have Power Savings set to Medium for years, it is possible that a recent update “broke” that & setting PS to manual can be a work-a-round until/unless TiVo fixes the new bug they introduced. 

Maybe.

But, the fact that I was using the TiVo for hours, during the time it failed to record 5 shows, proves that it had nothing to do with standby. The TiVo obviously was NOT in standby when it failed to record that day. 

It has not happened again since I unplugged & replugged & then I changed the PS as I mentioned so no standby. 

I wish TiVo Tech support would comment. Don’t they monitor this forum?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

iconoclast said:


> I wish TiVo Tech support would comment. Don't they monitor this forum?


No, they don't monitor their own forum either. Here's my theory. There's a list of error messages. At the bottom is the one for power failure. When an unknown error is detected in a recording operation, the last item in the list is displayed. It's as good a guess as any.

There are other occasions where an update had broken a function that has been working for years. Display of left column in My Shows comes to mind.

Give this a try: Tivo Customer Support Community


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

iconoclast said:


> I wish TiVo Tech support would comment. Don't they monitor this forum?


This is a TiVo community forum and not a TiVo forum so no. 

They have over the years occasionally had some TiVo representation here (more in the past) although TiVo Ted has been fairly visible recently but typically revolving around Hydra (he's not TiVo support though).

Scott


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

Had the same problem as OP

2 weeks in a row same show doesn't record due to "Power Lost"


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

So far I have not been hit with the Power Lost bug on my Roamio. Only on my Bolts. So I still have the High Power Savings mode enabled on my Roamio. While my Bolts have standby disabled. Which I hope is fixed soon so I can re-enable the High Power Savings mode on my Bolts.


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## iconoclast (Oct 27, 2014)

I did post on the TiVo Help forums that Joe Kustra linked.

I did this 7-23-2018.
As of today….0 replies.

Great Customer Service TiVo!


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

iconoclast said:


> I did post on the TiVo Help forums that Joe Kustra linked.
> 
> I did this 7-23-2018.
> As of today&#8230;.0 replies.
> ...


Yep. The [not] new normal! That forum is probably the least likely place to get help, unfortunately.


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## dishrich (Jan 16, 2002)

Count me in as now having this issue this past Friday on my Roamio Pro w/legacy UI; 4 shows were supposed to have been recorded scattered throughout the day & NONE did, with the bogus "power loss" reason in history. (luckily I caught it late Friday night, so that I didn't continue to loose more recordings) I've NEVER had this problem on any of my Tivo's, nor did I remember seeing other postings of it. BUT before I posted it, I did a search & sure enough, there's obviously others out there that have. I KNOW my "power loss" issue was fake, since one of my other Roamio's & PC tower are all plugged into the same UPS...& NEITHER had lost their power.

My PS setting is on LOW on all my Roamio's, but I guess I'd better turn it to OFF on all of them, to help guard against this latest issue...now getting to be almost as bad having to babysit these things, as it is with the garbage DISH Hoppers.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

dishrich said:


> Count me in as now having this issue this past Friday on my Roamio Pro w/legacy UI; 4 shows were supposed to have been recorded scattered throughout the day & NONE did, with the bogus "power loss" reason in history.


Same here, though I'm not home and so can't check which day it was. Our TE3 Pro missed a number of recordings from around 10pm thru 5am, with "Power Loss" as the reported reason.

Fortunately, lacking faith in our TiVos, we have a backup Pro with a nearly identical OnePass setup and the backup didn't experience the same glitch.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

iconoclast said:


> I wish TiVo Tech support would comment. Don't they monitor this forum?





JoeKustra said:


> No, they don't monitor their own forum either.


Chuckle! Sad but painfully true.


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## iconoclast (Oct 27, 2014)

So far the work-a-round of power savings setting turned off, has prevented this problem.

Of course, IDK if TiVo is aware & has fixed it, bc I am not willing to miss desired shows to test by turning PS setting back on!


BTW, Still no reply to my post on TiVo Support > 2 months ago!

Since my last visit there, someone has spammed that forum with many posts, using gibberish as a font. I don’t think it is a language, rather a series of symbols.


Due to non existent TiVo Support, TiVo would not get my business again.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

dishrich said:


> Count me in as now having this issue this past Friday on my Roamio Pro w/legacy UI; 4 shows were supposed to have been recorded scattered throughout the day & NONE did, with the bogus "power loss" reason in history. (luckily I caught it late Friday night, so that I didn't continue to loose more recordings) I've NEVER had this problem on any of my Tivo's, nor did I remember seeing other postings of it. BUT before I posted it, I did a search & sure enough, there's obviously others out there that have. I KNOW my "power loss" issue was fake, since one of my other Roamio's & PC tower are all plugged into the same UPS...& NEITHER had lost their power.
> 
> My PS setting is on LOW on all my Roamio's, but I guess I'd better turn it to OFF on all of them, to help guard against this latest issue...now getting to be almost as bad having to babysit these things, as it is with the garbage DISH Hoppers.


I still have not run across this on my Roamio. It is still set for High Power Savings mode. While with my Bolts I turned the Power savings mode off. Which has prevented this problem from occurring again with them.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> I still have not run across this on my Roamio. It is still set for High Power Savings mode.


It happened on my Roamio Pro, set to "Manual" Power Saving mode ... but I can't guarantee that the DVR hadn't been manually set to Standby prior to the "Power Loss" glitch occurrence.


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## videobruce (Nov 30, 2012)

Add me to the list. I lost 5 recording over a 24 hour period from Friday evening to Saturday noon. The last recording started recording 17 minutes into the time period only because the Roamio was 'woke up' manually to watch existing recordings.

Using the mentality of just not putting the unit in standby to 'fix' the problem is as lame as telling someone that has issues starting up his vehicle to just keep the engine running. 

And yes, I created a 'ticket' not that that will do any good.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

videobruce said:


> Add me to the list. I lost 5 recording over a 24 hour period from Friday evening to Saturday noon. The last recording started recording 17 minutes into the time period only because the Roamio was 'woke up' manually to watch existing recordings.
> 
> Using the mentality of just not putting the unit in standby to 'fix' the problem is as lame as telling someone that has issues starting up his vehicle to just keep the engine running.
> 
> And yes, I created a 'ticket' not that that will do any good.


One way of approaching an issue that is not being resolved is simply to accept matters and try to work around them--"It is what it is."

Fortunately, here, it is easy enough to accomplish, and with little downside, as the standby feature accomplishes a smaller amount of benefit (or even could be non-beneficial, due to wear-and-tear on the hard drive).


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## videobruce (Nov 30, 2012)

It's their 1st "standby" feature that does have some benefit, far more so that previous ones which basically did nothing (unless you consider disabling the video outputs some kind of "benefit"). As to spinning down the HDD, I don't record much, running 24/7 isn't a benefit AFAIC. Bottom line, it's still a feature that has a *substantial* 'bug'.

Though I remember a comment about TiVo in general in another forum to the tune pf "it just works" that addressed a substantial list of documented issues with the product (at the time). *Yea, right. *Well, when one has a monopoly, it doesn't really matter does it? 

I will admit that "standby" on the Mini's is no benefit since there is no HDD and the power saving is next to nothing.


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## videobruce (Nov 30, 2012)

Oh, I updated by 'ticket' by stating this IS the problem, not a power interruption or power strips etc. I also mentioned this forum with the number of reports here, thou I doubt that was recorded. But, the ticket was "escalated".


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

videobruce said:


> I will admit that "standby" on the Mini's is no benefit since there is no HDD and the power saving is next to nothing.


A Mini not on Standby will own a tuner after an EAS test for four hours.


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## videobruce (Nov 30, 2012)

"EAS test"??


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

videobruce said:


> "EAS test"??


Emergency Alert System - Wikipedia
I get weekly (local), monthly (state) and annual (we just had one). New: Nationwide EAS Test 9/20/18


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## videobruce (Nov 30, 2012)

No indication of this happening here, at least not when I was watching TV. But, almost NONE of my viewing is 'live' as it's been since 1978! 

What's a commercial??


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

videobruce said:


> Using the mentality of just not putting the unit in standby to 'fix' the problem is as lame as telling someone that has issues starting up his vehicle to just keep the engine running.


Enjoy losing recordings for no good reason then!


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

videobruce said:


> Add me to the list. I lost 5 recording over a 24 hour period from Friday evening to Saturday noon. The last recording started recording 17 minutes into the time period only because the Roamio was 'woke up' manually to watch existing recordings.
> 
> *Using the mentality of just not putting the unit in standby to 'fix' the problem is as lame as telling someone that has issues starting up his vehicle to just keep the engine running.*
> 
> And yes, I created a 'ticket' not that that will do any good.


It is a trade off - wait for them to fix a bug that only occurs to a subset of customers, missing recordings along the way, or don't put it in standby, get all your recordings and live with the $.02/per day of extra electricity consumed.


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## videobruce (Nov 30, 2012)

Diana Collins said:


> It is a trade off - wait for them to fix a bug that only occurs to a subset of customers, missing recordings along the way, or don't put it in standby, get all your recordings and live with the $.02/per day of extra electricity consumed.


There is *far* more to it than an electric bill if you look at the entire picture..


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

Please explain...all standby does is turn off the AV output. The drive still spins, the tuners and decoders keep running, so please explain what “far more” there is to it?


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## videobruce (Nov 30, 2012)

The HDD will & does spin down which I confirmed by listening and measuring power consumption. *That was the 1st thing I noticed.* Not always immediately thou, which is unlike all of their previous models (where what you described was the only difference). It will start back up for recordings and for other unknown reasons.

AFA "the entire picture". Very simply the waste of energy due to standby power and more so for devices being left on 24/7 mostly because the user was too lazy or ignorant to turn them off. And I don't mean for short periods of time.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Curious timing. Seems TE4 has changed Standby, at least on my Roamio and Mini VOX. I haven't had time to document the changes. With TE3 Standby, all tuners stop unless they are recording. TE4 may have changed that.

BTW, I put a Kill-A-Watt on my Mini VOX. It sits at 8 watts under all conditions.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

This issue has been going on since an update earlier this year. Prior to that update, power saving mode had no issues. TiVo is obviously in no rush to fix it. I took my Bolts off the power saving mode months ago. So far I've been lucky and none of my recordings I watched got cut by an EAS test. But it's on!y a matter of time until I do. Which standby does prevent. But if I turned Power saving mode back on, then I know I would be more likely to miss more recordings.


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## videobruce (Nov 30, 2012)

JoeKustra said:


> I put a Kill-A-Watt on my Mini VOX. It sits at 8 watts under all conditions.


That doesn't have a HDD.
When was this F/W update? Seems as the testing I did was* before* these changes. My statements reflected those tests at the time.

Then they 'broke' something that wasn't.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

videobruce said:


> That doesn't have a HDD.
> When was this F/W update? Seems as the testing I did was* before* these changes. My statements reflected those tests at the time.
> Then they 'broke' something that wasn't.


21.8.2.RC14 Release 10/18/18


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

videobruce said:


> The HDD will & does spin down which I confirmed by listening and measuring power consumption. *That was the 1st thing I noticed.* Not always immediately thou, which is unlike all of their previous models (where what you described was the only difference). It will start back up for recordings and for other unknown reasons.
> 
> AFA "the entire picture". Very simply the waste of energy due to standby power and more so for devices being left on 24/7 mostly because the user was too lazy or ignorant to turn them off. And I don't mean for short periods of time.


If they are now spinning down the drives, then THAT is the problem. If the drives are not spinning there is no buffer. If there is no buffer, the "recording" needs to start early to give the drives a chance to spin up and come on line. I have four 6TB drives in Raid5 array for our Plex library and I have them configured to spin down after 30 minutes of inactivity. Starting a stream from the array takes almost a minute for the drives to spin up, calibrate and start reading the platters.

I'm not surprised that the DVR software interprets that kind of process pause as a power failure.

To me, it is very simple...a DVR is 24x7 device - i.e. you expect it to record whenever there is something scheduled. If you want something to work 24x7 you should leave it on 24x7. Again, the power difference between fully on and standby is tiny.

Do you also unplug every mobile device charger when they aren't actively charging something?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Diana Collins said:


> If they are now spinning down the drives, then THAT is the problem. If the drives are not spinning there is no buffer. If there is no buffer, the "recording" needs to start early to give the drives a chance to spin up and come on line. I have four 6TB drives in Raid5 array for our Plex library and I have them configured to spin down after 30 minutes of inactivity. Starting a stream from the array takes almost a minute for the drives to spin up, calibrate and start reading the platters.
> 
> I'm not surprised that the DVR software interprets that kind of process pause as a power failure.
> 
> ...


Which worked without fail prior to the update earlier this year that screwed things. I had high power savings mode and mine would spin down one or more times daily at some point . It never affected any of my recordings.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Diana Collins said:


> If they are now spinning down the drives, then THAT is the problem.


huh what? Tivos have spun down the drives for a few *years* now. My roamio pro definitely does... after the specified amount of non use (presses on the remote).


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