Switching recordings from direct to UNC paths

[Brent]

I use SageTV as a service and it seems I should have set up my recordings directory with UNC paths instead of the old fashion way. Can I just change the recording directory to the UNC path without losing anything or is there some special process to follow?

[Opus4]

Check the sticky FAQ for moving files at the top of this forum, starting with:
How to change a Video Recording Directory between drive letter and UNC paths.

- Andy

[Brent]

Oops. Missed that sticky. Thanks for pointing it out Andy!

[mayamaniac]

There's some side effects to switching to UNC paths that's not covered in the FAQ. I switched to UNC a while back and started a thread on it that lead to some interesting side effects and workarounds.

To summarize that thread, when using UNC paths, if your router does not function normally, such as it dies or lose power, SageTV will not be able to record as it will not be able to find the video directories, it doesn't matter where they reside, locally or over network. And it doesn't matter that you use local IPs or not (192.168.x.x or 127.0.0.1), SageTV will fail to record if the router is not functioning properly for whatever reason.

ToxMoxx posted a workaround by installing a Microsoft loop adapter (virtual NIC) to solve the router problem. But then the loop adapter introduce another problem where media extender would fail to connect to the server, so another solution was needed to fix that. Basically, you need to reorder the loop adapter so that it is below the real NIC, along with setting a couple of values in SageTV.properties.

Read that thread for more details.