Can't delete recorded programs

[Joram]

In the last couple of days, WMC has failed to delete recorded programs when asked to. After we click on Delete, what'll happen is that the circle will spin for about a minute and then just disappear, leaving everything just like before as if we hadn't tried to delete the recording.

Every other command in WMC seems to be working normally. Windows 7 HP SP1, x64.

Has anybody else run into this before, and what can we do about it?

Thanks in advance for any hints/suggestions.

[garyan2]

Never seen this before, but knowing where your recordings reside might be good information to have.

[Joram]

It's on a large external (6TB) hard drive. Hmm, haven't tried deleting older recordings off other drives. But I can add a couple of other data bits: deleting via Windows Explorer does work, and then the listing in WMC disappears if you close the WMC GUI and then reopen it.

[adam1991]

are you running any other processes that might be interfering, such as commercial skip, MCE Buddy, etc? Perhaps WMC thinks the files are locked from being deleted?

My other thought is, reconfigure WMC to use one of your other drives to be your recording drive and see if that changes the behavior any.

[Scallica]

Has anybody else run into this before, and what can we do about it?

Use Lockhunter to determine what is locking the file.

https://lockhunter.com/download.htm

[Space]

In my experience, if WMC is unable to delete a file for some reason, it will give an error, not fail silently.

It was also stated that he was able to delete the file via Windows Explorer but WMC does not notice it is deleted until he exits WMC and restarts it. This is not how WMC behaves normally. If you delete a file using Explorer, WMC should notice almost immediately and remove it from the list, there should be no need to exit WMC and restart.

Given all that, I am not sure what is wrong. Have you rebooted your system? I have sometimes had strange issues that were only resolved by a reboot.

[Joram]

In my experience, if WMC is unable to delete a file for some reason, it will give an error, not fail silently.

It was also stated that he was able to delete the file via Windows Explorer but WMC does not notice it is deleted until he exits WMC and restarts it. This is not how WMC behaves normally. If you delete a file using Explorer, WMC should notice almost immediately and remove it from the list, there should be no need to exit WMC and restart.

Given all that, I am not sure what is wrong. Have you rebooted your system? I have sometimes had strange issues that were only resolved by a reboot.

We had rebooted the system just a few days ago, so I didn't think to reboot again. (Maybe that's when the problem started?) Rebooting today seems to have taken care of the issue... until the next time!

It'll be good to have some ideas for what could be causing this. I'll check this thread if and when it happens again, and try some of the other things.

Thanks everyone for your help!

[adam1991]

you know, I found out awhile ago that a middle of the night automated reboot does wonders overall.

[Joram]

you know, I found out awhile ago that a middle of the night automated reboot does wonders overall.

That's a good idea, but for about six years this PC has had an issue where in order to reboot you have to physically press the power button; if you do a soft reboot, it'll hang on the BIOS splash screen. (Maybe it's something to spend time on during the lockdown.)

[adam1991]

ah. Mine does this periodically, not all the time though, and never on an automated reboot--only if I choose reboot from WMC or Start menu.

The solution for me when it hangs is to remove the ethernet cable, reboot and wait for the second BIOS beep, then plug ethernet cable back in.

Like I said, it doesn't happen every time.

This is clearly an ethernet issue on the machine; I know it needs rebooted when the extenders don't connect. Reboot, get past this issue, and the extenders connect just fine. Some have suggested this boot issues has to do with it looking for a network boot, but I find no evidence of this. It's intermittent, not steady behavior, and whatever triggers it seems to happen with the network infrastructure *before* the reboot, when Windows looks to be operating normally.

It's been this way for...9 years. Great Intel motherboard with perfect onboard HDMI for WMC purposes, but it's just this one thing.

But again, never on the scheduled middle of the night reboot. I have no idea why. Maybe the scheduled reboot prevents the system from getting into this state so much. I have to admit it happens less frequently nowadays.

[StinkyImp]

this PC has had an issue where in order to reboot you have to physically press the power button; if you do a soft reboot, it'll hang on the BIOS splash screen.

2 cents here...

I have a backup server on my network that I wanted to automate (to turn off at a certain time and then come back on at a different time) and came across the same type of anomaly. Here's how I solved it.

• In Windows I set up a task to shut down the computer daily using the /S and /F parameters.
• In the BIOS I set it to "turn on" the computer at a specific time if it's turned off.

This is the equivalent of performing a "hard" boot.

This configuration has been running for more than a few years with only one "failure to launch" that I can remember. Pressing the power button resolved it. Otherwise it's been running famously.

This is worth two whole cents and YMMV.