Tvheadend

I have an x86_64 PC running Debian 9.5 Stretch as a DVR/media server. I have TVheadend 4.2.7-19~g13ed4a322 running on it, and I am using a zap2it as my EPG source using this guide modified for my system https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/8lkb0t/guide_how_to_set_up_tvheadend_server_with_epg/ to setup my EPG grabber.

This all feeds into a RBPi 3B+ running Libreelec into the TVheadend client, and the Client reflects what is output in the Tvheadend server Web UI.

What is in the web UI is a very sporadic EPG. I was able setup and run the internal grabber, and retrieve some EPG data from it initially.

It was in no way complete as I built the first xmltv.xml on November 8th, and the XML contains well over 10,000 tv program entries (more like 14,000) that go up to November 22nd.

In the TVheadend web UI and on the Libreelec Pi I see the majority of channels populated with EPG program information up to November 11th, and very very few channels with EPG program data up to November 22nd. In the "Electronic Program Guide" tab of the web UI the bottom right event counter fluctuates but never goes higher than 1060, and it is currently at 543.

In "Configuration" -> "Channel/EPG" -> "EPG Grabber Modules" I have "internal: XMLTV: tv_grab_file is a simple grabber that just read the ~/.xmltv/tv_grab_file.xmltv file" as the only grabber module enabled with priority 3, and with its path set as:

/usr/bin/tv_grab_file

VVVVVTHE BIG PROBLEM VVVVVV
When I Re-run internal EPG Grabbers... Nothing happens. The Tvheadend log shows nothing, and the EPG stays the same. My crontab i set to update the xmltv.xml is working as it now shows event information up to November 24th (It is November 10th now).

Under

Config -> channel/EPG -> Channels

I have all of my channel names and numbers properly set with their respective EPG source. Example:

Enabled: checked,
Automatically name from network: checked,
Name: 3.1 KCRADT, 
Number: 3.1, 
Automatically map EPG source: checked, 
EPG source: 3.1 KCRADT: I3.1.20451.zap2it.com (XMLTV: tv_grab_file is a simple grabber that just read the, ~/.xmltv/tv_grab_file.xmltv file), 
EPG running state: not set, 
Services: ATSC-T Network/599.028MHz/KCRA-TV
Tags: ATSC-T Network,SDTV,TV channels

My user is running as hts with sudo privilege, and all files and folders that are needed (as far as I can tell) have the proper access permission for hts to r/w. The files and folders I can access and run as hts without sudo are:

/usr/bin/tv_grab_file
/home/hts/xmltv.hml
/home/hts/zap2xml/debug-zap.sh runzap.sh zap2xml.pl
/home/hts/zap2xml/cache/*.js.gz

I also have read only access to

/home/hts/zap2xml/zap2xml.conf runzap-images.sh

I made sure tvheadend is indeed running as hts with:

hts@tvhead:~$ ps aux | grep tvheadend | grep -v grep
hts        486  0.1  0.2 1169304 17712 ?       Ssl  01:32   0:01 /usr/bin/tvheadend -f -u hts -g video

I hope my ramblings make sense, and that somebody can help me... it's 3am and I am going to bed!