TV player keeps forgetting my external hdd and... thinks

[Pandaman]

Hello all

First of all, let me say that I’m not sure if my problem really concerns my external Seagate HDD or one of the other involved parties, but I’m trying to ask on all relevant forums.

Second, I don’t know if there’s a connection, but two or three days ago my computer started showing me regularly this screen while booting. And my problem that I will describe below started around the same time, so I don’t know if there’s a connection or if it’s just a random coincidence.

I have had a Sony A80 TV for 2.5 years and a Seagate external hard drive for much longer than that. For years, I would simply attach it to a USB port on the TV and immediately start playing videos. Never had a problem. But since this week, I have the following two problems and I can’t find anything at all about it googling.

1) My TV players keep forgetting the external hard disk (both VLC and the internal Sony player). It means it needs always a few minutes to load the whole folder structure (3.1TB), as if it was a new unknown device. But it’s, not I’ve been using it for years almost daily. Also, in the history/progress menu of VLC (not sure what it’s called in English, I have everything in German), it recognizes recently played videos, however it can’t play them from this history menu. It just gives me an error message, storage not found or something. So I can play them by navigating through the folder structure, however not through the "recently played" shortcut (if anyone has VLC on his tv too, he'll understand)

2) VLC keeps creating random folders on my external hard disk. This never happened before. When I attach my hard disk to the computer (Win 10), I delete them, but the next time I attach it to the TV, they get created again. They are called, for example, Alarms, Ringtones, DCIM, etc. That sounds very much like folders on a phone.
I don’t understand what is happening. Does my TV believe that my harddrive is a phone? Why suddenly after all these years?? Is it vice versa, does my harddrive believe that my TV is a phone? It is indeed a Google/Android TV system.
I also have a Samsung Android phone that I sometimes attach to my desktop computer, but never to the tv though. Not sure if that could in any way be related.
Do you know anything about why a Seagate hdd could (suddenly) think that a tv is actually a phone? I also asked in VLC and Sony forums if their products had a recent software update.
And while this folder thing exists only with VLC and points at a VLC-specific problem, the internal Sony player keeps forgetting my hdd too, which points at a problem in the connection between hdd and tv.

Sorry, I know it’s a lot of questions at once, and I couldn’t find anything at all googling, but this is a very annoying new problem, so I hope someone can help me fix it.

Thank you in advance

[Pandaman]

The title should be:

and... thinks it's a tv?

Maybe too many characters and now I can't edit anymore, or at least don't see where

[Pandemicc]

is the data on the drive important?

[Pandaman]

You mean I should try to format? I could do that, but would need first to buy another hdd of at least the same size and backup everything there.

So no, I can't just format and lose everything.

[Pandaman]

You mean I should format it? I could do that, but then I'd first need to buy another hdd of at least the same size and backup everything on there.

Perhaps it's easier to run chkdsk or so.

[Pandemicc]

You mean I should try to format? I could do that, but would need first to buy another hdd of at least the same size and backup everything there.

So no, I can't just format and lose everything.

"is the data on the drive important?"

nothing says "try to format" there. how important is the data on the drive?

[Pandaman]

Very important

[pepe]

Perhaps it's easier to run chkdsk or so.

don't ever run chkdsk on important data.

[fzabkar]

Does the TV also misbehave with an ordinary flash drive?

[Pandaman]

No it doesn't.

However, my external hhd has 3.1TB on it. My biggest ordinary flash drive has 32GB. So of course it can load the folders from the flash drive much quicker. Thus, I can't tell if it forgot my flash drive too or not. I'll have to get another big hhd somehwere, copy all those 3.1TB on it, connect it to my TV, and see how it behaves, to understand if the problem is my hhd or a buggy firmware.

[fzabkar]

You said that the TV creates new folders on your drive. If it doesn't do that on your flash drive, then that would suggest that the problem is specific to the HDD.

If you disconnect the HDD from your TV and immediately reconnect it, does the TV still need to rediscover the HDD?

If you power cycle the TV, does it TV forget the HDD?

Could it be that your PC modifies something in the file system that makes the TV think it is a different drive??

[fzabkar]

Why should the TV remember the file/folder structure? How can the TV know that the file system hasn't changed since the last time the drive was connected? Shouldn't the TV normally rescan the drive every time it is reconnected?

[Pandaman]

You said that the TV creates new folders on your drive. If it doesn't do that on your flash drive, then that would suggest that the problem is specific to the HDD.

No, it does on the flash drive too. But for the past 2.5 years it didn't. Neither on the hdd, nor on the flash, nor anywhere else. But this week, something changed.

If you disconnect the HDD from your TV and immediately reconnect it, does the TV still need to rediscover the HDD?

It's random. Sometimes it needs to rediscover after I immediately reconnect it, sometimes it can remember it after 30-60min.

If you power cycle the TV, does it TV forget the HDD?

I'd need to try that. So far, I only clicked "restart" through the TV menu.

Could it be that your PC modifies something in the file system that makes the TV think it is a different drive??

Maybe. Nothing can be excluded. But I don't know how to find out. Anyway, on my PC my HDD is behaving normally. Also, in the TV's menu I found out that the TV believes that I have two HDDs attached at the same time. I don't know why it thinks that, but perhaps this info can help.

Why should the TV remember the file/folder structure? How can the TV know that the file system hasn't changed since the last time the drive was connected? Shouldn't the TV normally rescan the drive every time it is reconnected?

Because it always remembered the file/folder structure before.
Yes, I guess it should normally rescan the drive every time it is reconnected. However, VLC Player scanned it immediately, the internal Sony Media Player perhaps needed 5-7min sometimes when I made changes (added new files, renamed files, moved files, etc). But now it needs hours and hours, and still doesn't scan it until the end. There are 12 folders (the alphabetically last ones) it just won't recognize/scan.
Moreover, in the past, when I made changes and then reconnected, I could see all the folders (e.g. photos, music, videos, etc) and its contents. Yes, it may have needed 5min to update changes, but I saw them. Now, it forgets them, and shows only $Recycle.Bin at the beginning, but not photos, videos, etc. It needs hours to rescan those, and that's not okay.

[fzabkar]

It seems that the TV must have had a firmware update.

[HaQue]

I agree with fzabkar. My TCL android TV had a firmware update and now creates a lot more folders. If you delete them, they are re-created, it is by design. I did notice that it reads media a little differently now as well, though I don't pay that much attention to it, it isn't that important to me.

NEVER, EVER use a drive containing important Data on a TV. Especially Samsung. I personally have seen TVs Kill drives without any reasonable explanation a number of times and have had family and friends ask me about the same issues they experienced. I lost a WD powered external 1TB that was only a few months old in my TV. I never investigated it as to why very thoroughly. Accept the TV for what it is (a timewasting relaxation device) and keep your important stuff away from it.

Your PC likely isnt related, maybe just a dying CMOS battery, or caps on the motherboard about to fail due to age.

edit: BTW, if your external hard drive displays any issues at all when connected to anything other than your TV, then I would back it all up and reformat. Then if it still acts dodgy, replace it.

I don't spend a lot of time diagnosing drives more than a year old ever - I have better things to do and just replace it.

[Pandaman]

I agree with fzabkar. My TCL android TV had a firmware update and now creates a lot more folders. If you delete them, they are re-created, it is by design. I did notice that it reads media a little differently now as well, though I don't pay that much attention to it, it isn't that important to me

Thanks for your answer. I guess that's gonna be it then. Yes, I can hide those folders on my PC. It's annoying but not the end of the world.

Your PC likely isnt related, maybe just a dying CMOS battery, or caps on the motherboard about to fail due to age

Yes, I found that out later, thanks. Seems to be a very big coincidence.

edit: BTW, if your external hard drive displays any issues at all when connected to anything other than your TV, then I would back it all up and reformat. Then if it still acts dodgy, replace it.

No, it doesn't have problems anywhere else than on my TV.