Why does it take so long to activate a Mini?

I activated a Mini yesterday afternoon over the phone. I forced a connection on the host machine, did the setup on the Mini, and was up in running in about an hour. I'm not sure why it takes others so long.

 

I think some folks forget to force a connection on the host before setting up the mini.

 

I activated yesterday and was up and doing setup in 15 minutes.

 

Advertisements

Yes I think that is key. I activated my Mini at work around 5:30PM. I got home and connected the Mini around 6:30PM. While it was downloading and installing an update I had my Roamio Pro connect to TiVo. So when I went through the guided setup on the new Mini it was able to connect to my ROamio Pro. But my Roamio Basic and Premiere was grayed out. Not until I had my Roamio Basic and Premiere connect to TiVo was I able to see them from the Mini.

 

I activated my new Roamio on Monday and activated two Minis on Wednesday. Despite multiple forced connects and restarts, the Minis still cannot connect (thought they can see) the Roamio. Tivo Support said it can take up to 72 hours for a Mini to complete activation. Since a Mini is worthless until it can connect to a DVR, "activation" is not the most apropos word to use...

So much for "instant gratification!"

 

You can get instant gratification or you can wait for the TiVo to do it's regularly scheduled housekeeping - up to you.

 

Force a connection on the host DVR, then restart the host DVR. That should fix it.

 

It doesn't. I forced a half dozen or more connections on the host DVR, and 2 Mini's, and rebooted everything 3-4 times and it doesn't help. Despite the Roamio seeing the Mini's, the Mini's will not connect to the Roamio until they download some specific information from the TIVO service, and that information is only downloaded at specific times during the night (and perhaps also during the day) - but not whenever you force a connection. I had to wait about 12 hours. Some people get the right info connection sooner (or later), but it is just luck of the timing. It is an awful system that just frustrates customers and should be corrected. I can't understand what TIVO is thinking if they value customer satisfaction, let alone the unnecessary and useless support calls for help they get.

 

I believe you, that just wasn't my experience. All 3 Minis that I have activated were able to be used immediately after forcing connections and restarting.

 

I wonder if this is a recent change? It sounds exactly like the problem I had with my two Minis when they were new (over a year ago). A call to tech support got me "they'll download the info in a few days, but force a connection on everything might get it sooner." And it did.

I was pleasantly surprised that it worked and stunned that anyone had to wait a few days for something to download to a brand new device.

 

It's ultimately a crap shoot with Tivo's servers. It's been like that from the Mini's start. Sometimes the servers work as they should (semi-right away), and sometimes not. There are people who have had to wait 3 days for their Minis and DVRs to play nice.

 

Most of my Minis were up and running within 15 minutes. However, with one of the Minis, no amount of forced connections to Tivo on the Roamio and Mini and no matter how many times I rebooted both machines, the Mini simply would not complete setup and talk to the Roamio until 24 hours later. Forced connections + reboots will do the trick the majority of the time but not always.