Usefulness of database backup

[jarnos]

If I do database backup and record and delete recordings thereafter, and then restore database, will there be a situation where database and recordings are not in sync? How to deal with that?

Related wiki: https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Database_Backup_and_Restore

[wesnewell]

It's not really very useful to me as the DB gets backed up with my weekly system backup, and even then there are errors with the recordings listings if you've recorded or deleted any since the backup, which is always in my case. But the useful part is all the recording rules and other configs are there so you don't need to reconfigure them.

[LinuxGeek28]

Just about every configuration of the system is stored in the DB. A DB backup lets you reinstall MythTV to a vanilla OS and be up and running in short time.
There are community scripts that can detect missing/orphans if some recordings were deleted since the last backup.

[nexzzt]

You can also quickly clean up recordings with missing files (which is what you'll have in your scenario) using the find_orphans script: https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Find_orphans.py

I find it very useful to have DB backups. It saves hours of configuration. I've got a daily scripted backup that saves to google drive, and have used them a few times over the years.

[bill6502]

The issue is discussed every so often on the mailing list. Some (very few) users
use RAID for their recordings. Others backup the recordings themselves. For
the most part, the opinion is "it's only TV" so losses are OK. Especially since
some programs can be re-recorded.

[jarnos]

I was thinking about this because I have been using version 30 for months and it works worse than 29, but maybe it is too late to restore and downgrade.