RESOLVED: Refurb unit recording shows I didn't select

Short version:

I think whoever previously owned my refurbished Tablo can still access it, including scheduling recordings, and I want to lock them out. Is that possible without losing content I’ve recorded?

Long version:

I bought my 4 tuner Tablo from Fry’s Electronics a couple months ago. I had been considering purchasing one for a while and finally decided to cut the cord, so I wanted to get started right away. When I got to the Fry’s store, which online indicated they had some in stock, I found that they only had refurbished units on the shelf. The discount was only a couple bucks (~1%), which I wasn’t too happy about, but I was able to open the box and make sure everything looked reasonably good, so I felt comfortable purchasing it anyway.

When I got it home and hooked it up I was surprised that it listed some content in the Recordings screen, but chalked that up to it being a refurb and just deleted the entries and moved on. I found that the 30-day free trial had expired, again due to it being a refurb, but I contacted support and they fixed me up with a free trial in a jiffy. I also had some initial problems finding a HDD that was reliable since the list of models I found on this forum were a bit dated and many were no longer available since the manufacturers have since updated their product lines. I was able to purchase one of the known-good models via Amazon from a place that still had some of the old models in stock, so that problem was quickly solved.

I was happy as a clam for a while, adding more and more selections to record and viewing shows that I had previously chosen to record without issue. But I started noticing that there were items in the Recordings screen that I didn’t remember selecting. I had gone a bit hog-wild queuing up items to record, so I wasn’t positive at first, but after a while I was sure that there were things getting recorded that I didn’t pick - shows that I really don’t like and no one else in my household is interested in. So all I can figure is that whoever returned this unit is still able to access it and set it up to record shows they want.

I don’t want to turn off remote access and I don’t want to do a factory reset at this point since I have plenty of content recorded that I’d rather not lose. I’m not even sure a factory reset will solve anything. Is the unique ID that is used for remote access simply based on the MAC Address of the unit, or is a new one created whenever you factory reset the device?

Is there a way to lock out the previous owner of this device without losing all the content I currently have on my HDD?

I was able to clone the unreliable HDD to the known-good HDD using Linux and all the content was retained, but that was without doing a factory reset on the Tablo. From what I’ve read about doing a factory reset, it will eventually wipe out any content left on the HDD after it is reconnected to the Tablo. Am I mistaken? Is there a process to retain previous recordings on the HDD after the Tablo has been factory reset?

I guess I can use one of the content extraction apps to offload whatever I want to keep, then do the factory reset. But if I go through that much trouble I’d like to be sure it will solve the problem, so it depends on the answer to the unique ID question above.

Suggestions / advice?

Thanks in advance for your help.

TL;DR
The phantom scheduled recordings were probably set from the previous owner.

Long version…
You can only create a scheduled recording for events that are included in the current guide data.
In your case, the guide data includes 2 weeks worth of data.

Imagine you see Blacklist TV show listed in your guide, and decide to record the series.
One Blacklist recording occurs this week, and a second next week.
A scheduled recording listing will display for both weeks.

The third, and fourth weeks Blacklist is on hietus, so there is no guide data for it.
There will also be no scheduled recording listing for it.

The scheduled recording listing will reappear when Blacklist comes back from their break.
I bet that’s what’s happening to you.

This is the way it works on my Rokus.

I agree that you can only set up a recording of shows that are currently in your guide data (2 weeks worth), which will show in the Scheduled screen with an orange corner, or set up a manual recording which will show in the Scheduled screen with a purple corner. But whatever is scheduled will show up in that screen whether or not a match currently exists in the guide data.

When I initially set up my Tablo I deleted everything from the Scheduled screen, so nothing was scheduled by me and all pre-existing schedules were gone, then I started adding things to record.

So I don’t think that’s the answer here.

My suggestion would be to contact support again and give them the latest details. I wonder if via remote access to your Tablo they can clear all “paired” devices.

Side note: Fry’s sold you a return and labeled it refurbished. Refurbished to me, is a device that has been factory restored and tested before by the company or an authorized party before being reissued for sale. I would let support know which store this was too. I know in the past Nuvyyo has contacted a store directly when things have not been handled properly by a store selling their product.

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Very good points.
I’ll contact support tomorrow (very late here now - I should be asleep already).
Thanks.

If you’re really worried, disable the Tablo Connect feature (aka remote viewing). This way no one will have remote access to your Tablo.

Another option (while severe) is to factory reset your Tablo. This will reset it to factory defaults and all prior paired devices will no longer be able to connect to the Tablo.

@eendejan Sorry to hear you had this experience. Frys is supposed to send returned units back to us to be properly refurbished, not put them back on the shelf.

Please touch base with our support team and reference this thread. They’ll ask you to enable remote access mode for your Tablo and we’ll delete all of the remote sync data.

Without access to your home network, this person will no longer be able to access your Tablo, but you’ll be able to keep your content and your schedules.

I submitted a request to Tablo Support Friday night. But it’s the weekend, so I’m waiting patiently to see if they can fix it for me. Thanks for all the responses.

Once I realized that “remote mode” is different than “remote access” and set up my Tablo properly (3 quick presses of the blue button resulting in a quick heartbeat blink pattern of the front blue LED), the tech support guy was able to connect and remove the sync data. Then I had to press the blue button one more time to exit remote mode and get back to a solid blue LED before I could get my devices on my home network to reconnect to my Tablo. But now it seems to be working again all the previously recorded content appears to be intact. That should lock out whoever previously had this unit from setting up their own shows to record.

Thanks Tablo support, that was pretty painless. :smiley:

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