Alicante are refusung to allow apointments to be booked until the TIE has expired even though central gov have clearly said it is possible to start the application before.
We are using the same solicitor who did ours in Nov 2020 and she has said with the number of people who are going to renew its going to be the same or worse than before.
She is hoping that Benidorm will do them this time or its a trip to the foreigners office in Alicante again and then the long queue at the other place to collect them. Good job I have the Eco sticker in the car.
We put in our paperwork in October 2020 and got the Ok in the middle of November, no appointments available in Alicante until the end of April 2021 and then we didnt actually pick up the card until late June.

We have made no plans to leave spain next year as Im not sure what will happen when trying to offer and expired TIE to the Spanish border control. I know a stamp is nothing but what if the EES and even the ETIAS is live?? (like I know thats not going to happen for ages but you never know)

Yes the fact that all information even from official site says it can be renewed 30 days before and up to 90 days after expiry it would seem from what I have read that the police will not renew before the actual card has expired. For my wife we are travelling in Spain for a month starting 2 days before her card expires. Last week we checked for appointments and the ones showing were all for dates after her TIE expires and before we return from our trip. This morning she checked as soon as she woke and there was an appointment for 3 days after we return from our trip so perfect and the expiry date of her card will have passed. They do give you receipt stating you have the ongoing application to renew the card so if there's a need to leave Spain it shouldn't really present too much of an issue.

Isn’t there a regresso you can request from the national police for this?

There may well be it's not something I have needed or looked into. I know you get a sheet from police national once they accept your application showing you have an ongoing application. I just looked up the regreso and you are correct this link explains it.
https://sede.policia.gob.es/portalCi...ionregreso.php

Well we applied for cita online and got an appointment for the renewal to get a permanent resident card. All went well getting appointment. Filled in required paperwork , she attended Velez Malaga today all done with no issues in 30 mins. They gave her a sheet confirming it had been submitted and said come back in 1 month and collect card no appointment needed just show the sheet they gave her .

Malaga Province (Torre Del Mar). Our gestor managed to get our appointment on the day of expiry. Apparently appointments are released on the 1st of the month. Despite what I believe to be the BOE announcement that TIE’s can be renewed up to one month before expiry the TDM Police apparently will not renew until the actual expiry.

Fairly quick documentary process and we left with paper confirmation of renewal.

FWIW our online Bank app advised us a couple of weeks earlier of the temporary TIE expiry. Armed with the paper confirmation of renewal we went to the bank and had the details entered into the system. We suspected and it was confirmed at that appointment, had we not done gone to the bank with the renewal our account would have been frozen. What they didn’t tell us was that as retirees we had to submit proof of pension income in the ‘next few days’ or the account would have been frozen for that reason.

They may put out the appointments to professionals on 1 of the month. However being someone who likes to try and do as much administrative matters as i can myself, my experience as an individual looking for appointments is to look as early as possible on Monday mornings. I was surprised when we went to Police Station yesterday that it wasn't really that busy i expected it to be so given now is time for lots of TIE renewals. In fact my wife when she went in around midday was only one doing TIE. Hopefully it will be the same when i have to renew mine in February.

Last week I spent an entire 9 hours on my laptop doing nothing but trying for an appointment for my wife either in Alicante or Orihuela.

With each attempt taking no more than about a minute that's 60 x 9 or some 540 times!. Ok I took toilet and meal breaks so let's call it 400 but FFS!
Several times I received a message that I'd exceeded the number or tries in a given period and was temporarily blocked from making further attempts, nothing on what that number of tries was or what constituted a 'given period' though.

Fortunately it was dead easy to get around that though because their system is logging IP addresses not individual NIE numbers so by firing up my mobile phone's hotspot and logged onto that with the laptop I was straight back in the game. I also have my neighbours WiFi login info and that worked too.

I'd done similar a week or so before that to secure an appointment for myself which again I'd got in the day.

Nobody can accuse me of not being dedicated to a cause!!!!!

Are you using a digital certificate as part of the process? It is suggested this increases the likelihood of success.

Yes but I have no idea whether it was a factor in my success or not, can't think why it would be?
Suggested by whom though, sounds to me like uninformed speculative bar stool chatter not wholly dissimilar to allegations that 'bots' are scooping all the appointments in order to sell on. Since one's NIE is a prerequisite, and any appointment secured is irrevocably tied to it, it's difficult to see how bots could cheat the system.

Just to be clear, when I said I was looking for an appointment in Alicante or Orihuela I was not specifying those locations but searching the whole Alicante region. During the process appointments in I think Albir popped up a couple of times which I declined as being too far away. Had I chosen one of those I could have been done in maybe half the time.

Regarding the 30 day before rule, which certainly Alicante are not observing and AFAIK also Orihuela, there is nothing to stop you trying for an appointment during that window so long as you don't select one which precedes your TIE expiry date.

Interesting about Albir, seeing as thats where our Solicitor is.
And we only live about 15mins away.
Lets see what happens in November when ours is up for renewal.

The 30 day rule is referring to the initial issue of the TIE not renewal or swapping green card. For first issue of TIE first stage is to attend immigration to show proof of income medical care etc. They then issue you a form that authorises one to attend National Police Station for 2nd phase which is submission of ex 23 etc plus fingerprinting then 3rd phase collecting card. From when the immigration office issue their authorisation you have 30 days to attend for phase 2 at National Police Station My wife initially went through that process i didnt as i had green card.