# Tivodesktop 2.8.3 "unable to link to your account"



## mystic1muse (Jun 13, 2015)

I'm running Windows 10.

Tivo Deskto was working fine under Windows 10 until about a week ago then found it was no longer linking to account and all attempts to link give error message ""unable to link to your account" even though I can use the same email/password to log on to the Tivo site. I can also successfully transfer video to the Tivo using Pytivo which uses the same data MAK/email/password that Tivo Desktop uses.

I've tried a dozen or more times over several days to make it link. I've uninstalled and reinstalled a few times including run of tivodesktop cleaner, reboot Windows, rebooted Tivo etc. I've read every post I could find here and elsewhere on the issue with no answers that worked.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

mystic1muse said:


> I'm running Windows 10.
> 
> Tivo Deskto was working fine under Windows 10 until about a week ago then found it was no longer linking to account and all attempts to link give error message ""unable to link to your account" even though I can use the same email/password to log on to the Tivo site. I can also successfully transfer video to the Tivo using Pytivo which uses the same data MAK/email/password that Tivo Desktop uses.
> 
> ...


It has been posted on the help thread that if you enter your email address as [email protected] it will link. It doesn't work for me.


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## mystic1muse (Jun 13, 2015)

"It has been posted on the help thread that if you enter your email address as [email protected] it will link. It doesn't work for me."

Wow! I didn't think it would work but decided to give it a try. Actually the form you quoted above [email protected] did not work BUT putting the whole thing in caps like this: [email protected] did work for me.

Thanks Again, the programmer that, no doubt unwittingly, placed that limit in the code must have been smoking something strong.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

I'm glad that worked. Still not working for me. Maybe I'll try an all uppercase password.


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## mystic1muse (Jun 13, 2015)

Did you try with both domain and name in all caps?

Also, someone suggested that log on problems can occur with special characters are in the password. You might try a different password setup.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10970111#post10970111

I wouldn't expect much help. 

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10970115#post10970115


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## W7SJK (Jan 17, 2002)

All caps worked for me. Thanks!


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

JoeKustra said:


> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10970111#post10970111
> 
> I wouldn't expect much help.
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10970115#post10970115


Well, that is pretty arrogant of TiVo. 

We're just gonna disable that piece of software we sold you without any notice, like a "sorry" email, and tough.

So I guess no more push to the TiVo from the computer using Desktop Plus, huh? Guess I'll go see if pull still works, or it's all dead.

No combination of upper/lower case worked for me. They must have disabled that now.

*Really* annoying.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

There are alternatives that are more powerful, well supported, and much more complicated.

I can't get in either. Case changes don't help. But the only reason I started using it was to save special programs. Now I have a retired Premiere for that.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

JoeKustra said:


> There are alternatives that are more powerful, well supported, and much more complicated.


Yeah, I know. It's the "much more complicated" part that annoys me the most.

I've got pyTivo installed, and have played with it a few times but found it annoyingly geeky. And that comment comes from an annoying geek who gets into the minutiae.

And "well supported" is not very comforting when TiVo can disable the "reach-around push" function any time they feel like it. Like they just did with Desktop Plus.

TiVo user for well over a decade (Series 1, 2, 3, DirecTiVo, Roamio+Minis) but based on events the last few months, I'm no longer planning on putting a bigger drive in my lifetime Roamio, nor am I adding any more Minis (much as I'd like to). The service has gone from reliably stable to volatile and unpredictable. Who knows what the upcoming merger will bring next?


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

dougdingle said:


> Yeah, I know. It's the "much more complicated" part that annoys me the most.
> 
> I've got pyTivo installed, and have played with it a few times but found it annoyingly geeky. And that comment comes from an annoying geek who gets into the minutiae.


If you think pyTivo is "annoyingly geeky", them I think you vastly overrate your own geekiness.



dougdingle said:


> And "well supported" is not very comforting when TiVo can disable the "reach-around push" function any time they feel like it. Like they just did with Desktop Plus.


The didn't "disable" push, even for TD+. Maybe they _*plan*_ to, but as of right now, there is merely something odd going on with the servers.

In any case, I know why pull is not a viable alternative for me for one of my TiVos (it's remote). Why is it not an alternative for you?



dougdingle said:


> TiVo user for well over a decade (Series 1, 2, 3, DirecTiVo, Roamio+Minis) but based on events the last few months, I'm no longer planning on putting a bigger drive in my lifetime Roamio, nor am I adding any more Minis (much as I'd like to). The service has gone from reliably stable to volatile and unpredictable. Who knows what the upcoming merger will bring next?


My biggest issue is that I have a large collection of recordings on an NAS with Gracenote metadata that will now have screwy data when transferred back to the TiVo.

I'm hoping that when all of the dust settles, there will be a way to make one of the metadata creation programs work again, but I have my doubts.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

lpwcomp said:


> The didn't "disable" push, even for TD+. Maybe they _*plan*_ to, but as of right now, there is merely something odd going on with the servers.


That is false. From an online response here on tivocommunity from TiVo's Ira Bahr 11 days ago: "The PC transfer is no longer a supported feature on our platform."

No longer supported. I'd call that "disabled", the end of it. You may interpret that as you wish.

Without being able to connect to TiVo's servers to tie Desktop Plus to my TiVo account, the Desktop Plus server won't start. Without the Desktop Plus Server running, the TiVo can't see the video, audio, or image files on the computer to pull them, and Desktop Plus can't push them to the TiVo. Not exactly that "Unified Entertainment System" the TiVo website brags about. Since I have never had an interest in getting files from the TiVo onto my computer, this for me is the end of Desktop Plus functionality.

There is nothing to say they won't stop pytivo working in a week or two, since "the PC transfer is no longer a supported feature on our platform.". That seems more likely than not, based on Bahr's statement. So what some of us are left with is Plex on TiVo, which from all I've read here is not very good. Plex is fine, it's TiVo's version that is poorly implemented.

Time to see what Roku or Amazon Fire looks like when playing my computer's content.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

dougdingle said:


> That is false. From an online response here on tivocommunity from TiVo's Ira Bahr 11 days ago: "The PC transfer is no longer a supported feature on our platform."
> 
> No longer supported. I'd call that "disabled", the end of it. You may interpret that as you wish.
> 
> ...


And I thought I was a pessimist. Maybe you're right but "not supported" != "disabled". They'd have to disable it in the TiVo s/w. I've actually had the fear that they might do that very thing.

It's been years since they were actively supporting TD and transfers still work. If the current problem with pushes was actually them shutting it off, why not just do it? Maybe they're trying to find out who will complain, so why don't _*you complain to TiVo*_ rather than just uselessly venting your ire here and saying I'm wrong about something when in fact you have no idea what is really going on.

There are things that never were supported but still work fine. 30 second skip for one.

I've never used TD+ but regular TD works just fine w/o contacting the servers and I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a way to get TD+ to do the same.


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## oscarfish (Mar 2, 2009)

This has got to be one of craziest types of failures I've seen. Unless it magically started working based on a change on the server side that just happen to be made at the right time between my failed attempts, then the working permuation is

[email protected]

I tried all lower case, I tried all upper case, I tried just the first part upper with the last part lower. But the above is what worked, and I don't want to undo it to experiment to prove to myself what works and what doesn't work.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

oscarfish said:


> This has got to be one of craziest types of failures I've seen. Unless it magically started working based on a change on the server side that just happen to be made at the right time between my failed attempts, then the working permuation is
> 
> [email protected]
> 
> I tried all lower case, I tried all upper case, I tried just the first part upper with the last part lower. But the above is what worked, and I don't want to undo it to experiment to prove to myself what works and what doesn't work.


That's what TiVo support is suggesting (for now) on their site, but it does not work for me. I added my post to the people complaining about it.

I did get the Desktop server running again after doing a complete wipe and reinstall of Desktop, but still can't link to their server, so can't 'publish' content to my Roamio. At least I can now see the computer from it and pull footage.

TiVo support says they're looking for a fix, but I'd be surprised, based on Ira Bahr's statement that this sort of function will no longer be supported, if they find one.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

dougdingle said:


> TiVo support says they're looking for a fix, but I'd be surprised, based on Ira Bahr's statement that this sort of function will no longer be supported, if they find one.


Ira said that the *program* is no longer supported for some (unspecified) reason, and left vague the question of whether the function would eventually be replaced. TiVos still "support" accessing content through a builtin webserver; at least "support" in the sense that it still works.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

ej42137 said:


> Ira said that the *program* is no longer supported for some (unspecified) reason, and left vague the question of whether the function would eventually be replaced. TiVos still "support" accessing content through a builtin webserver; at least "support" in the sense that it still works.


Really? Just the _*program*_?



Ira Bahr said:


> As far as the impact on those using TiVo Desktop software, some programs recorded before the guide data update (using Gracenote data) that are restored afterwards (using Rovi data) may see odd metadata changes. This will happen mostly for less popular shows. This isn't ideal, but the *PC transfer is no longer a supported feature on our platform*. As for the mobile app, this continues to be a supported platform and will be transitioned fully as with all of our existing software platforms.


Lot's of unsupported things still work, even some that were _*never*_ supported. There's just no guarantee that they will continue to work in the future.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

ej42137 said:


> Ira said that the *program* is no longer supported for some (unspecified) reason, and left vague the question of whether the function would eventually be replaced. TiVos still "support" accessing content through a builtin webserver; at least "support" in the sense that it still works.


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10970111#post10970111

"PC transfer is no longer a supported feature on our platform"

Seems not vague, in fact very clear to me. I don't know how he could have been more direct.

Whether it continues working is up in the air, but my experience has been that features no longer supported rarely get fixed if they break.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

"*the* PC transfer..."

Which in context I took to refer to specific program which does the transfer. But I can see how it could be interpreted otherwise. Not knowing why they were compelled to remove support, I don't think a firm conclusion can be drawn. You are of course free to draw a different conclusion.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

ej42137 said:


> "*the* PC transfer..."
> 
> Which in context I took to refer to specific program which does the transfer. But I can see how it could be interpreted otherwise. Not knowing why they were compelled to remove support, I don't think a firm conclusion can be drawn. You are of course free to draw a different conclusion.


TD doesn't run on the TiVo, so it cannot be what he referred to as a "feature on _*our*_ platform".


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## ntbert (Dec 28, 2006)

9/3 and still no luck linking account.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Same here.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

And here. Guess it's time to dust off pytivo, see if I like it any better than the last time I tried it. There is a thread over on the tivo support site forum about Desktop not linking if you'd like to add "me too" to it. The more people say something, the better the chance they might fix it:

https://forums.tivo.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=11290622#e11290622

*EDIT:* pytivo is having identical issues with 'push', having to do with the same problem - linking to your TiVo account online.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

dougdingle said:


> And here. Guess it's time to dust off pytivo, see if I like it any better than the last time I tried it. There is a thread over on the tivo support site forum about Desktop not linking if you'd like to add "me too" to it. The more people say something, the better the chance they might fix it:
> 
> https://forums.tivo.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=11290622#e11290622


Post added. Thanks for the link.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

So this morning I tried to link to my account by first suspending the Desktop Server.

I tried a few upper/lower case combinations for my email address, and one of them actually worked. I tried so many, and was so surprised when it took, I don't know what combination finally worked, sorry. Based on what others have said, it seems to be random anyway.

I re-enabled the Server, and it works again - pushed a video to my Roamio no problem.

How long it continues to work is another question, of course.


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## billfark (Jan 11, 2011)

This finally worked for me today: [email protected], FWIW.

-Kevin


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## bellbm (Dec 16, 2003)

I ran into this issue a couple of weeks ago, the [email protected] worked for me, to get the server started.
now today after a computer reboot, I can't get anything to work. When I enter my username and password to link my tivo account, and I hit "next", nothing happens. The box stays on the screen. 
Any ideas?


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

bellbm said:


> I ran into this issue a couple of weeks ago, the [email protected] worked for me, to get the server started.
> now today after a computer reboot, I can't get anything to work. When I enter my username and password to link my tivo account, and I hit "next", nothing happens. The box stays on the screen.
> Any ideas?


It's finicky.

Have a look at the TiVo support forum I mentioned, above. They're looking into it and need info from users.


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## cwb3106 (Jan 18, 2010)

bellbm said:


> ...When I enter my username and password to link my tivo account, and I hit "next", nothing happens. The box stays on the screen.
> Any ideas?


As I recall, when you select the account linking function, you get a dialog (call it A). Entering credentials brings up a different dialog (call it B) that says there was an error.

Entering credentials a *second *time fails with the redisplay dialog B. The redisplay happens so fast it looks like nothing happened.

Entering credentials a *third* time worked for me. There are hints in other posts that even more tries may be needed.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

Yes, I lost count of how many tries I made before it finally took with some combination I no longer remember. It's a peculiar bug.


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## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

what a bunch of garbage, lower case, upper case, partial. nothing works for me. this is absurd


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

tivoknucklehead said:


> what a bunch of garbage, lower case, upper case, partial. nothing works for me. this is absurd


Send Sarah a PM with your TSN: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/member.php?u=300681


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## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

JoeKustra said:


> Send Sarah a PM with your TSN: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/member.php?u=300681


ok, done, thanks


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## ADG (Aug 20, 2003)

Just posted this in another thread - may be helpful here:

UPDATE - Just spoke with TiVo (when did they contract for offshore support?) and they say everything is tied to the recent updates. The updates CAN break the Desktop connection to Tivo and once the update finishes (3 stage proccess - s/w update, guidance update, integration) the Desktop app "should" work again. We'll see. Meanwhile I have 3 more Tivo's going through the update process.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

ADG said:


> Just posted this in another thread - may be helpful here:
> 
> UPDATE - Just spoke with TiVo (when did they contract for offshore support?) and they say everything is tied to the recent updates. The updates CAN break the Desktop connection to Tivo and once the update finishes (3 stage proccess - s/w update, guidance update, integration) the Desktop app "should" work again. We'll see. Meanwhile I have 3 more Tivo's going through the update process.


Sounds like a "go away" statement. I've had the update since 8/30. Still can't get TiVo to accept my name & password in any upper/lower case combination.

No problem with transferring programs (well, small ones).


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

JoeKustra said:


> Sounds like a "go away" statement. I've had the update since 8/30. Still can't get TiVo to accept my name & password in any upper/lower case combination.
> 
> No problem with transferring programs (well, small ones).


Our only hope is that _maybe_ when the transition is complete for everyone, it might start working again, but I wouldn't be willing to bet on it.


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## bellbm (Dec 16, 2003)

dougdingle said:


> Yes, I lost count of how many tries I made before it finally took with some combination I no longer remember. It's a peculiar bug.


when trying to link my account, I get a screen with email and password filled in. I click next, the password is blank. I enter the password. Hit next. Then the screen with my name and password (filled in ) stays there.
ARe you saying you just get hitting next over and over again, until it took?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

bellbm said:


> when trying to link my account, I get a screen with email and password filled in. I click next, the password is blank. I enter the password. Hit next. Then the screen with my name and password (filled in ) stays there.
> ARe you saying you just get hitting next over and over again, until it took?


That's the post. I have found after five or more attempts you get locked out for a while. Must be a hacking prevention thing. You get locked out of your account. It came back after a few hours.


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## bellbm (Dec 16, 2003)

For anyone who is trying to figure out pytivo, it took me the better part of the afternoon to get it working, but this page has pretty clear instructions on how to install

I've got it working (the ability to pull shows), but find that it deletes a few things before it starts downloading (which could be very problematic with a tivo that is almost full, as mine usually is)

http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/PyTivo


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

bellbm said:


> For anyone who is trying to figure out pytivo, it took me the better part of the afternoon to get it working, but this page has pretty clear instructions on how to install
> 
> I've got it working (the ability to pull shows), but find that it deletes a few things before it starts downloading (which could be very problematic with a tivo that is almost full, as mine usually is)
> 
> http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/PyTivo


It has to make room for the recording and it always assumes it will require enough space for an Mpeg2 of the same resolution and length.

I think this is being done by the TiVo, not pyTivo itself.


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## bellbm (Dec 16, 2003)

lpwcomp said:


> It has to make room for the recording and it always assumes it will require enough space for an Mpeg2 of the same resolution and length.
> 
> I think this is being done by the TiVo, not pyTivo itself.


It's really frustrating. Especially when the file size is only 2GB, and my tivo is only 60% full. It still deletes shows.

I saw this occasionally with Tivo Desktop as well, but it didn't seem as extreme as this.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

bellbm said:


> It's really frustrating. Especially when the file size is only 2GB, and my tivo is only 60% full. It still deletes shows.


Do you have season passes set to "Keep Until I Delete"? If so, I think you'll see better space management if you turn that off, as much as possible.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

wmcbrine said:


> Do you have season passes set to "Keep Until I Delete"? If so, I think you'll see better space management if you turn that off, as much as possible.


Why is that? I have all my SPs set to Keep and have never run into an issue of TiVo deleting files, and bellbm's saying it's happening with the drive just 60% full.

Once or twice, in the old days, as I approached completely full drives on a Series2, it would warn that some stuff may not record because the drive is full...


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## bellbm (Dec 16, 2003)

wmcbrine said:


> Do you have season passes set to "Keep Until I Delete"? If so, I think you'll see better space management if you turn that off, as much as possible.


No, none of my passes are "keep until i delete". I probably have about 20 hours of shows that I've manually marked that way, but that's it.

The deletions usually happen when its and mp4 file of a two hour movie. I have lots of 25 minute shows that are in mpeg 2 format and those seem to always transfer over without issue.


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## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

partial progress today. I uninstalled 2.8.3, ran desktop cleaner, removed all settings and reinstalled. I still can't link to my tivo account despite many, many tries with all combos of upper and lower case username so I can't auto-transfer shows or podcasts to my PC , but at least my Tivo sees my PC again and I can manually transfer shows to my Tivo, and to my PC.


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## bellbm (Dec 16, 2003)

Is anyone having any more success with this? I was able to get pyTivo to push shows to my DVR this afternoon, but now that seems to not be working again. When that was working, I did try to link to my account in Tivo Desktop, but couldn't get that to work.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

I keep getting email from the TiVo support site. Never any answers, just more questions.


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## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

bellbm said:


> Is anyone having any more success with this? I was able to get pyTivo to push shows to my DVR this afternoon, but now that seems to not be working again. When that was working, I did try to link to my account in Tivo Desktop, but couldn't get that to work.


no, have not been able to link to tivo account in tivo desktop 2.8.3 for 2 weeks


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

tivoknucklehead said:


> no, have not been able to link to tivo account in tivo desktop 2.8.3 for 2 weeks


My support ticket is still open. But that's all, just open.


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## bellbm (Dec 16, 2003)

As an update, my Tivo desktop server was working for awhile last night, then stopped working. 
Also, I was able to push shows again for awhile, and now that is not working today. 

I believe the two are related - so at least its good to see it working sporadically.


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## Bill Roberts (Aug 6, 2012)

Under TiVo Server Properties/Access Control/Sharing Level I see "Please wait, searching for DVRs...". Is this an associated problem? It never finds the DVR, as well not connecting to my account.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

Bill Roberts said:


> Under TiVo Server Properties/Access Control/Sharing Level I see "Please wait, searching for DVRs...". Is this an associated problem? It never finds the DVR, as well not connecting to my account.


Should not be an associated problem. The software can't find your TiVo(s) on your in-house network. This is a different issue, I think.

At some point, you may want to just uninstall the Desktop program, and reinstall it. After uninstalling, run the TiVo Desktop Cleaner:

http://assets.tivo.com/assets/exe/tivotogo/TivoDesktopCleaner.zip

before reinstalling. That fixed several issues for me, but none of which concerned connecting to my account.


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## ntbert (Dec 28, 2006)

Anyone else still having issue?


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

ntbert said:


> Anyone else still having issue?


A better question would be - is anyone _*not*_ having this issue?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

ntbert said:


> Anyone else still having issue?


When I added my post to the support forum, https://forums.tivo.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=11290622#e11290622 I set it to email me any change. So far, nothing but that "try again" thing, which has never worked for me.


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## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

ntbert said:


> Anyone else still having issue?


yes, for about 2-3 weeks can't link my tivo account


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## bubba1972 (Mar 28, 2005)

I still can't link to my account from Tivo desktop. I opened a ticket and they finally got back with to use UPPERCASE.com formatting. No luck. The ability to see my PC from my Tivo Now Playing list has returned and I have been able to pull movies across. I guess the account doesn't need to be linked for that to function. Also, by percentage used is working again instead of saying 100% all of the time.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

bubba1972 said:


> I still can't link to my account from Tivo desktop. I opened a ticket and they finally got back with to use UPPERCASE.com formatting. No luck. The ability to see my PC from my Tivo Now Playing list has returned and I have been able to pull movies across. I guess the account doesn't need to be linked for that to function. Also, by percentage used is working again instead of saying 100% all of the time.


The only thing the linked account gives you is the ability to 'push' content from your computer to your tivo by designating a folder which, when you place video files into it, will get pushed to the tivo unless the format is incompatible.

Since it's not really a 'push', but a reacharound 'pull' that requires Desktop to contact the tivo servers and get them to send a command to the tivo to pull the files from that folder, an unlinked account won't work for that.

Although I know tivo has been insanely busy trying to straighten out the endless Rovi guide issues, I hold out little hope of this ever getting fixed. Even though it does appear to be a pretty straightforward issue to resolve, I don't believe the will exists at tivo to spend time/money on it.


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## billfark (Jan 11, 2011)

I, like others, haven't been able to transfer video from my PC to my Tivo for about a month now. This issue was the push I needed to try Pytivo out for the first time. I'm still getting the hang of it, but Pytivo works great for what I need it to do, and transfers video much more quickly than Tivo Desktop ever did.

-Kevin


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

billfark said:


> I, like others, haven't been able to transfer video from my PC to my Tivo for about a month now. This issue was the push I needed to try Pytivo out for the first time. I'm still getting the hang of it, but Pytivo works great for what I need it to do, and transfers video much more quickly than Tivo Desktop ever did.
> 
> -Kevin


The pull function from my computer to the tivo stopped working at the same time as the push function did (the Desktop tivo server failed to start), but I uninstalled Desktop, used Desktop cleaner to clean up, then reinstalled Desktop and the pull function started to work again after that. The pull function should work fine regardless of being able to link accounts to the tivo server. Pytivo is a fine program, and if it works for you, you should stick with it.


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## asalerno1964 (Oct 1, 2016)

Nor working for me either. Tried various combinations of UPPERCASE throughout my email address. Always says "unable to link to your tivo account" 

Would reinstall, but lost the install files.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

asalerno1964 said:


> Nor working for me either. Tried various combinations of UPPERCASE throughout my email address. Always says "unable to link to your tivo account"
> 
> Would reinstall, but lost the install files.


Based on my experience and what I've read here from others, reinstalling never fixes the issue of being unable to link an account. What it does fix the error where the Desktop Server won't start.

If you do a Google search, you should be able to find the Desktop 2.83 installation package. Reinstall seems to keep your Plus info, if you've previously paid for it.


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## Doit2it (Jan 3, 2006)

This is a double post from another thread, but thought I'd post here too since this thread was more active.... 

I keep losing the link to my account also. I tried the ALL CAPS method, and it was hit or miss. Now whenever I lose the link, which is at least once a day, I just keep trying to login. If it says failed I just click Cancel then OK. On about the third or forth try it works. I'm not trying CAPS with this method, just my regular saved email and password. Hope they get his fixed soon, but it's been going on for a month or so. Tivo Desktop 2.8.3


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Two months today for this thread. Nothing from TiVo on their support site except that stupid playing with all caps that doesn't work for me.


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## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

JoeKustra said:


> Two months today for this thread. Nothing from TiVo on their support site except that stupid playing with all caps that doesn't work for me.


same. also the repeatedly trying as per post above yours did not work either


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## msgtgumby (Aug 9, 2005)

Mine kicks out every once in a while. I just tell it to link the account again and keep hitting "Next" until it finally does. Took me 16 clicks once, but it always eventually takes it again. I have my email typed in the format of: [email protected]

Try just spamming "Next" to link the account, it takes awhile sometimes, but it eventually links again for me at least. They really do need to fix this...


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## ahwman (Jan 24, 2013)

msgtgumby said:


> Mine kicks out every once in a while. I just tell it to link the account again and keep hitting "Next" until it finally does. Took me 16 clicks once, but it always eventually takes it again. I have my email typed in the format of: [email protected]
> 
> Try just spamming "Next" to link the account, it takes awhile sometimes, but it eventually links again for me at least. They really do need to fix this...


Tried this procedure just now with over 100 attempts and no success... 😂


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## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

ahwman said:


> Tried this procedure just now with over 100 attempts and no success... 😂


same, so annoying


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## Bigbossman (Mar 28, 2016)

This ever going to be fixed? This is a big problem for me, main part of my tivo use is the ease with which I can send stuff to it from my computer so that the family can easily watch said stuff on the Tivo. If that's not going to work ever again a big part of our Tivo use just went out the window and maybe the Tivo unit should follow!


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## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

I've given up hope that this will ever be fixed. Tivo has gone downhill this year, it is sad. Search for new streaming shows has not worked for 7 weeks either with no fix in site


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## sjmyst (Apr 24, 2004)

tivoknucklehead said:


> same, so annoying


Maybe I "not doing it right". I also have tried 100 clicks at about 1 per second. And, maybe 500 clicks at about 5 per second (as fast as I could click).

Any suggestions from those that it works for as to the frequency of the clicks? One per second? One per 5 seconds? One per 10 seconds?

Although, I have doubts that it's not something that somehow is fully broken for me and not for others. I'm on Windows 10. TDP 2.8.3 with patch for broken Tivo to PC bug fix.

Also, in case TiVo is listening, I have been thinking about getting the Bolt. But, I have "cut the cable" and get about 50% of my content from the internet. So, not being able to push from my PC to my TiVo is a deal breaker.

Regards,
sjmyst


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## doyling (Aug 11, 2006)

I have had no luck. Had to reload Win 10 and thought it was something I did wrong. Again TiVo punishes their customers. Looking for a way to play music through my TiVo from my computer.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

doyling said:


> Looking for a way to play music through my TiVo from my computer.


The current method supported by Tivo is Plex


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## splat101 (Jan 15, 2006)

I know this is an old topic, but I just switched machine (Win10) and had this same problem. I tried the ALL CAPS and that didn't work, so I thought I would check the windows firewall. Well that seem to fix it for me.

I opened the Windows Defender Security Center and went under "firewall and network protection", then I clicked on the "Allow an app thru the firewall" there's a bunch of stuff in there, but I went to "Tivo HME Host: Port %d" and clicked the "Changed settings" and I checked the "public" box, and then, using ALL CAPS for the email address, it worked for me.

I hope this helps someone!


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

There is no longer a reason to link TiVo Desktop to your account. The reason for doing that was the feature that allowed you to automatically push podcasts from PC to TiVo, but TiVo disabled the push feature on the server side over a year ago.


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