Recording is a Premium feature and one of the main reasons people upgrade. Setup is short, but the storage choice matters more than most guides admit.
Choose storage first
Go to Settings → Recordings → Storage. Internal storage on a streaming stick is small and slow; a USB drive formatted for the device is far more reliable for anything longer than a short programme. If the drive is not detected, reformat it on the device rather than on a computer.
Record what is playing
Press the remote menu button during playback and choose Record. TiviMate records from that moment — it cannot recover what already aired.
Schedule from the guide
Open the EPG, highlight a future programme and select Schedule recording. This depends entirely on accurate guide data: if your EPG is wrong, recordings start and stop at the wrong times. Fix the guide first — see EPG troubleshooting.
Padding
Add a few minutes before and after in the recording settings. Broadcast schedules drift, and default zero padding is the most common reason an ending gets cut off.
Why recordings fail
- Nothing saved: the device slept mid-recording. Disable automatic sleep, or set it longer than your longest recording.
- Stops partway: storage filled up, or the stream dropped. Check free space first.
- Unplayable file: the source cut out mid-write. Nothing local fixes this — it is a stream stability problem.
- Option greyed out: you are on the free build. Recording requires Premium.
Stability is the real requirement
Recording punishes an unstable source far more than live viewing does, because a two-second drop live is a blink, but during a recording it corrupts the file. That is where service quality decides the outcome. Our TiviMate Premium subscription is built for uninterrupted sessions. New to the app? Start with the setup guide or compare free against Premium.
Useful resources
- TiviMate official site — the developer’s feature list.
- Android TV storage — adding and formatting USB storage.