WMC not really deleting video files

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rakosnik

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WMC not really deleting video files

#1

Post by rakosnik » Tue Dec 20, 2016 1:24 am

Recently I've noticed video files that Windows Media Center either said it deleted or should have deleted that aren't really deleted.

When I look in the RecordedTV folder in Windows Explorer I can sometimes find files that WMC should have automatically deleted according to rules setup for a particular show. For instance I have WMC setup to record Pardon the Interruption and keep a week's worth (5 episodes) of shows. If I watch an episode I delete it. Sometimes I'll go back a day or two and watch old episodes. But sometimes I'll be too busy for over a week and I won't watch any episodes at all. To keep episodes from pilling up, WMC is supposed to delete the oldest episode after it has recorded more than 5. It usually does this, but every now and then I'll notice that it has deleted any episodes for a long time. This used to happen every once in a great while, but now it seems to be happening much more often. Before anyone suggests that this might have sometime to do with the show being on more than one channel, that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the recent issue because I've been manually making sure that WMC is only going to record each day's episode on ESPN and not recording when the same episode re-airs on ESPN2. I'd limit the recording program to just ESPN, but every now and then ESPN will have so much going on that Pardon the Interruption will only be on ESPN2.

However, that is not the only circumstance that this problem with files not being deleted is limited to. I have also watched episodes of recorded TV and then manually deleted the file within WMC. Once again I have sometimes noticed that the corresponding video file is still in Windows folder structure.

When I have tried to do anything with one of these video files, Windows tells me that the file is locked. I can't open the file in another program such as VideoReDo. I have then tried to right click and delete the file that way, but again Windows tells me that the file is locked.

I haven't always been able tell when there are extra video files in the RecordedTV folder because sometimes I have lots of recordings. However, during these times I have sometimes noticed that my hard drive seems fuller than it should.

If I close WMC the files that are locked and should have already been deleted do finally delete and I'll then notice the free space on my hard drive that I should have.

rakosnik

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#2

Post by rakosnik » Thu Dec 22, 2016 3:48 am

Really?! I'm the only one who is having this issue? Nobody else is having this problem?

I was surprised when I logged into this forum that I didn't find a post of other people already discussing this issue. When I didn't and I made this post, I thought what was going to happen was that within 24 hours someone would reply to my post with a link to an earlier thread where people had already addressed this issue and hopefully a solution to the problem had already been figured out.

But I guess I'm the only one who this is happening too.

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Scallica

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#3

Post by Scallica » Thu Dec 22, 2016 1:26 pm

Start by installing LockHunter to find out what is locking your files. http://lockhunter.com/
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adam1991

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#4

Post by adam1991 » Thu Dec 22, 2016 3:57 pm

Files being locked are usually the cause of a deliberate external process that you're calling. I use ShowAnalyzer, for example, and it'll lock the file until it's finished with it.

That's the only time I've ever experienced a locked file that won't delete.

Another reason for the files not deleting is that they become disassociated from the series recording itself. I've had system crashes that cause this. It's evident by how WMC displays the show data; "cancel series" doesn't appear as an option, because it's not part of a series recording. Therefore, the series recording mechanism that automatically deletes older files won't touch it.

genaldar

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#5

Post by genaldar » Fri Jan 20, 2017 6:07 am

I have the same issue, but it doesn't happen that often. Did you ever find out what application was locking your files?

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