Emby TV - Auto-delete recordings based on storage limits

[Kent 92]

Feature Request to add a function in Emby TV to set a storage limit and auto-delete the oldest content to remain within the user defined storage space limit.  Same function as WMC and other DVRs.

[swenth 41]

Yea would be cool to set a space limit for dvr

[blckgrffn 1]

Just paid for premiere to get the live TV setup and cannot believe that this is not a feature to set.  I just spent a ton of time going through server settings looking for it because I would be certain it exists.  I am not sure I would have spent the money on this knowing that this is not available.  The subscription for Premiere says it enables DVR, but I don't know of a single DVR that doesn't do housekeeping so that seems disingenuous to me.

I can just create a powershell script and scheduled task to delete files but really that's not cool either.

Given that I have just one drive in my PC for this and it's just going to full up and fall over when recordings absolutely fill the drive boggles my mind.

Edited November 11, 2022 by blckgrffn

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  Most of our users keep content indefinitely because storage is relatively cheap.  However, there are settings with each scheduled recording where you can tell each one how many episodes to keep if you want to do some automatic clean-up.

[swenth 41]

23 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  Most of our users keep content indefinitely because storage is relatively cheap.  However, there are settings with each scheduled recording where you can tell each one how many episodes to keep if you want to do some automatic clean-up.

for me it would be useful to clean incomplete recording i use m3u and it's really instable i have pently of 1 minute long records is it conceivable for futur?

[blckgrffn 1]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

Hi.  Most of our users keep content indefinitely because storage is relatively cheap.  However, there are settings with each scheduled recording where you can tell each one how many episodes to keep if you want to do some automatic clean-up.

I sincerely appreciate the quick reply.

The number of episodes feature will be something I look for on the series recordings, I didn't see it when I set up a test show so I will look again.

I still think the ability to set a quota, like MCE did about 20 years ago, would be a preferred method for me, or to be able to have the system delete oldest recordings if for some reason the drive is full.  For Live TV, capturing the latest episode is often paramount.

That said, if I delete TV recordings from the file system, does Emby rescan for these shows and remove them from it's DB or will they still look like they are there in the app but obviously fail to play if a user tries to watch them?   I will likely setup a combination of methods to ensure that there is always room for new shows.

FWIW, I am just using an older refurbished PC for Emby for TV only so the storage is the small and fast NVME drive - my main storage and libraries are being hosted differently.   I will shrink the system partition and create a different one ~100GB in size for the TV library so that at least they are separate and the OS will not be impacted by any lapses in housekeeping I might make.

Edited November 11, 2022 by blckgrffn

[ebr 16169]

16 hours ago, blckgrffn said:

if I delete TV recordings from the file system, does Emby rescan for these shows and remove them from it's DB

Yes the system will react to your changes in the file system with the next library scan (or within a minute if you have real time monitoring enabled).

 

[randallspicher 2]

I'd like to see the ability to set on the recording not only a "keep only X episodes" but also an expiration date, "keep for X days/weeks/months" like tvheadend has.  For example, when recording newscasts in tvheadend, I could set the series timer for 1 day, so the Friday Evening News was not still showing up in the list the following tuesday.   Or, for some things like talk-shows or soap operas, let them stick around for a week. The idea being the content in the show becomes somewhat stale after a certain amount of time and is unlikely to be watched.

Note, any individual recorded episode should have a "keep/don't delete"  flag on it that can be set to exempt it from automatic deletion rules. (which is a standard DVR feature available on every other DVR since the 90's)

Bonus points if you can set a separate expiration ages for Watched recording vs Un-watched recordings, although that can get complicated because of multiple viewers and profiles.

 

[mrneiljinks 3]

I'd like it to auto-delete any watched recordings with this an option to set. I know there are at least 3 other historic threads around this stretching back as far as 2014.

[visproduction 315]

Alternate solutions using Windows server and batch files:
 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17785216/batch-script-to-delete-files-older-than-x-days-based-on-creation-date-not-modi
 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/324267/batch-file-to-delete-files-older-than-a-specified-date

Edited August 4, 2023 by visproduction

[Jmackay82 40]

The batch is a little sloppy, I tried several scripts and as emby has folders with multiple data such as artwork etc, depending on server settings the additional files are not always created at the same time as the recoding which means the recordings may delete with the batch but the folder they are housed in and other sub files are sometimes left behind, this makes the screen a little messy as items still display on emby but with nothing to play back.

For my self I wrote a vb script as a work around which allows a little more logic than a batch script.  The script searches only the video files and deletes the sub folder tree when the criteria is met : 1. if the recoding is older than 90 days or 2. if the hard disk space remaining is less than 19% (in which case it will delete recordings by oldest found first, looping until enough space is free)

I set this to run as a task every 3 hours and this seems to work well.

Would be amazing to see this in emby.

[visproduction 315]

JM,
Show us your VB Script, if you don't mind.

Emby integration - "Clean up"?

1. It might be nice for the admin to get a list of content to confirm deletion with checkboxes.  
2. Maybe offer to create a new collection - "Leaving soon" and then the clean up option can remove the media in the collection at a time and date, or alert the admin, "Time to clean up".  
3. Can this collection switched to show up in the Latest rows on the Home Page, like a library and be on the Library order list?  This would let users make collections appear on the latest rows like "Staff favorites", "80's films", "Halloween scarefest", etc..  It seems like a lot of people might like to do that.

[rkvxa 1]

I reviewed the DVR settings under Live TV as outlined in the documentation and expected to find a global option to set the maximum number of episodes per video. If such an option exists, I would appreciate clarification on its location. Additionally, I anticipated a feature to set an expiration for viewed episodes but was unable to locate such a setting. These functionalities seem fundamental to a standard DVR setup, correct?

[Luke 42077]

23 minutes ago, rkvxa said:

I reviewed the DVR settings under Live TV as outlined in the documentation and expected to find a global option to set the maximum number of episodes per video. If such an option exists, I would appreciate clarification on its location. Additionally, I anticipated a feature to set an expiration for viewed episodes but was unable to locate such a setting. These functionalities seem fundamental to a standard DVR setup, correct?

Hi there isn't a global option, but it's something you can set individually on each series recording.

[rkvxa 1]

Could you clarify where those settings are located? Are they configured on the server or, in my case, within the Roku app?

[Luke 42077]

12 minutes ago, rkvxa said:

Could you clarify where those settings are located? Are they configured on the server or, in my case, within the Roku app?

On the server. Live TV -> Series tab -> Click on a series and the option will be there.

[rkvxa 1]

Thank you. While the process was straightforward, the setting itself was not immediately obvious. Unfortunately, it seems I will need to configure this individually for all my users, as it is not available as a global setting.

[Luke 42077]

1 minute ago, rkvxa said:

Thank you. While the process was straightforward, the setting itself was not immediately obvious. Unfortunately, it seems I will need to configure this individually for all my users, as it is not available as a global setting.

Hi, this is not a per-user setting. It is for each series recording.

[rkvxa 1]

51 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi there isn't a global option, but it's something you can set individually on each series recording.

Understood.

 

4 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, this is not a per-user setting. It is for each series recording.

Confused.

[Luke 42077]

6 minutes ago, rkvxa said:

 

 

Confused.

Hi, what is confusing about that?

[rkvxa 1]

When I first asked if the settings were global, you mentioned, "There isn't a global option, but it's something you can set individually on each series recording." Later, when I asked where the settings were located and noted that I'd have to use them per user, you replied, "This is not a per-user setting. It is for each series recording." These statements seem contradictory.

[Luke 42077]

Just now, rkvxa said:

When I first asked if the settings were global, you mentioned, "There isn't a global option, but it's something you can set individually on each series recording." Later, when I asked where the settings were located and noted that I'd have to use them per user, you replied, "This is not a per-user setting. It is for each series recording." These statements seem contradictory.

I never said that they were per user. When you setup a series recording in the live tv guide, there are various options you can set on the series, including this one.

Does that help? You have to set it on each series recording, not each user.

[rkvxa 1]

I appreciate your assistance and timely response.

[Luke 42077]

1 minute ago, rkvxa said:

I appreciate your assistance and timely response.

I think if you try setting up a series recording you'll see what i mean about what those options belong to.