211k deleting recordings

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HipKat said:
Wallys don't have DVR's and your EHD can be transferred from the 211's to the Wallys
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You should mention that the same physical EHD can be used on the Wally, but any events recorded will be lost when the EHD is reformatted for Wally use.

It will be interesting to see if the other ViP 211k at our vacation home loses its EHD recordings when we fire it back up this summer. I knew we should have bought the Wally instead of the 211k last year…
 
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Can someone remind me - is it possible to have both a VIP211k and a Wally active on the same account? Right now I have two owned VIP211k's. Can I purchase a Wally, and replace one the VIP211k's and have a combination of 1 VIP211k and 1 Wally? Or do both have to be changed out at the same time?
 
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Foxbat said:
You should mention that the same physical EHD can be used on the Wally, but any events recorded will be lost when the EHD is reformatted for Wally use.

It will be interesting to see if the other ViP 211k at our vacation home loses its EHD recordings when we fire it back up this summer. I knew we should have bought the Wally instead of the 211k last year…
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I would think, but it may not be right away. I noticed that some time my 211's may hold the recordings for a few weeks, other times they only hold for a week or so. But when they go, they go on both receivers at the same time. So I figure it's coded in the software and not receiver dependent.
 
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dmag said:
I would think, but it may not be right away. I noticed that some time my 211's may hold the recordings for a few weeks, other times they only hold for a week or so. But when they go, they go on both receivers at the same time. So I figure it's coded in the software and not receiver dependent.
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I went back and I found the other posts I was referring to earlier. Here are the previous 2 threads that I posted in and my experience with the 211k and recordings deleting. I am convinced something was changed in the software - to have multiple people reporting the same thing seems way too much of a coincidence and not just hard drives going bad.

zippyfrog

Thread 'Error Code 05 on DishScapes?'

I have never had this happen before - I just went to watch some previous Dish Scapes, and most of the Dish Scapes that I could watch previously now have an error code of 05. Attached are 3 examples - there are quite a few more that have them as well. I know I was able to watch them previously because I will watch them on a faster playback speed to make sure I see everything, but now when I go and watch them I can't. It is just the Dish Scapes - all my other recordings work fine.

I usually create a manual timer overnight on the first of the month and have them record for one hour. Any...

L

Thread 'Lost recordings (Error:05)'

Hello,

I registered here to get help for an issue I'm having. It seems to be basically the same issue posted here Error Code 05 on DishScapes?

This happened the first time in May and now happened again over the weekend. It was the same receiver yet two different hard drives. It coincidentally (or not?) happened each time after about 6 months of making recordings on the drives. This weekend my drive with six months of recordings is unable to playback any of the recordings older than 5 months almost to the exact day this issue occurred.

I assume the programs are probably there but...
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How many recordings are on the EDH?

In the past some receivers have had a limit of 999 recordings viewable, they are there because is you delete a few the others show up.
 
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Jim5506 said:
How many recordings are on the EDH?

In the past some receivers have had a limit of 999 recordings viewable, they are there because is you delete a few the others show up.
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The number of recordings doesn't seem to matter. My drives had way less then 999. One drive was even brand new and maybe had a couple of dozen before they pooped the bed.

What annoys me most about this is the total radio silence from DISH. When I called tech support all I got was "the 211's are going obsolete and will no longer be supported" and a sells pitch to upgrade to the Hopper. More then likely they updated the software on the "no longer supported product line" that caused the issue, either by purpose, or accident. So why not just say so. Come up with some lame excuse about DRM or licensing, and say the recordings will now have an expiration period, so then we know what to expect and not waste our time trying to figure it out.
 
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To follow up on this, all of a sudden, once again all my recordings more than 60 days old no longer work. And this is with a new hard drive that I put in at the beginning of the year. I am convinced that there is some sort of expiration on DVR recordings now. The oldest recording I have that still works is 4-23-2025. I find it hard to believe that if this was something that was corrupt that it would now be on 3 hard drives.
 
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zippyfrog said:
To follow up on this, all of a sudden, once again all my recordings more than 60 days old no longer work. And this is with a new hard drive that I put in at the beginning of the year. I am convinced that there is some sort of expiration on DVR recordings now. The oldest recording I have that still works is 4-23-2025. I find it hard to believe that if this was something that was corrupt that it would now be on 3 hard drives.
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I just tested my EHD on my H3. I played a recording from 2006, yes 2006, that was originally transferred from my 722.
 
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I have the exact same problem you describe on my 211k since about a month ago. One day, all my recordings for years have error 05. The receiver reports the drive has hundreds of recording hours available when it shouldn't. All the recorded shows are present in the list, but none will play. I installed a new external HDD twice, same issue happens over and over now. I don't know the exact timeframe when this happens, but I check a recorded show a week later and they have error 05. If I check a recorded show the same day, its fine. I already unplugged the receiver, reset to factory default, but the issue still comes. I don't want a Hopper and don't want to pay more than I already do. I have not contacted technical support about this yet, but I'm sure I get the same run around and sales pitch to upgrade. I personally think they changed something on their end. The software on my box is L870. I'm not sure when an upgrade actually took place if it did.
 
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Swift99 said:
I have the exact same problem you describe on my 211k since about a month ago. One day, all my recordings for years have error 05. The receiver reports the drive has hundreds of recording hours available when it shouldn't. All the recorded shows are present in the list, but none will play. I installed a new external HDD twice, same issue happens over and over now. I don't know the exact timeframe when this happens, but I check a recorded show a week later and they have error 05. If I check a recorded show the same day, its fine. I already unplugged the receiver, reset to factory default, but the issue still comes. I don't want a Hopper and don't want to pay more than I already do. I have not contacted technical support about this yet, but I'm sure I get the same run around and sales pitch to upgrade. I personally think they changed something on their end. The software on my box is L870. I'm not sure when an upgrade actually took place if it did.
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I contacted Dish by both chat support and phone about the corrupt DVR recordings and couldn't get any information from them. They basically stated the 211 receiver is old and suggested to upgrade to the Wally or Hopper. In the end, they didn't have any Wallys in stock, so I bought one from somewhere else. I don't need the functionality of a Hopper at increased monthly cost. I enjoyed my 211 for 14 years. Hopefully the Wally will last a long time as well.
 
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Just curious if anyone who has had this issue with a VIP211k goes to an older recording today and it no longer works... I tried an experiment and a very interesting result occurred.
 
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So...here is what happened. VIP211k. I had a recording from 7/1/2025, channel 133. An episode of Two and a Half Men. I subscribe to the channel, and have the entire time. I tried the recording last night, and it played with no problem.

Since I was home today on Labor Day, I tried an experiment - I had my system update at 6:30am instead of overnight so I could watch what happened. I was up at 6am, played the recording, and it worked with no problem. I let the daily update occur.

Then I went straight to my DVR as I was watching TV, around 7:05am. What I found interesting - there were NO recordings listed. It showed I had 100% of my hard drive available. So I thought "oh, everything was deleted from the daily update."

Now...I have a daily recording of First Things First, on FS1, channel 150. About an hour before the recording began, there still were no recordings listed. Once the recording began, all my previous recordings were now showing on my DVR list, but it is showing 100% of my hard drive free - so in essence the file structure of what was recorded is preserved but the DVR recordings are gone. I try to play any of my previous recordings, included the episode of Two and a Half Men that worked this morning before the update, it no longer plays and I get an error 05.

There is something going on. This isn't my hard drive failing...
 
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dmag said:
Here's something even more for you to think about. I have two 211k's. each has an EHD. They will both periodically loose their recordings...but not at the same time. On one they may last for a month on the other may last a week. It's random and not consistant.
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I only have one VIP211k with an external drive right now - but I have tried multiple hard drives each with the same result. I have noticed what you have said - sometimes I only lose recordings that are more than 60 days off, sometimes I lose them all.

But this was the first time I was able to in essence watch when it fails. The fact it worked this morning, about 30 minutes before the update, then after the update I received the error 05 points to the system update. I can't prove it, but I think there is some check on the VIP211k's that if it sees recordings older than a certain amount of days, a delete occurs. Can't prove it, but there is some convincing evidence.

I wish we had a contact at Dish like brittanygarden but who specializes in specifically the VIP211k software side of things. Someone who could dig into the software to see if there is something deleting recordings after x amount of time now.
 
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