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Tivo Desktop refuses to use network drive

63K views 84 replies 48 participants last post by  Alf Oote 
#1 ·
At my house, I have a Linux fileserver. This is where the large disks live.
Tivo Desktop seems to not want to place "My Tivo Recordings" on a network
drive. This is disappointing, since I just bought a 250 GB drive for the server specifically to use for this purpose.

Can this really be true?
 
#54 ·
bud8man said:
So the issue is...TiVo will not allow you to use a NAS drive as the location to download your files and store them...
How about this...or do shortcuts from the NAS placed in a TiVoToGo folder on a PC fail as well....
1. use a folder on the PC to download the files
2. Use SyncToy to transfer them to the network drive
3. Create Shortcuts of the files on the NAS drive and place them in the folder on the PC
4. Delete the copied files from the PC
I am sure some guru could figure a simple batch program to accomplish most of this...
I just tried this and it worked! Admittedly slightly more cumbersome than directly mapping to the network drive but I wasn't comfortable with Linux or hacking into anything, so for me this is the best way to go. I'm using Windows XP and a Buffalo Linkstation if anyone is wondering. (I haven't bothered with SyncToy yet, just dragged and dropped onto the network drive using Windows Explorer.)
Thanks for the suggestion!

Now if only there was a way to get Tivo to access a network drive directly without keeping a computer running in the background...
 
#57 ·
I am ressurecting this old thread because it seems the best place for my input.

This is a recurring question that pops up from time to time as people try to have TiVo Desktop save directly to their NAS. I see no reason why it should not work and consider it a bug of TiVo Desktop, however TiVo may consider it a feature.

I recently took my old NAS and upgraded it and thought I would investigate this while I was at it. I was able to duplicate the problem and then implement the fix provided by cmetcalf above. Sure enough, it works. I also posted "Make Your NAS Compatible With TiVo Desktop" at NAS-Central for others wishing to do the same and needing a little more detailed guidance. I hope anyone with this problem finds the article useful.

CuriousMark
 
#58 ·
i'm having trouble getting this solution to work with tivo desktop 2.6 - it exhibits different behavior then 2.5. Instead of allowing you to click the folder on your network mapped drive, tivo desktop simply grey's out the OK button.

I'm made the changes on my NAS's samba config and fstab - still, the OK button is grayed out. Anyone got this solution working on tivo desktop 2.6?
 
#59 ·
i'm having trouble getting this solution to work with tivo desktop 2.6 - it exhibits different behavior then 2.5. Instead of allowing you to click the folder on your network mapped drive, tivo desktop simply grey's out the OK button.

I'm made the changes on my NAS's samba config and fstab - still, the OK button is grayed out. Anyone got this solution working on tivo desktop 2.6?
I also see what you've reported: TD's "OK" button is grayed out now in 2.6 for my NAS MyBook drive. I presume that's because TD's developers (who are not Tivo employees, it's a third party, I was told) know the "drive has moved or changed" error message was erroneous, but they didn't fix the root issue.

I'm going to try the CuriousMark solution this week and will report back.
 
#60 ·
I haven't been using my NAS with TD 2.6, as I am running PyTiVo on it now. I will have to check it out too. If your samba is good and it still doesn't work, then I am not sure there is a good fix, other than dumping TiVo Desktop and switching to PyTiVo.

I am not ready to speculate on the why of it yet.
 
#63 ·
Problem solved by complete accident, naturally: I noticed that whenever I would try to move (from w/in the TD Prefs) the My TiVo Recordings (MTR) folder to a new location on the NAS, this problem would occur, and the file "desktop.ini" would show up when it's normally a hidden/system file. Today, while copying some files from the MTR to my NAS, I took the shortcut of simply copying the MTR folder, and when I opened it on the NAS I saw that the desktop.ini file was not showing (and when I checked, properly there and with the right settings as hidden/system). I then tried to move the setting for the MTR folder in TD Prefs to that folder (on the NAS) and it worked like a charm. Would be very interested to know if this method (copying the actual real MTR folder to the NAS, then re-directing TD to it in Prefs) works for others to put this issue to rest once and for all (sorry-- I'm not willing to un-do/re-try this just yet!)...
Not for me. I have XP Pro and Win2k3 Server. The desktop.ini is visible and cn be opened for edited. The file is fine. The TD prefs simply won't allow me to select any network resource for MTR.

I am testing a solution now:

Shut down TD.

I have gone into the registry in XP and modified the HKCU/Software/Tivo/Desktop/Modules/TivoNowPlaying/config/LocalRootPath value to reflect the mapped drive path.

When I launched TD it said the drive was missing or moved and the slection dialog appeared. I selected the mapped network drive and the OK buttong un-greyed.

I clicked OK and waited a few moments. The contents of the network drive now appear in the Now Playing List.

Next is to set up some transfers and see what happens.
 
#64 ·
on my buffalo terrastation pro I am able to store my music and photos and tivo desktop works fine...I can access thru any of 4 tivos in the house over the network. the videos though i cannot store on the nas as is discussed in the forums.

if your edit of the registry works, would you please post the details.
 
#65 ·
This may be a dumb quesiton, but has anyone gotten their Tivo's to read movie files off a NAS drive using TD on a Mac?

I tried just changing the location but my S2 doesn't see any files. I haven't tried the shortcut option yet but will this evening. Has anyone done this yet? I have a Simpleshare NAS 500 GB and want to use it to store my DVD collection on.
 
#66 ·
Shut down TD.

I have gone into the registry in XP and modified the HKCU/Software/Tivo/Desktop/Modules/TivoNowPlaying/config/LocalRootPath value to reflect the mapped drive path.

When I launched TD it said the drive was missing or moved and the slection dialog appeared. I selected the mapped network drive and the OK buttong un-greyed.

I clicked OK and waited a few moments. The contents of the network drive now appear in the Now Playing List.

Next is to set up some transfers and see what happens.
This worked for me on Vista with a ReadyNAS. Thanks!!
 
#67 ·
This worked for me on Vista with a ReadyNAS. Thanks!!
Unfortunately, it didn't work for me (XP) with unRAID. The dialog box popped up (after modifying the registry) and the new mapped network drive was highlighted. After clicking the "OK" button, however, the dialog box popped right back up again. If I highlighted another drive letter, the OK box grayed out and I could no longer select my mapped network drive.
 
#70 ·
Worked for me on a LinkStation Live with Vista! Thanks!!!!:up::up:

Not for me. I have XP Pro and Win2k3 Server. The desktop.ini is visible and cn be opened for edited. The file is fine. The TD prefs simply won't allow me to select any network resource for MTR.

I am testing a solution now:

Shut down TD.

I have gone into the registry in XP and modified the HKCU/Software/Tivo/Desktop/Modules/TivoNowPlaying/config/LocalRootPath value to reflect the mapped drive path.

When I launched TD it said the drive was missing or moved and the slection dialog appeared. I selected the mapped network drive and the OK buttong un-greyed.

I clicked OK and waited a few moments. The contents of the network drive now appear in the Now Playing List.

Next is to set up some transfers and see what happens.
 
#72 ·
Ummmm. curl in kmttg works writing to a network drive.

The only problem I had was curl complaining about mismatched file sizes on shows > 4GB but I was going from a Windows XP PC to a drive mounted from an Apple Time Capsule. A lot of tempting fate there but it worked fine for a long while.

I think curl writes 4GB after buffering and it was not fast enough. .... Now that I think about it, I had the problem when I moved the PC to a 100mb switch from a 1000mb link right on the Time Capsule. Idea! :p
 
#75 ·
Problem solved by complete accident, naturally: I noticed that whenever I would try to move (from w/in the TD Prefs) the My TiVo Recordings (MTR) folder to a new location on the NAS, this problem would occur, and the file "desktop.ini" would show up when it's normally a hidden/system file. Today, while copying some files from the MTR to my NAS, I took the shortcut of simply copying the MTR folder, and when I opened it on the NAS I saw that the desktop.ini file was not showing (and when I checked, properly there and with the right settings as hidden/system). I then tried to move the setting for the MTR folder in TD Prefs to that folder (on the NAS) and it worked like a charm. Would be very interested to know if this method (copying the actual real MTR folder to the NAS, then re-directing TD to it in Prefs) works for others to put this issue to rest once and for all (sorry-- I'm not willing to un-do/re-try this just yet!)...
This fixed it for me. I'm running TiVo Desktop 2.8 on Windows 7 and using an Intel SS4200-E for the NAS.

Here's what worked.
1. Copy the "My Tivo Recordings" from the default location to its new home on the NAS. Make sure you include the desktop.ini in the copy. (As mentioned this is hidden by default)
2. Regedit and modify "LocalRootPath" under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TiVo\Desktop\Modules\TivoNowPlaying\Config". This should be set to point to the location of the "My Tivo Recordings" folder on the NAS.
3. start TiVo Desktop and transfer a program.
4. (optional for Desktop Plus) regedit and modify "OutputPath" under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TiVo\Desktop\Converter" Change this to point to whatever location you want to use on the NAS.
 
#76 ·
1. Copy the "My Tivo Recordings" from the default location to its new home on the NAS. Make sure you include the desktop.ini in the copy. (As mentioned this is hidden by default)
2. Regedit and modify "LocalRootPath" under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TiVo\Desktop\Modules\TivoNowPlaying\Config". This should be set to point to the location of the "My Tivo Recordings" folder on the NAS.
3. start TiVo Desktop and transfer a program.
4. (optional for Desktop Plus) regedit and modify "OutputPath" under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TiVo\Desktop\Converter" Change this to point to whatever location you want to use on the NAS.
:up:Thanks! I worked through just about all the solutions here without success [excluding alternate software or scripts to indirectly transfer recordings] and this finally worked perfectly for me!
 
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