Tablo Crashing Daily

For the last week my Tablo seems to crash or disconnect at least once a day if not twice. It has done it while I’m watching it but most of the time it has crashed by the time I get home from work. The only way to get it back is to unplug it. Anybody else experiencing this?

Firmware is 2.2.40

It has been doing great up til recently. I have model: SPVR2-01-NA if that helps.

You might try giving more details on what you mean when you say it crashes. Without more specific details, the first thing I would recommend is to try a new power supply. Since your last post was 3 years ago, I’m assuming your Tablo is at least that old. Power supplies have been known to cause some types of crashes. Good luck.

That and hard drives. You might want to check that.

well I mean crashes like we are watching TV, recording or live, and then it comes up and says trying to connect to tablo. or when we aren’t watching it, Roku says it can’t connect. All lights are on and it looks fine, so only way to bring it back is to unplug it. I would say it is at least 7yrs old, lol. I am waiting for a new model that has wifi6. The next time it happens I will check the hard drive, but I doubt it is that.

I have the same model, and firmware with no issues.
The only thing that will crash my Tablo is trying to view, or record a weak channel.
I dropped all weak channels, and haven’t had an issue since.

Another possibility is the power adapter is flaking out.
Recommend getting a new one.
They’re cheap, and good to have a spare, even if it doesn’t solve your problem.

I have same problem. Tablo ethernet connection to Xfinity modem/router gateway. Ports configured using Tablo app to recommended manual port settings, 80 to 21xxx, 8887 to 21xxx, protocol tcp/udp, reserved ip address 10.0.0.xxx( question: why is my device ip different what is posted here?) Remote access enabled and everything works fine for 24 hrs, then remote access lost. Call my sister where Tablo located, 1500 mi away, ask her to disable, then re-enable remote access using her iphone Tablo app. Message remote access enabled immediately appears and my remote connection is resumed. Have to do this everyday, getting old. Have seen suggestions to disable advance security feature on gateway, turn off udp protocol in favor of just tcp. Checked and public IP of Comcast not changing during problem, even though they are known to use dynamic ip’s. See many others here have same issue. Neither Comcast tech team nor Tablo support have been able to provide an answer.

Well it happened again last night. This time I rebooted the hard drive, and Tablo came back. So apparently my hard drive is on its way out? Western Digital is a good brand so this surprised me. I’ve had other hard drive last way longer.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I am surprised a hard drive failure would cause the Tablo to crash. I can understand why recording would fail but not cause the Tablo itself to disconnect from remote access, which is my problem. Why would any hard drive failure cause the remote access to stop after evry 24hrs, almost like clock work? Possibly rebooting the hard drive causes the Tablo to reset itself and re-establish a remote connection? Last night I once again lost a remote connection to the Tablo ethernet connected to to the Xfinity router. Called my sister and had her disable remote access and then immediately re-enable it. Remote access was resumed immediately. This time I turned off UDP protocol and set only TCP. Will see if that makes any difference. I suspect the problem is the “Advanced Security” function which is activated by default on most new Xfinity routers. My hunch is it disconnects or otherwise interferes with the port traffic from the Tablo through the router since the Tablo is communicated with the Tablo server out of the country, in Canada. This would be automated each night through the Xfinity server. I wonder if Canadian users using Xfinity are seeing the same issue or not? Again this is just a hunch as I am not a trained tech, merely an inquisitive geek. :slightly_smiling_face:

I am surprised too, it shouldn’t make it not loadable, yes of course can’t record but at least let me watch live tv. I think I remember when I first bought it years ago that it required a hard drive to operate. You would think over time that they would at least update the firmware to allow live tv.

Maybe a weak power supply is not providing enough power for the hard drive during some operations.

Years ago I was using a Seagate USB drive with my Tablo, and it started getting really flaky (buffering, etc.). Swapped it out for an SSD thinking it was bad, but have been using the Seagate drive for at least 2 years on my PC with no issues. I didn’t think of it at the time, but I should have tried another power supply (this was with an OG 2-tuner Tablo).

I think I have found the answer as to why Tablos connected to USA based Comcast Xfinity supplied routers are losing remote access after about every 24 hours. The routers come with the “Advanced Security” option activated by default. I suspected it was identifying the server for the Tablo as a threat, since it was located out of the country, Canada. So, through the Xfinity mobile application, I logged into my account, and then selected account, overview, Advanced Security. Toggled “Advanced Security” off. My Tablo has now remained on for four consecutive days, which it has not done previously before turning “Advanced Security” off. I am optimistic that I have solved the problem but will see if the remote connection persists in the coming days.

1 Like

Totally understand why Comcast Xfinity router marks Tablo as a threat.
lolololol

1 Like

It’s been commented here in the past, my.tablotv.com and tablotv internet services are hosted on AWS - Amazon Web Services. These servers are different than the “home” server, not the traceroute same as www.tablotv.com

1 Like

Didn’t know that. Do you know if AWS servers are located out of the country? If they are located in the USA that shoots my theory that Comcast “Advanced Security” was interfering because the server that Tablo uses is out of the US. What I do know is once I deactivated “Advanced Security”, Tablo remote access was no longer disconnecting, for whatever reason.

You’re inquiring about remote connect. There are numerous post about users with struggles and challenges while others have little to no problems with it. I don’t believe there’s a one-size-fits-all answer.
-There is NO streaming from tablo’s servers, it’s just used to get your tablo’s IP and ports to use.-

Without knowing what “Advanced Security” actually does it’s just a big guessing game.

I don’t really use remote connect. I tried it at work over their network via “guest wifi”. No connection. I switched my tablet to mobile data and then it connected - so my configuration was good. It was who knows what with the network I was on, connecting me to the internet.

I would theorize you’d need control over both networks, ensuring the ports are accessible and the data type isn’t blocked. And yea, your home IP isn’t for some reason block-listed, or not on an acceptable list.

I have to use remote connect. The Tablo is in Chicago and I am in Florida. The Tablo is used to view local Chicago tv so Chicago Bears games can be viewed. Remote connect would go off every 24 hours until I disconnected “Advanced Security”, now it stays connected. I don’t know why, it was just a guess.
I also didn’t know that the streaming did not go through the Tablo server in Canada, and the server they are using to stream maybe is irrelevant. The Tablo support team did not have an answer other than speculating that the IP address of my service provider was changing. That provided to be untrue, it has remained constant.
I have spent a lot of time and trouble trying to get an answer, just to watch the Chicago Bears. Given the state of the team, not a worthwhile effort.
Thank you for taking the time to respond and the information you have provided. I don’t have a technical background, but am willing to learn.

[Off-topic]
Here’s Tablo’s Knowledge Base article explains how Tabo Connect aka remote connect works:

I believe it’s a bit wordy at times, trying to over explain things and exchange terms, but still tell the story as explained from reading post from those whom seem to understand.

Not sure how to distinguish “the public internet” initially and later just refer to “the internet”.

As long as UPnP or NAT-PMP is enabled, the Tablo Connect feature should configure itself automatically.

While it’s completely possible to manually configure things (often with little hassle) and get things working as well.

Therefore, the maximum bandwidth you can use to view video when connected by the internet is typically limited by the upstream bandwidth provided by your Cable or DSL broadband connection.

Upstream bandwidth can be provided by other methods than just a Cable or DSL connection.

The ‘Automatic’ setting will be enabled shortly. It will automatically measure the available bandwidth and dynamically vary the video rate to match the bandwidth that is available between your Tablo and device on the internet.

Users seem to struggle with connectivity issues more than video quality, at least something is happening – although “shorty” is a meaningless point in time.

Comments

Every article has this – but there is no way to comment.

Thanks for your reply. Once again my Tablo Remote Access stopped after 24 hours. Turning off “Advanced Security” on my Comcast modem/router did not solve the problem, and my original theory was wrong. Could something be going wrong when Comcast terminates my DCHP license after 24 hours and the normally automatic process to assign the IP and reconnect the ports fails? Again, just an uneducated guess by a software illiterate user. I fear my sister is getting tired of getting calls to disconnect and then reconnect remote access. Wish It was possible to do it with a mobile app.

Today, with my remote access lost once again after 24 hours, I did something different. Feeling powerless to do anything to fix the problem other than make another phone call, I tried editing the ports, by deleting a port and then replacing it with the same number. Tried to connect right away, and got a “connection failed” message. That was a few hours ago. Tonight, out of frustration, I once again tried the remote connection, ignoring the definition of insanity. To my amazement, it connected. I could watch live tv, recordings, change settings, everything was working as it should. I don’t know why it started working. Is it possible by doing a port edit, even though I just deleted a port number and replaced it by itself, and hit apply, that an issue was resolved? Or is this a coincidence and the remote connection returned for some unrelated reason? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

I haven’t tried remote access with my Tablo units as of yet, but I do have several security cameras that I have setup using port forwarding. Depending upon the brand and method that utilize to access remotely, it can take between 5 minutes and several hours before it actually starts working.

Not sure if there are settings that have to be detected on the remote side (i.e. Tablo servers connecting), or if it is something that the ISP does. The only one that worked “instantly” was with one security system that requires setup on their website as well as setup on my router and security DVR (I had to enter the settings on all three places). One of them took about 3 hours to actually connect.