Is It Possible to Restore Deleted Shows on DVR?

DVRs faithfully record your favorite shows, movies and series time and time again, but the ability to recover deleted shows isn't yet standard technology on every DVR. If a show you've recorded gets accidentally deleted, you may be out of luck. Whether or not you'll be able to recover a deleted show depends primarily on both your DVR and your cable provider.

Some cable providers don't offer the ability to recover lost shows with their DVRs. For example, if you get your cable through Xfinity or DirectTV, you won't be able to restore your lost programming. Those with Verizon, Time Warner, Cox Cable or a Tivo box, on the other hand, will have access to their deleted programming. If you aren't sure whether your equipment supports this feature, contact your cable provider directly.

If your DVR supports the ability to restore deleted shows, your chances of restoring your missing show is greater if you accidentally deleted the program yourself. If, however, the show was automatically deleted to make room for additional programming because your DVR was full, the restore may not be successful. Before you attempt to restore any deleted shows, make sure you have enough space on your DVR by deleting any unwanted programming.

The instructions for restoring deleted shows on your DVR vary depending on the cable provider and DVR model you're using. To restore a deleted show on either the Tivo Roamio or Premier Series, for example, you must go to Tivo Central, navigate to My Shows and select "Recently Deleted" from the options menu. Once you select the program you'd like to restore, you'll be able to select a recovery option. Verizon users must go to the cable menu and select "DVR" then "Recently Deleted" to select the programs they want to undelete. Contact your cable provider or its help site for instructions specific to your setup.

Sometimes a show or series may disappear from your DVR that you didn't manually delete -- even when the device wasn't running out of space. In the event of a mysteriously disappearing program, unplug your DVR receiver and wait at least 15 seconds before plugging it in again. If this doesn't fix the problem, and you notice that it's occurred more than once, contact your cable provider about the issue as you might need a new device.