Question Half of my files suddenly disappeared on TV when accessing external hard drive ?

[Jesse2300]

I have been using the media player built in TV app for many years now to access the same external hard drive which would show all files without any issues until 2 days ago when I went into it and around 80 percent of the files no longer show. I checked the hard drive on computer and through a secondary option (That for some reason is only available on my downstairs TV?) and all the files still show and work like normal.

I then unplugged the hard drive and wifi a few times to see if it would reset everything and noticed occasionally the file count would increase by 10 or so only on some resets but then go back down on other resets. For the life of me I can’t figure out what would be causing this issue as all the files are clearly sitting on the drive like normal but just not showing on this one TV access point I normally use, The one workaround would be to use the secondary access point which I have no problem with using however that for some reason only shows up on my downstairs TV and I use my upstairs TV the most so makes it difficult so I guess there’s 2 possible fixes here if anyone knows.

1. Find some way for all the files to show up like normal again on the main hard drive access point on TV ?

2. Somehow make that secondary hard drive access point show on the upstairs TV media player ?

 

[Ralston18]

First of all: do you have all those external hard drive files backed up? Preferably at least 2 x to other locations not on the external hard drive in question.

Verify that the backups are recoverable and readable.

Update your post to include full hardware specs and OS information.

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full? How connected?

Make and model TV's? Networked - correct? Wired or wireless?

What media player are you using?

On the computer hosting the external hard drive look in Reliability History and Event Viewer. Look for any error codes, warnings, or even informational events that started appearing 2 days ago.

Also look in Update History for any recent and/or problem updates.

Consider physically swapping the TV's for testing purposes. Determine if the file visibility problem stays with location or follows the TV.