Abstract: A method of restoring electronic program guide metadata following the replacement of a previous electronic program guide application with a new electronic guide application includes recording a program and program identifying information, cross referencing program identifying information with raw electronic program listings to extract corresponding program metadata, and associating the corresponding program metadata with the recorded program such that the metadata can be displayed and used by the new electronic guide application. A system for restoring metadata associated with recorded programs includes a content record containing program identifying information, a listing containing archived metadata, and an indexing processor to extract metadata corresponding to said content record.