Need tip(s) on transferring ownership of TiVo(s) with lifetime subscription

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I own two TiVo Premieres that I originally purchased with Lifetime. I also own a TiVo Roamio that came with Lifetime when I bought it. So obviously, I've never paid any monthly subscription fees, nor does TiVo have any billing information for me.

That being said, my step father is in the process of selling these TiVos for me. Here's what I read online (below) Quote:

"You call TiVo customer service and tell them you have sold a box on your account and want to authorize the transfer of ownership to the new owner. You tell them the TSN of the box and usually they'll ask you the new owner's name, and then they will give you a case number that you give to the new owner."

I just wanted to confirm, so when we get a buyer for each of these TiVo boxes, is it really necessary for me to go through that process above? Or, given the fact that the TiVo(s) had lifetime with them at the time of my purchases, can a new owner simply reset the boxes for their geographic area and move on?

I ask that question because I am thinking if I reboot the boxes back to factory settings, that it will then take forever to get the massive number of updates in order for the TiVo boxes to be functionable again. Again, there would be no credit card information or anything stored in the boxes. Just some old recordings. What is the easiest way of doing this? Leave the boxes in their current state and perhaps just call TiVo to let them know a new owners name? Or do I need to go through the process of setting these boxes back to their factory state? Again, that second process seems like it may cause headaches - concerning a large number of software updates.

My other concern is if I call TiVo, I don't want them to do something silly that would cause the boxes to be deactivated all together since they all of them came with lifetime. Any suggestions or guidance on this process would be appreciated.

 

I appreciate all the replies here. Once each box is sold, I will contact TiVo, open a support case, and tell them to transfer the TSN to the new owner (also giving the case # to the new owner) so they can complete the transfer.

One other question here, as you all know, these are older model TiVo(s). So after I let TiVo know that I am transferring each box, is it okay to simply delete all my old recordings off each box? I am just hoping to avoid restoring the boxes back to the factory state and that (potentially) creates a massive amount of software updates for any new owner(s) along with complaints from them for having to do so. Any advice on this issue?

I just want all of it to be as painless as possible, particularly since we will not be making much money off these older models. Thanks for any additional feedback.

 

Based on your feedback (as well as what I was thinking), I will just delete all of my recordings, and make sure that each box is signed out of any streaming apps. Once I sign out, my guess is that anyone else wouldn't have access to Netflix or anything else - at least that would be my hope! I just don't want to clear/delete the entire software off each TiVo.

I can only imagine that going back to factory settings on these older TiVo(s) would potentially create big problems for a new owner of the boxes - especially the TiVo Premieres since there would be a very large number of software updates required in order to get the boxes functioning again.