[yawitz]

Hi, all,

I had been holding off on upgrading the TiVo iOS app on my iPad until last night, when the older version would no longer connect to any of my TiVos. (I had already tried the new version on my iPhone, and it seems to work OK, though all of my recordings were on my iPad, so I was reluctant to upgrade that device until I had to.) I'm still on iOS 11.4.1.

So, I downloaded the new version to my iPad, and it seemed to work; I could download shows, watch them, etc. (No comment in this thread about the merits of the new design over the old one; that's a topic for another thread...)

However, when my device tried to perform its regular iCloud backup, it failed due to insufficient space remaining in my 50GB iCloud account. I had about 40GB of shows already downloaded to the TiVo app, so I assumed that was the problem. (This was not a problem with the older version, presumably because it never made the downloaded shows visible to the backup process, much as, say, the downloaded music in my Amazon Music app never gets backed up. In the case of the new app, though, the downloaded files were included in the backup. Eek.)

So I went to the appropriate settings (iCloud > Manage Storage > Backups > my iPad > Choose Data to Backup), and turned off the TiVo app (so it would not be included in the backup). I tried running the backup again, and now I'm getting an error message: "The last backup could not be completed because of poor network conditions".

I've been troubleshooting this all morning, via all the usual online resources, with no success. I've eliminated the network as the actual problem, and have successfully completed a backup from my iPhone, which also has the new TiVo app on it, but no downloaded shows. I'm beginning to suspect that the problem is the TiVo app, perhaps causing something to hang during the backup process but only when it contains a large number of downloaded shows. (It is not correctly reporting the 40GB data in the list of items to be backed up, as it did when I first encountered the problem, so that may or may not be a clue.)

So, to wrap this up, has anyone here tried the new version of the app and found that their cloud backup is no longer working? I'm giving up on further troubleshooting until checking to see if my problem is more widespread.

 

[TonyD79]

My iPhone backed up at 2 am. My iPad backed up at 8 am.

 

[yawitz]

My iPhone backed up at 2 am. My iPad backed up at 8 am.

Would you be willing to say how much downloaded data the TiVO app contained in each case? Trying to see if there is a threshold that triggers the problem for me.

 

[yawitz]

To add another thought...it seems that the backup stalls partway through, then fails. One hypothesis is that it is attempting to query the payload size from the new TiVo app, and times out. (Might this be mis-reported as "poor network conditions"?)

 

[TonyD79]

Would you be willing to say how much downloaded data the TiVO app contained in each case? Trying to see if there is a threshold that triggers the problem for me.

I don't know exactly but I had about 6 hours of medium programming on my iPad.

 

[yawitz]

I don't know exactly but I had about 6 hours of medium programming on my iPad.

OK, thanks, that's helpful. I have at least 6x that, accumulated over time, so the total amount may still be a factor. (Not sure how else to troubleshoot, other than deleting/reinstalling, but then I'll lose all of my recordings. Wish there was a way to offload/reload downloaded recordings, since the on-TiVo sources have already been deleted.)

 

[TonyD79]

OK, thanks, that's helpful. I have at least 6x that, accumulated over time, so the total amount may still be a factor. (Not sure how else to troubleshoot, other than deleting/reinstalling, but then I'll lose all of my recordings. Wish there was a way to offload/reload downloaded recordings, since the on-TiVo sources have already been deleted.)

I've seen some apps on iOS remember the data but that may be coming from the cloud backup.

 

[yawitz]

iCloud is (AFAIK) the way data is retained for restoring apps to a new device. Not sure how to make use if it to try deleting the TiVo app (to see if backups then start working).

Back in the day, I recall, when deleting an app, you were given the option of NOT deleting the app's data, but I don't see that option any more. Not willing to risk trying it and losing all of my recordings.

 

[Stev3Davidson]

After doing some investigating, I've come to the conclusion that the TiVo app is not properly tagging media files (which are not supposed to be backed up to iCloud) as media files. As a result, the app and all of its data will be sent to iCloud, and if there isn't enough space, the entire backup will fail.

I contacted the TiVo support people about that, and they took a note -- but I have very little confidence that they will address it in a timely manner. My only advice at this point is to delete files until it fits in your available space.

 

[yawitz]

Thanks for investigating, @Stev3Davidson! I was not familiar with that implementation detail re: tagged media files, but it would completely explain the problem I'm seeing. I will also add my voice to the TiVo support problem report, but I won't hold my breath re: a timely response.

 

[yawitz]

Has anyone on this thread tried the latest version of the iOS app (4.2.0)? Does it address the problem with iCloud backups? (Given the poor reviews posted in the App Store, I’m reluctant to update from the previous version until I see more success stories.)

 

[Stev3Davidson]

Has anyone on this thread tried the latest version of the iOS app (4.2.0)? Does it address the problem with iCloud backups? (Given the poor reviews posted in the App Store, I'm reluctant to update from the previous version until I see more success stories.)

I've done some limited testing, and it seems to have been solved. I wasn't terribly thorough or systematic, just looked at available space on iCloud, loaded up an iPad with TiVo programs, ensured that it had run a backup cycle, and checked the available space again (which was nearly the same). I hope this helps.

 

[yawitz]

That's encouraging; thanks for testing. I was about to try updating my iPad app to the latest (4.2.0), but first tried it on my iPhone (which I normally never use for watching shows). I found that closed captioning is stuck on (regardless of how the CC toggle is set) while watching a streaming show. This is not a problem with downloaded shows on that same iPhone, or with streaming on my iPad still running 4.1.0. So maybe the app is still not ready for prime time.

 

[Stev3Davidson]

Well, yawitz, I agree with you assessment ("not ready for prime time") but I should point out that I had that same problem (streaming with CC, even when it wasn't set to be on) on my iPad on a MUCH older (a couple of years ago) version of the TiVo app, and the only way I could get rid of it was to uninstall and reinstall it. So, that's not new/unique to this version. And I suggest you remove the app and reinstall it fresh.

It strikes me as odd that most of the problems I've had with this new app is related to the Downloads portion. It is as if there was a different development team responsible for Downloads, and they are the less-capable developers (because other parts are much better). I hope they fix this soon.

 

[yawitz]

Well, yawitz, I agree with you assessment ("not ready for prime time") but I should point out that I had that same problem (streaming with CC, even when it wasn't set to be on) on my iPad on a MUCH older (a couple of years ago) version of the TiVo app, and the only way I could get rid of it was to uninstall and reinstall it. So, that's not new/unique to this version. And I suggest you remove the app and reinstall it fresh...

Note that I did find a solution to the CC problem, as described in my reply in the thread TiVo mobile version 4.2.0 is out.

In general, though, the problem with uninstalling/reinstalling is that I lose any downloads sitting on my device, which I'm not yet willing to do. I wish there were some other way to preserve the data associated with an app when trying that troubleshooting step. (IIRC, back in the day you had the option of *not* deleting the data associated with an installed app.)