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Inkie_Squid
Participant
October 23, 2012
Answered

BBC iPlayer programs have disappeared again

  • October 23, 2012
  • 1 reply
  • 7991 views

Hello all,

This is such an old problem I'm surprised that I didn't find a thread for it (apart from mac help and I'm on windows).

Anyway, the story highlights are:

  1. Windows crashes / restarts unexpectedly for whatever reason - power cut in my case,
  2. Restart windows and when BBC iPlayer pops up all 4 program windows are empty,
  3. Series record is still active, even though the programs cannot be seen in the main window as the pop-ups keep showing that new programs are downloading,
  4. Preferences shows that the repository folder still has everything you previousely downloaded,
  5. <----- I am here.

So, what I'm hoping for is that there's some hidden cache file that's been buggered.... corrupted by the crash and that by deleting that file, iPlayer will magically get over it's mid-life-crisis.

I seem to be having this problem so often, the curse of trying to OC various bits is that you have to accept that the system is unstable till you get all the numbers right. Whether it's because the saved programs folder is on my storage drive instead of my tiny little main one, or some other conflict on my computer that means I suffer more then most is something I really don't know.

Finding a way to fix it would be far better than reinstalling - and re-downloading - everything would be really helpful. Although Virgin Media have no download limit they were unhappy with my 400GB / month due to downloading so many HD programs so many times when I last had a string of repeated problems.

PC main spec's:

AMD Phenom II x4 965 3400MHz (3700oc'd)

Asus Crosshair III Formula Motherboard

8Gb DDR3 Ram

HDD1 WD Raptor 160GB

HDD2 Seagate 2Gb

Notable software:

Windows 7 64bit (used to happen on Vista 64 bit also)

BBC iPlayer Desktop: version 3.2.15

Adobe Air: version 4.3

Norton Internet Security 2012

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer chris.campbell

Yesterday while attempting to play several downloaded program I gota pop-up saying there was an error while downloading the program. What? And then program disappeared from my disk. This morning when I started the Iplayer got familiar blan screen in downloaded and coming soon tab. Voila! And to think I hoped that that catastrophe has been already resolved!


Just a heads up, some users have encountered issues with the BBC iPlayer and AIR 3.5.  Please see this tech doc for details:

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/announcements/ipd_air_contentdisappear

Chris

1 reply

chris.campbell
chris.campbell
Legend
November 3, 2012

This is definitely not right if your computer is rebooting.  I'd suggest making sure you have the latest video drivers, then let's try deleting the BBC iPlayer preferences folder.  You can find this at:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\BBCiPlayerDesktop.long_string_of_characters_here

If that doesn't help, let's try disabling hardware acceleration in Flash Player (it's related to AIR) to see if that helps.

How do I disable or enable hardware acceleration?

I
Inkie_SquidAuthor
Participant
November 10, 2012

The computer rebooting is all me, one of the downsides of trying to find out just how fast you can clock the ram and processor to get the right mix is that it's going to bluescreen till you do it right.

However last night I shut the pc down properly and again when it started up this morning I got that familiar empty window in BBC iPlayer. There was a pop-up asking me to update flash this morning - perhaps that had something to do with it.

Dumping the preferences folder as you suggested gets iPlayer to work again, but is refuses to recognise any downloaded programs that exist in the 'Repository' folder, so all those downloads are lost.

Anyway - Back to the good old remove iPlayer, Air, Flash Player (and reader for good measure) and download them again as and when I need them. Starting with Air / iPlayer to see how long they last.

Thanks for getting back to me,

Craig

Message was edited by: Inkie_Squid

M
muczomaczo
Participant
November 10, 2012

Yesterday while attempting to play several downloaded program I gota pop-up saying there was an error while downloading the program. What? And then program disappeared from my disk. This morning when I started the Iplayer got familiar blan screen in downloaded and coming soon tab. Voila! And to think I hoped that that catastrophe has been already resolved!

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