TiviGlass records to the device, to attached storage, or straight onto a network share. Recording needs a paid plan (Essentials or Premium).
Stopping and recovery: Stop cancels a stalled stream connection and finishes saving the buffered footage before updating the recording. A slow or disconnected drive can still delay that final save. Interrupted recordings respect your simultaneous-recording limit when restarting and keep their original planned end time. If a provider returns an invalid byte range during a catch-up resume or HLS download, TiviGlass rejects it before adding those bytes to the recording. If storage cannot report the saved size at Stop, the recording keeps its file reference and last known size.
Fusion recovery (Premium): with Settings → Playback → TiviGlass Fusion set to Automatic, a live recording can recover onto a verified alternative of the same channel, including an HD or SD feed. Your cross-playlist setting and “never switch automatically” channel choices still apply. Suggest alternatives and Off keep recordings on the selected source; only Automatic enables recording recovery. Recovery tries at most three replacement sources, keeps the original stop time and never changes the channel you are watching. A recovered recording stays one library entry and plays its saved parts in order. There can be a gap or overlap at a switch; missing footage is not restored. On USB, NAS or Plex, the parts are separate media files. Storage failures do not trigger channel switching, and catch-up downloads keep their existing recovery behaviour.
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Record what’s on now Essentials
Path: Guide → hold OK → Record, or player → press OK → REC
How
- In the Guide, hold OK on the channel and choose Record live (or Record programme). While watching full screen, press OK, move to REC and press OK again.
- The Recordings section shows it live with its current size or percentage.
- Open that channel’s Record menu again and choose Stop recording, select Stop on its row in Recordings, or use Stop & keep on the recording notification. Everything captured so far stays in your library and can be watched.
Good to know
While anything is recording, a red dot sits on the Recordings icon in the sidebar, so you can see it from wherever you are without opening the section. It is on the icon rather than the label, so it shows on the narrow rail too.
Recording continues in the background while you carry on watching something else — you don’t need to stay on the channel. If your provider cuts the stream short, the recording says so. A capture that stops well before the programme was due to finish is marked Partial with the length it got — it still plays, and everything captured is kept, but it is never presented as a finished recording. The line under it says what TiviGlass could see at the time, not a guess. If this box was also watching live or running another recording, it says so and points you at your plan’s connection limit, which is the usual cause. If nothing else on this box was streaming, it says that instead — because then the connection limit is unlikely to be the answer and counting your connections is the wrong errand. Take the channel name and the time to your provider in that case. (It can only see this box: another TV, a phone, or another app on the same line still counts against your plan and TiviGlass has no way to know.) If the recording is still within its scheduled window, TiviGlass picks it back up on its own. You do not have to leave TiviGlass open. A recording in progress keeps going in the background, and carries on if you go back to your TV’s home screen or swipe TiviGlass out of recent apps. It stops early only if the TV force-stops TiviGlass or restarts, and even then everything captured up to that point is kept and plays. If TiviGlass is stopped or restarted only after a recording has already reached its planned end, that recording is saved as complete rather than marked as interrupted, and the line under it says which happened. If the programme is still on air the next time you open TiviGlass, recording carries on in the same library entry.
Recording continues in the background while you carry on watching something else — you don’t need to stay on the channel. If your provider cuts the stream short, the recording says so. A capture that stops well before the programme was due to finish is marked Partial with the length it got — it still plays, and everything captured is kept, but it is never presented as a finished recording. The line under it says what TiviGlass could see at the time, not a guess. If this box was also watching live or running another recording, it says so and points you at your plan’s connection limit, which is the usual cause. If nothing else on this box was streaming, it says that instead — because then the connection limit is unlikely to be the answer and counting your connections is the wrong errand. Take the channel name and the time to your provider in that case. (It can only see this box: another TV, a phone, or another app on the same line still counts against your plan and TiviGlass has no way to know.) If the recording is still within its scheduled window, TiviGlass picks it back up on its own. You do not have to leave TiviGlass open. A recording in progress keeps going in the background, and carries on if you go back to your TV’s home screen or swipe TiviGlass out of recent apps. It stops early only if the TV force-stops TiviGlass or restarts, and even then everything captured up to that point is kept and plays. If TiviGlass is stopped or restarted only after a recording has already reached its planned end, that recording is saved as complete rather than marked as interrupted, and the line under it says which happened. If the programme is still on air the next time you open TiviGlass, recording carries on in the same library entry.
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Schedule a timer Essentials
Path: Sidebar → Recordings → New timer
How
- Search for and deliberately pick the channel; TiviGlass never silently chooses the first one.
- Pick the date and the start and end times. Five-minute steps carry across the hour, and a timer made near midnight starts tomorrow.
- Set it to repeat daily or weekly if you want, then save — it appears under Scheduled.
Good to know
A timer does not need TiviGlass to be open — it wakes the app at the right moment and records on its own. If your TV has blocked exact alarms for TiviGlass, the Recordings screen says so at the top; allow Alarms & reminders for TiviGlass in your TV’s app settings, or timers may not start while the app is closed. If the alarm and a restart recovery arrive together, they still create only one library recording. Scheduled padding (Settings → Recordings) starts every timer a few minutes early and ends it late, which covers broadcasters who never quite run to time.
Safe removal. Canceling a timer, stopping or deleting a recording, and removing a Series Link all ask for confirmation. Cancel receives focus first so an extra OK press cannot remove anything.
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Series Link Essentials
Path: Guide → hold OK on a programme → Series link
Choose Series link on this channel on the exact regional or quality version you want. This also changes the channel of an existing rule for that title, without deleting the rule or its existing timers. New scans use only that channel; if it is missing, another variant is not substituted. Older rules retain their playlist-wide scope until you choose a channel. Review already scheduled variant timers separately: changing a rule does not cancel them. Update every recording device before relying on channel-specific rules; older app versions do not understand the new scope.
How
- Set the Series Link from any episode of the programme.
- New episodes are found in the guide and recorded automatically.
- Review or remove rules in Settings → Recordings → Series Links.
Good to know
A Series Link matches on the programme, not on a time slot, so a schedule change doesn’t break it. Saving or re-enabling one queues a scan straight away, and background scans cover every playlist, not only the one currently open. It obeys your storage cap and retention settings like any other recording. Android may defer an archive download until TiviGlass next opens, so set a timer as well for anything you absolutely must not miss.
Two Series Links can want the same hour. A Series Link creates its timers for you overnight, so nobody is there to be asked about a clash. Open Recordings and look at Scheduled: a timer that will lose is marked Clashes with another timer while you can still act on it. Raise Maximum simultaneous recordings (how-to 37) if your TV service allows more than one connection at a time; otherwise cancel one of them. If it has already happened, the one that lost appears in your Recordings list as Not recorded with the reason.
Two Series Links can want the same hour. A Series Link creates its timers for you overnight, so nobody is there to be asked about a clash. Open Recordings and look at Scheduled: a timer that will lose is marked Clashes with another timer while you can still act on it. Raise Maximum simultaneous recordings (how-to 37) if your TV service allows more than one connection at a time; otherwise cancel one of them. If it has already happened, the one that lost appears in your Recordings list as Not recorded with the reason.
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Choose where recordings are stored Essentials
Path: Settings → Recordings → Recording storage
How
- A plugged-in USB stick or SD card appears in the list on its own — just select it. There is no folder to pick and nothing to set up.
- Choose folder… opens your TV’s own file picker and is only needed for a folder that isn’t listed. Some TV boxes make that picker awkward to drive with a remote, so use the listed drive where you can.
- For a NAS choose Network share (SMB) and enter host, share, folder and credentials, then select Test. Put only the address in Host —
192.168.1.50ormynas.local, with nosmb://orhttps://in front of it and no share name after it. Android TV’s own network-share screen asks for the fullsmb://…form, so it is an easy habit to carry over; TiviGlass now tidies that up for you if you do. - For a Plex library, add the Plex server URL, token and library section so Plex rescans when a recording finishes.
Good to know
SMB2 and SMB3 are supported; the old SMB1 is not. On Android/Fire TV devices whose security provider can’t complete SMB3’s signing setup, TiviGlass automatically retries that connection in SMB2.1 compatibility mode. Network recordings play straight inside TiviGlass — you don’t need a file manager. Changing storage affects new recordings only; existing ones stay where they are, and any recording still in progress when you change it is stopped rather than moved. Unplugging a drive mid-recording ends that recording — whatever was captured stays on the drive.
If TiviGlass itself is installed on a drive rather than on the box, every drive in this list is that same drive. Android only ever offers an app the volume it lives on, so there is no box-storage row to pick. The list says so: the top row is named after the volume the app is actually on instead of being called Internal storage, and it is marked TiviGlass is installed here. To record onto the box’s own storage in that case, move the app back to it in Android’s own app settings, or use Choose folder… or a network share. The app disappearing when you unplug that drive is Android’s own behaviour for an app installed on one, not something TiviGlass does.
If TiviGlass itself is installed on a drive rather than on the box, every drive in this list is that same drive. Android only ever offers an app the volume it lives on, so there is no box-storage row to pick. The list says so: the top row is named after the volume the app is actually on instead of being called Internal storage, and it is marked TiviGlass is installed here. To record onto the box’s own storage in that case, move the app back to it in Android’s own app settings, or use Choose folder… or a network share. The app disappearing when you unplug that drive is Android’s own behaviour for an app installed on one, not something TiviGlass does.
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Keep storage under control Essentials
Path: Settings → Recordings
How
- Recording storage limit sets the maximum space recordings may use.
- Keep recordings for deletes them automatically after a set age.
- Maximum simultaneous recordings sets how many programmes may record at the same time. It sits on the main Recordings page, above Advanced.
- Clean up recordings now applies the rules immediately.
Good to know
Maximum simultaneous recordings starts at 1. That is deliberate: every recording running at once uses one of your provider’s connections, and so does anything you are watching. Most plans allow two or three, some allow only one, and there is no way for TiviGlass to ask — a provider that refuses a second connection often answers with an empty file rather than an error, which is far harder to spot than a recording that plainly did not happen. So if you know your plan allows more, set it to 2 or 3 once and it stays.
If two programmes overlap and only one can record, TiviGlass tells you which and why. Nothing is dropped in silence any more. Before it happens: a timer that will clash is marked in Recordings under Scheduled (“Clashes with another timer”), and creating one by hand offers Raise limit or Schedule anyway. After it happens: you get a Not recorded notification, the timer says Not recorded: something else was recording, and a Not recorded entry appears in your Recordings list naming the limit and where to change it. That entry holds no video and deleting it removes nothing from your drive.
A missed recording of this kind is our limit, not your provider’s. If the line under it names the limit, there is nothing wrong with your TV service and nothing to ask them about — raise the setting, or record the two programmes at different times.
The master Recording switch on this page turns the whole feature off. While it is off, nothing records and nothing can be scheduled: the guide, the player menu, the manual timer and Series Links all refuse and say Recording is turned off in Settings, rather than accepting a timer that would never run.
If two programmes overlap and only one can record, TiviGlass tells you which and why. Nothing is dropped in silence any more. Before it happens: a timer that will clash is marked in Recordings under Scheduled (“Clashes with another timer”), and creating one by hand offers Raise limit or Schedule anyway. After it happens: you get a Not recorded notification, the timer says Not recorded: something else was recording, and a Not recorded entry appears in your Recordings list naming the limit and where to change it. That entry holds no video and deleting it removes nothing from your drive.
A missed recording of this kind is our limit, not your provider’s. If the line under it names the limit, there is nothing wrong with your TV service and nothing to ask them about — raise the setting, or record the two programmes at different times.
The master Recording switch on this page turns the whole feature off. While it is off, nothing records and nothing can be scheduled: the guide, the player menu, the manual timer and Series Links all refuse and say Recording is turned off in Settings, rather than accepting a timer that would never run.