Monday, March 07, 2005

Getting rid of stubborn 0.00GB files

Your MythBox hasn't ever crashed?  Liar.

I've had to hard-reboot a few times now. If there was a show being taped, a lot of the time I'll end up with a zero-byte file that Myth won't let me delete. Well, here's how to get rid of them, without having to dig through the 42,521 mysql tables...

1. Watch the mythbackend log to find out the file that Myth is having problems by running the following command in a terminal window:

tail -f -n 0 /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log

(keep this terminal window open)


2. Try deleting the file that MythTV tells you is 0.00GB, through MythTV. If you're having the same problem I've had, nothing happens, the file's still there. But, you should have some new output on the terminal window we opened in step #1. Something like this:

2005-03-07 18:14:31.312 ERROR when trying to delete file: /var/storage/recordings/1020_20050220100200_20050220102200.nuv. File doesn't exist. Database metadata will not be removed.


Ah hah! it's that pesky 1020_20050220100200_20050220102200.nuv file!


3. Create an empty place-holder for this file, using a new terminal window:

touch /var/storage/recordings/1020_20050220100200_20050220102200.nuv


4. Tell MythTV to delete the file again. This time it should work, and it'll disappear from your Recorded Programs list.


Enjoy, and happy cleaning!

- Blake