Tivo Hacks. 100 Industrial-strength Tips Tools 2003

Hack 69 Undeleting Recordings

So you've become a little trigger-happy and accidentally deleted something your spouse or roommate has asked you to keep. Reclaim recently deleted recordings before TiVo does away with them permanently .

Deleting a television program puts the show into the TiVo equivalent of limbo; while not actually deleted immediately, the show is effectively deleted, since it is no longer visible on your Now Playing List . In actuality, the location on the hard drive where the show lives is simply marked as available for reclamation; at any moment, TiVo can overwrite it with a new recording. This leaves you a small window of opportunity to reclaim that soon-to-be-lost show you deleted just a few minutes ago. But the window closes quickly, so don't expect to find that episode of World News Tonight you recorded three months ago still somewhere on your hard drive.

Just because TiVo doesn't expose the deleted program through its menus doesn't mean that TiVo doesn't have a handle on it; it very much does, as does TiVoWeb.

From the TiVoWeb main page or the top-of-the-page navigation bar, navigate to User Interface Deleted Shows . Most of the time, TiVoWeb will report that you have "No shows available for undelete," but every so often you'll get lucky and see a screen like the one in Figure 5-18.

To actually undelete the show, just click on the recycling icon next to it. TiVoWeb will ask you if you are sure you want to undelete it. Click Yes, and that show will be added to your To Do List and removed from your Deleted Shows list.