HDHomeRun Record service only working when PC has active user session

[ngcard]

I have the HDHomeRun DVR setup on a new Windows 11 machine. Scheduled recording are only working when I leave an active user session logged in to the machine. If I log off, recordings no longer work. The record service is using the Local System account. I tried changing this to my user account - which is an administrative account, but no change.

How can I get the HDHomeRun Record Service to work when I'm logged off?

[nickk]

I can check the diagnostic logs... can you please run HDHomeRun Setup, tick "send diagnostic information" on the Advanced tab, sign out, sign back in, then let me know the Device ID of your HDHomeRun.

[ngcard]

Thanks Nick. I have 2 devices. I record mostly on the first one. I have left the session logged in. If you need me to log off to reproduce the issue, let me know.

10537880
10A26E0A

[jasonl]

Do you have sleep disabled on the PC? Windows 11 is by default very aggressive with power saving and will sleep after just a few minutes of inactivity.

[ngcard]

I do have sleep disabled. I have power management set so that it never powers off the PC or goes to sleep.

[jasonl]

Can you schedule a recording for the next block of shows, log out, wait until 10 minutes after the show starts, the log back in? Then reply back with the times you logged out and back in so we can see what happened.

[ngcard]

I performed the steps you requested...
Scheduled recording then logged out 4/30/2024 8:34PM EST.
Logged back in 4/30/2024 9:10PM EST. The recording had successfully started while the PC was logged out.
I then ran a few more tests and I found a pattern. I rebooted the PC at 4/30/2024 9:18PM EST and did not log back in. I tried to schedule a recording of an ongoing show. The task showed up in the task list, but the recording didn't start.
I then logged in to the PC at 4/30/2024 9:22PM EST. When I restarted the HDHomeRun RECORD service, the recording started.
It appears that recordings that are scheduled while the PC is logged out are failing. If you log back in and restarted the HDHomeRun RECORD service, they come back to life.

[signcarver]

You might need to be more clear on how you scheduled the recorded show while not logged on (and service not running?). The way the app schedules a recording is through the cloud then it is supposed to poke the engine to retrieve the data (for the next 4 hours) from the cloud as the engine itself only checks every hour or two. I would also look at your logs in the recordings folder and see there are no real time dropouts and errors (it periodically writes to the log in the drive to prevent spindown).

It doesn't surprise me that something didn't poke the engine, particularly if for some reason the engine wasn't found. Even the app on the same pc may need the loopback fix applied. But my first thoughts were on logoff some security software/setting is preventing internet access and/or the drive being recorded to isn't available, I have seen this for usb drives but also occasionally permissions on the drive/folder. I would also log out and try to connect to the engine from another machine on your network via a browser while you are logged out (you would need to know the ip and port... I suggest setting a static port for the engine in the registry and restart it.

[jasonl]

Is there anything in the 20240501 log file in between these 2 lines?

20240501-01:17:24 Recorded: recorded sync success

20240501-01:22:41 HDHomeRun RECORD 20231214 Windows [storage ID redacted]

[ngcard]

Yes. Here's the log. There are a number of 'failed' messaged...

HDHomeRun RECORD 20231214 Windows [storage ID redacted]
20240501-01:18:24 Recording: RecordPath[0] = 'D:\HDHomeRun\'
20240501-01:18:24 Recording: RecordPath D:\HDHomeRun\ = ntfs
20240501-01:18:24 System: StorageID: [storage ID redacted]
20240501-01:18:24 System: LocalIP: [fe80:e77a:6f2e:1114]/64 (ifindex 4)
20240501-01:18:24 System: LocalIP: 10.0.0.203/24 (ifindex 4)
20240501-01:18:25 System: website port = 49699
20240501-01:18:25 Recorded: RecordPath 'D:\HDHomeRun\' (ntfs)
20240501-01:18:25 Status: Resource: nbk=1 dmk=249
20240501-01:18:25 Status: ticks = 10875
20240501-01:18:25 Recorded: directory D:\HDHomeRun\ with 5 subdirs and 0 recordings
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: sending discover using local ip [fe80:e77a:6f2e:1114] (ifindex 4)
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: sending discover using local ip 10.0.0.203 (ifindex 4)
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: sending discover via 10.0.0.203 (ifindex 4) failed
20240501-01:18:25 Recorded: directory D:\HDHomeRun\Young Sheldon\ with 0 subdirs and 9 recordings
20240501-01:18:25 Recorded: directory D:\HDHomeRun\The Simpsons\ with 0 subdirs and 15 recordings
20240501-01:18:25 Recorded: directory D:\HDHomeRun\The Late Show With Stephen Colbert\ with 0 subdirs and 1 recordings
20240501-01:18:25 Recorded: directory D:\HDHomeRun\Ghosts\ with 0 subdirs and 9 recordings
20240501-01:18:25 Recorded: directory D:\HDHomeRun\Family Guy\ with 0 subdirs and 16 recordings
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: sending discover using local ip [fe80:e77a:6f2e:1114] (ifindex 4)
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: sending discover using local ip 10.0.0.203 (ifindex 4)
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: sending discover via 10.0.0.203 (ifindex 4) failed
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: discover response from [storage ID redacted] http://[::1]:49699
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: discover response from [storage ID redacted] http://127.0.0.1:49699
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: discover response from [storage ID redacted] http://[fe80:e77a:6f2e:1114]:49699
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: discover response from 10A26E0A http://[fe80::218:ddff:fe0a:26e0]:80
20240501-01:18:25 Recorded: recorded sync to record-api.hdhomerun.com
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: event download from record-api.hdhomerun.com
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: myhdhomerun_files webclient error 2 dns failed
20240501-01:18:25 Recorded: recorded sync failed
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: myhdhomerun_record webclient error 2 dns failed
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: event download failed
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: disk space available = 300GB
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: current time = Wed May 1 01:18:25 2024 (correction of 0s)
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: no timer events planned
20240501-01:18:25 Recording: 10A26E0A lineup request success (found 32 channels)
20240501-01:19:25 Recorded: directory D:\HDHomeRun\ with 5 subdirs and 0 recordings
20240501-01:19:28 Recording: starting new file Live channel 11.2 4aae48ad
20240501-01:19:28 Recording: no tuners available to record Live channel 11.2 4aae48ad
20240501-01:19:28 Playback: Live channel 11.2 failed to start: 801 Unknown Channel
20240501-01:19:28 Playback: Live channel 11.2 failed to start: 801 Unknown Channel
20240501-01:19:38 Recording: stop Live channel 11.2 4aae48ad (result = 0x0000)
20240501-01:19:45 Recording: starting new file Live channel 20.1 4cfee86a
20240501-01:19:45 Recording: no tuners available to record Live channel 20.1 4cfee86a
20240501-01:19:45 Playback: Live channel 20.1 failed to start: 801 Unknown Channel
20240501-01:19:55 Recording: stop Live channel 20.1 4cfee86a (result = 0x0000)
20240501-01:20:08 Recording: sending discover using local ip [fe80:e77a:6f2e:1114] (ifindex 4)
20240501-01:20:08 Recording: sending discover using local ip 10.0.0.203 (ifindex 4)
20240501-01:20:08 Recording: sending discover via 10.0.0.203 (ifindex 4) failed
20240501-01:20:08 Recording: sending discover using local ip [fe80:e77a:6f2e:1114] (ifindex 4)
20240501-01:20:08 Recording: sending discover using local ip 10.0.0.203 (ifindex 4)
20240501-01:20:08 Recording: sending discover via 10.0.0.203 (ifindex 4) failed
20240501-01:20:08 Recording: discover response from [storage ID redacted] http://[::1]:49699
20240501-01:20:08 Recording: discover response from [storage ID redacted] http://127.0.0.1:49699
20240501-01:20:08 Recording: discover response from [storage ID redacted] http://[fe80:e77a:6f2e:1114]:49699
20240501-01:20:08 Recording: discover response from 10A26E0A http://[fe80::218:ddff:fe0a:26e0]:80
20240501-01:20:08 Recorded: recorded sync to record-api.hdhomerun.com
20240501-01:20:08 Recording: event download from record-api.hdhomerun.com
20240501-01:20:08 Recording: 10A26E0A lineup request success (found 32 channels)
20240501-01:20:10 System: server time = Wed May 1 01:20:10 2024 (correction of 1s)
20240501-01:20:10 Recorded: recorded sync success
20240501-01:20:10 System: server time = Wed May 1 01:20:10 2024 (correction of 0s)
20240501-01:20:10 Recording: event download success
20240501-01:20:10 Recording: disk space available = 300GB
20240501-01:20:10 Recording: current time = Wed May 1 01:20:10 2024 (correction of 0s)
20240501-01:20:10 Recording: no timer events planned
20240501-01:20:25 Status: Resource: nbk=0 dmk=333
20240501-01:20:41 Recording: starting new file Live channel 20.1 eec681bf
20240501-01:20:41 Recording: no tuners available to record Live channel 20.1 eec681bf
20240501-01:20:42 Playback: Live channel 20.1 failed to start: 801 Unknown Channel
20240501-01:20:52 Recording: stop Live channel 20.1 eec681bf (result = 0x0000)
20240501-01:22:25 Status: Resource: nbk=2 dmk=334

[ngcard]

You might need to be more clear on how you scheduled the recorded show while not logged on (and service not running?). The way the app schedules a recording is through the cloud then it is supposed to poke the engine to retrieve the data (for the next 4 hours) from the cloud as the engine itself only checks every hour or two. I would also look at your logs in the recordings folder and see there are no real time dropouts and errors (it periodically writes to the log in the drive to prevent spindown).

It doesn't surprise me that something didn't poke the engine, particularly if for some reason the engine wasn't found. Even the app on the same pc may need the loopback fix applied. But my first thoughts were on logoff some security software/setting is preventing internet access and/or the drive being recorded to isn't available, I have seen this for usb drives but also occasionally permissions on the drive/folder. I would also log out and try to connect to the engine from another machine on your network via a browser while you are logged out (you would need to know the ip and port... I suggest setting a static port for the engine in the registry and restart it.

I scheduled the recorded show using the HDHomeRun app on my laptop. I opened the guide and started a recording on a show already in progress. While the PC was not logged in, the service was running. The drive being recorded to is an internal SSD, not an external USB drive or network share.

[jasonl]

What kind of network connection is the PC using?

Are there any third-party firewall, security, antivirus, antimalware, VPN, or other such programs installed on the PC? It looks like something is blocking outbound connections.

[ngcard]

It looks like the solution was to set the HDHomerun record service startup type to "Automatic (Delayed Start)". Now if I reboot the system, the service starts reliably and I don't need to be logged in for recording to work.

[nickk]

The diagnostic logs show the record engine was running (not a starting problem), but something was blocking network communication. This strongly points to third party security software being the problem.