HDD recordings list shows empty even though HDD half full. Later the list reappears

[Roger_H]

I have about 500gb of recorded programs on a 1tb HDD.

Twice now when going into the recordings list it doesn't show my recordings at all even though in the top right corner of the screen it shows about 450gb available capacity which suggests there is something on the HDD.

The list of recordings has returned after the first incident but the same has just happened again but as yet the list of my recordings is still empty.

Sony KD55A8BU with WD 1TB HDD

Now found all my recordings on a recordings error list.

Why are they all on there???

The only options are to delete recording errors.  This doesn't resolve the error. It deletes the recording.

Thankfully I only tried this with one recording.  The labeling of this function should read "Delete recording from HDD" or similar.

Anyway... Why are my recordings going on the error list?  How can I recover them?

[Roger_H]

My recordings have all reappeared again...

[Mooly01]

Recording errors can appear for various reasons such as program overlap if for example you have manually set the recording preferences to automatically add extra time to the start or finish and then set it to record two consecutive programmes.

The error list is simply a list and deleting the errors should not touch the actual recording in any way.

It can take quite a few moments for the HDD to be recognised and the contents made available when turning the set on. How disk fragmentation might affect that over time and particularly on a large HDD I've no idea.

[Roger_H]

Still finding on a regular basis that when going to recordings mode the list of recorded programmes is empty.

Also when in this state cannot schedule to record anything.

Then a few days later the recordings list is back again and can record new programmes as required.

I have a 1TB hdd connected by a USB.

[SkyNet404]

Hey there, can you try to remove the HDD and register it once more without formatting it? 

[Roger_H]

I would try this only concerned that by re-registering the HDD it might lose all the currently stored programmes.

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why the tv can access the HDD or not.

Really annoying as when the HDD can't be accessed I can't record new programmes or view stored ones.

[rooobb]

The reason could be that the HDD is too large to be powered correctly by the usb port. Re-registerinng should not format it but I cannot guarantee. In any case it should give you a warning if the TV is going to format it

[Roger_H]

Still plagued by this issue.  Have tried disconnecting the HDD and also re-regestering it in TV settings.

Problem still persists.

The HDD in use is USB 3.1 compatible and the TV HDD USB port 3 is also USB3.1 so power requirements must  conform to the same standard.

When I can access my recordings list, it does record and playback flawlessly.

Suggests power requirements aren't the issue here.

There have been a few software updates over the years, but none have resolved this issue.

Was a keen buyer of Sony products but losing faith.

My other 32" Sony TV refuses to power up frequently.

My Sony blu-ray player has occasional short blackouts during 4k playback.

All reported to Sony but not fixed.

[Mooly01]

I have not encountered anything like you mention with regard to HDD recordings. One thing worth mentioning is the requirements are not as stringent as you might be led to believe and the data rates needed are actually very low for recording use... in other words old and ancient USB 2 drives from say 15 years ago are perfect and use far less power.

What I have noticed is that recordings that have been viewed seem to have regained a 'New' tag on them meaning unwatched. Odd. That happened weeks ago. 

Short blackouts... hmmm that's an interesting one. I use a Panasonic HD HDD recorder (DMR-EX97) and have noticed for many months (maybe a year or two) that I get usually one short blackout (where the screen goes black and the TV puts the HDMI header up at the top of the screen as if no signal present) when watching HD content from the recorder. It only lasts a couple of seconds.

Last Friday this suddenly started happening every minute or so and even present on just opening a menu on the recorder.

Bizarrely a full factory reset of the TV (not a soft reset) seems, fingers crossed, to have fixed that problem. It has to be worth a try. If you do remove I would recommend removing all leads and USB connections etc first and then when the TV is back up and running reconfigure everything.