Can't restore deleted channels

[Jason-R]

Hi Gary, thanks to your excellent work, I’ve had a year or so of happy viewing on Media Center!

I decided to do a clean refresh using the EPG123 Client (v1.6.0) Setup utility as a number of satellite channels had gone dead over the months. When running setup, MCE preloads the channel listings hundreds of entries that are probably 15-20 years old, so I decided to delete those using the Client Guide Tool, then scan for current channels.
That has been mainly successful, but I have noticed that some key channels are missing. As far as I can make out, when I perform the MCE scan, it picks up new channels, but does not reinstate / refresh any channels that were deleted. The screenshot shows an example of channel group 10758 where both the channels on the left and in the Undelete window are valid. If I hit Undelete, however, the Client unexpectedly closes and the channels are not restored. (Note: I’m also not clear if undelete would restore all deleted channels or just the highlighted ones as needed?)

Note, I have since updated to EPG v1.6.2.8, and now the Client will not run at all - It flashes up instantaneously, then disappears.

Wondered if you could give any pointers on how to get around this?

Let me know your thoughts,
Many thanks
Jason

[garyan2]

The unsuccessful undelete and closing of the GUI was fixed in 1.6.0.6, but since then I added the client trying to repair bad mergedchannels when opening. It looks like you found a scenario I didn't cover.

For the short term to try to undelete the channels, could you download and older version (portable so you don't have to install it) and try to open the client and undelete?

Could you also send me your lineup backup file from c:\programdata\microsoft\ehome\mcepgX-Y\backup\lineup folder to support@garyan2.net? I just need the most recent file in there and try to see what is going on.

[Jason-R]

Thanks Gary, I have just pinged you the file!

[garyan2]

Sorry, finally checked out the file but unfortunately everything looks good there so I can't determine what is going on with your database. The good news from this is that you could perform a database recovery, have the current scanned channels, and be able to scan again to pick up the channels you had deleted. Just run "c:\windows\ehome\mcupdate.exe -objectstorerecoverytask" from a command line. Open WMC where it will give you a prompt that a recovery happened. Close WMC and you should be able to open the client again.

[Jason-R]

Thanks Gary, your tip in the meantime to use the 1.6.0.6 portable file is working.
How good is the database recovery process - just checking whether my manually assigned listings might be affected?

[garyan2]

If 1.6.0.6 is working, then you can use it to rebuild the database. Your tuner setups, custom callsigns, custom numbers, favorite lineups, recording requests, and guide list mappings will be restored. You will just lose your recording history. After that, you should be able to run the latest version of epg123.

The database rebuild option in the client is pretty much the same as the object store recovery, but epg123 won't create a new mcepgX-Y folder or database file.

[Jason-R]

Hi Gary, tried the EPG rebuild, ran through the process then updated the guide as suggested. Same problem with latest EPG shutting down.
Then tried the MCE rebuild process just to be sure, with the same result.

I've just emailed you the latest lineup file, and also the guide listings trace.log as there are some errors there. (I've seen there are some wider issues reported with the guide listing, but thought I'd send it in case there was anything in there that could be useful to fault finding here).

[garyan2]

I had broken the lineup sorting in the client on version 1.6.2.8 when the channel numbers are -1. I just released version 1.6.3.0 with a fix for that, so you can install it. I'll have to look further to see what is going on with the downloads from Schedules Direct for all those channels that are giving the errors for "You have requested a schedule which is not in any of your configured lineups." Not sure why your lineups will have those stations but then tell you that you can't. This will be on SD's side of things.

[garyan2]

All of those errors are coming from the ZZZ-28.1E-DEFAULT (Freesat - Astra 28.2E) lineup. You might want to submit a ticket with SD to look into the problem.