Sky Q HDD Usage

[MysteryMan1]

I have a Sky Q 2TB box and it has been misbehaving for the last few months.

The issue is that the box does not always respond to the remote control. A couple of examples are:

1) When watching a recording and you get to an advert break that you want to skip over then it is a lottery as to whether the box will do anything when you press a button on the remote. After 30-40 seconds then it normally kicks in.

2) Getting it to recognise anything on the Voice Contol is hit and miss (generally miss!)

Neither of these things used to be a problem.

Also, I think we are on our 6th different remote control and they have all behaved exactly the same, so, I am pretty certain that is not the culprit.

Anyway, I just spoke to someone at Sky and they reckon that the problem is being caused by our recordings showing as using 76% of the disk. I was told that the system needs  some of this space to function normally and our high usage is causing the problems. He suggested we get it below 55%.

This all sounds a bit odd to me and I am not convinced with this explanation. Does anybody have any views on this diagnosis?

Personally, if I buy something with 2TB of space then I feel I should be able to use it all. If the system needs disk space for itself then this ought to be partitioned off as a separate section.

Thoughts welcome, please!

[cuke]

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@MysteryMan1 wrote:

I have a Sky Q 2TB box and it has been misbehaving for the last few months.

The issue is that the box does not always respond to the remote control. A couple of examples are:

1) When watching a recording and you get to an advert break that you want to skip over then it is a lottery as to whether the box will do anything when you press a button on the remote. After 30-40 seconds then it normally kicks in.

2) Getting it to recognise anything on the Voice Contol is hit and miss (generally miss!)

Neither of these things used to be a problem.

Also, I think we are on our 6th different remote control and they have all behaved exactly the same, so, I am pretty certain that is not the culprit.

Anyway, I just spoke to someone at Sky and they reckon that the problem is being caused by our recordings showing as using 76% of the disk. I was told that the system needs  some of this space to function normally and our high usage is causing the problems. He suggested we get it below 55%.

This all sounds a bit odd to me and I am not convinced with this explanation. Does anybody have any views on this diagnosis?

Personally, if I buy something with 2TB of space then I feel I should be able to use it all. If the system needs disk space for itself then this ought to be partitioned off as a separate section.

Thoughts welcome, please!

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I'd certainly try fully deleting any recordings you don't need. The CS is correct in that SkyQ is more 'comfortable' with lower disc usage..

[Raider999]

@MysteryMan1 

I have a 2Tb box as well - mine is normally between 80 and 90% full, so what you were told is not correct.

I have recently noticed when I go into a recording buttons pressed to skip forward do not work for about 30 seconds.

This didn't happen until the software was last updated.

Additionally I often have difficulty using voice controls I.e. skip 10 often results in a search for Skipton. - I attributed this to my west country accent.

[MightyQuinn]

Hi @MysteryMan1   The real question is, how many hours of recordings do you have saved, and when will you find the time to watch them considering they are increasing all the time! I personally use Sky Q as as a time shift. My 2 TB drive is often at 0%. My rule of thumb is, if I haven't watched it after 3 months, I delete it unwatched.

[cuke]

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@Raider999 wrote:

@MysteryMan1 

I have a 2Tb box as well - mine is normally between 80 and 90% full, so what you were told is not correct.

I have recently noticed when I go into a recording buttons pressed to skip forward do not work for about 30 seconds.

This didn't happen until the software was last updated.

Additionally I often have difficulty using voice controls I.e. skip 10 often results in a search for Skipton. - I attributed this to my west country accent.

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It certainly isn't the software as it all works ok for me and I regularly fully delete our recordings once watched.

[MysteryMan1]

That's interesting as similar behaviour and I could probably tie our troubles down to the last system update!

[MysteryMan1]

No, sorry that is not the real question!

[MysteryMan1]

Is there anyone from Sky techical support that can shed any light on whether you really do need to keep the disk usage below a certain level in order for the box to behave?

[oldfella]

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@MysteryMan1 wrote:

Is there anyone from Sky techical support that can shed any light on whether you really do need to keep the disk usage below a certain level in order for the box to behave?

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You would have to ask Sky directly @MysteryMan1 

This is a Customer forum

[TimmyBGood]

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@MysteryMan1 wrote:

Personally, if I buy something with 2TB of space then I feel I should be able to use it all. If the system needs disk space for itself then this ought to be partitioned off as a separate section.

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Sky hard drives are advertised as raw disk space: this is then reduced by formatting and the creation of reserved space for the Sky operating system and 'pushed' content.

The small print has always shown user disk space on a '2TB box' as 1.7TB.

The user can then choose to fill that space entirely, but it's intrinsic to the nature of read/write operations on a spinning disk that efficiency drops hugely as contiguous free space runs short.

[MysteryMan1 · Accepted solution]

A final update on this issue.....

It was nothing to do with the HDD being full! We reduced usage to 55% - no change. We got a replacement Sky Q box - no different!

Then I saw a post about a similar problem and it mentioned interference with Bluetooth signal. There were 2 devices with Bluetooth active near to Sky box (the TV and a transmitter linked to my hearing aids). I disabled Bluetooth on both of these and the problem with the remote control has gone away.

So, I can only conclude that one of these devices was interfering with the Sky Bluetooth signal - never realised this was a possibility.

Fortunately, we don't need it on the TV and I can relocate the other device......happy days, even if we have needlessly lost all our recordings!