So if I upgrade my drive I have to make note of every scheduled show and create a new schedule.
That is not really a great feature!
So yes, please add the ability to backup the recording schedule for installation on a new drive. I cannot imagine why this is not yet available.
Why - cause very few users upgrade their HDD. Tablo is a set it and forget it device, it just works.
But I agree, it would be a handy feature.
Why?
I’m not in disagreement with your reasons for wanting such a feature.
But which other DVR on the market has this feature you claim is basic and absurd it doesn’t exist yesterday?
Not a big time saver, but I screen print my scheduled recordings before any operation that could erase my schedules.
Obviously it takes some time to re-enter the schedules but at least I have a record of what was scheduled.
Hey guys, I totally misinterpreted @Lysander’s original post. I thought you were looking to transfer the recordings along with the schedule (even though your explicitly stated this wasn’t necessary). My bad!
So to correct myself, this is possible; all you need to do is remove the existing drive, attach the new one, and you’ll receive a prompt to format. The schedules are stored on the Tablo itself, not the drive. Hope this helps.
So, your upcoming shows will simply be sent to the new drive. The only thing that may cause confusion is the recordings stored on the original drive will still appear in the Recordings menu, but will not be accessible as the original drive isn’t attached.
THANKS. That is all I was asking for.
@theuser86. I guess Tablo has the feature I was asking for!
@TabloSupport - next logical step would be to have a way to back that up off the Table so when I Upgrade to my next new Tablo I could have my schedule restored on the new one!
This is supported, too 
if you reboot the Tablo with the reset button, it will back up the database to the externally attached drive. If you attach that drive to a new Tablo on the same firmware, it will restore that copy fo the database to the new Tablo.
The full process is available here
Great, thanks for that. Makes life a little more easy!
Will the original recordings stored on the original drive ever be cleaned up aka deleted as the new drive doesn’t have such recordings on them?
I upgraded my drive three weeks ago from 2 TB to 5 TB and the recordings schedule was retained. However I had to go through my old “recordings” (which actually were not on the new drive) and delete them one by one using the recordings panel. The delete worked despite the fact there was really no recording there. Tablo must have just deleted the index entry. That cleaned things up.
How do you know that very few users upgrade their HDD? And if your claim is true, then perhaps the reason why is because it’s not a simple streamlined process. I’ve been waiting years for a simple solution, I’m still searching and that’s how I came upon this dead thread again. I’m eager to upgrade my old Tablo Quad to the new model with an internal SATA bay and much larger HDD, but I’m holding off until Tablo supports easy migration of my schedule and recordings to a new device and new HDD.
So not only would it be a handy feature, but it would also promote customer retention.
Just one more plug for having a media server. I know that temporal unreliable streaming is “the new thing”… but there is another “thing”. That’s having a place for media you want to keep long term.
My recommendation is Plex.
Many 3rd party programs, including my own SurLaTablo, are designed to extract recordings off your Tablo and put them into a named format that goes easily into Plex (or whatever).
My two cents.
We just upgraded all our Macs before Christmas and sold our older MacBooks on Craigslist. I kept my old iMac specifically to use as a Plex server, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Due to inflation, I need a bit more motivation than just two cents.
The Tablo is just too easy to use and I’m just too lazy to configure a Plex server. I’ll get around to it when I get tired of hearing my wife nag me for not selling the iMac.
You can easily migrate your current HDD from an old Tablo to a new Tablo. That is officially supported.
Unfortunately the transfer to a larger HDD is not. As well, most new Tablo devices have only 1 USB port so I doubt this will ever be a feature. But I could be entirely wrong, I am only speculating based on the hardware in the new Tablo units.
It’s ok. It’s really meant for folks that already have digital media. But still, it is my two cents. I think once you’ve gone to a media player, you really wish you had done it sooner. Because you’re likely even more budget conscience than myself, you probably don’t use any streaming services as well. But if that ever becomes interesting, Plex is great way to get your media anywhere so you don’t have to pay for other expensive streaming services.
Tivo has the ability to copy schedules from one device to another via their web interface. I found it very handy several times as I upgraded to different boxes, or a box suddenly died.
Although they may not have actual stats, tablo is marketed as a consumer product to the general public with little to minimal technical knowledge. Most likely an extremely accurate educated guess “very few users upgrade their HDD”.
Inversely, how do you know customers are leaving their tablos because they bought too small drive in the beginning and can’t easily upgrade to a larger one?
Many of users have found it fairly easy, wrote step by step posts for others. Difficulty level is subjective there are those who’ve multiple times changed. Depends how important it is.
Sadly, this don’t officially include internal drives 
If you replace your Tablo DVR the process below will allow you to migrate your existing recordings stored on an external disk (devices using internal storage, SATA storage or Cloud storage are not supported) and schedule data to your new unit.
I’m not sure you’ll find external storage which is not SATA, so that’s a bit flubbed up.
After what happened in 2020, anything could happen! At one time, tablo said the thing holding them back was a requirement needed root access:
but back-uptablo.sh could assist
more than 
0.02 – they go virtually anywhere, as in one piece. Tablo is pseudo-propritary, it/when something happens to it… if you have your video library archived you’re pretty much SOL. Exported videos can be backed up. (though there is a backup script for tablo) If the drives does fail there are tools to possibly recover data.
I am planning to upgrade my old Tablo Quad to one of the new units that support internal HDD.
In addition, I plan to use a fresh new HDD in the new Quad.
Is there any way to get the schedule - NOT RECORDINGS - from the old HDD to the new HDD and will the old schedule work on a new model Tablo?
If not, it would be cool if you copied the Tivo model of a web based interface of saving and restoring the schedule data.
It has been two years since I started this and hope some feature progress or process has been implemented.
