# Export/Import options not showing up in OBS for Mac



## Sammers (Jun 26, 2020)

Hello. I recently installed OBS on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid-2015) for an upcoming fundraiser. I want to see if there is a way to export my scene collection from the Mac to the Windows PC at my job so we can show it on large projector screens.  I learned one way to transfer OBS files from one PC/Mac to another is by using the export/import feature in the scene collection or profile option of the menu. I do not have that choice. Reference the attached picture. I have watched other Youtube videos and even did a screen share with a colleague with a Mac. I tried reinstalling it and it did not work either. I want to uninstall and reinstall it from the beginning but don't want to risk rebuilding all of my screens. She downloaded it on her own work Mac and it gave her the option to export/import. I am trying to troubleshoot how to find export or import in the menu settings up top. I am not finding it and I am not sure what to do. Please advise. Thank you in advance for any direction you can provide.


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## LarryH (Oct 17, 2020)

I have similar problem on PC.  I am new to OBS.  I want to do two different worship services each sunday.  They are very different - one being contemporary and the other being different.  I also try to prepare at home.  When I try to export scenes in Profiles it asks for a folder.  When I select Import OBS asks what files to import so I select the two files shown in the export step.  But nothing happens.  Nothing comes in.  I have lost all I did and being new it takes me a long while to rebuild.  What steps am I missing?


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## Tangential (Oct 17, 2020)

Sammers said:


> Hello. I recently installed OBS on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid-2015) for an upcoming fundraiser. I want to see if there is a way to export my scene collection from the Mac to the Windows PC at my job so we can show it on large projector screens.  I learned one way to transfer OBS files from one PC/Mac to another is by using the export/import feature in the scene collection or profile option of the menu. I do not have that choice. Reference the attached picture. I have watched other Youtube videos and even did a screen share with a colleague with a Mac. I tried reinstalling it and it did not work either. I want to uninstall and reinstall it from the beginning but don't want to risk rebuilding all of my screens. She downloaded it on her own work Mac and it gave her the option to export/import. I am trying to troubleshoot how to find export or import in the menu settings up top. I am not finding it and I am not sure what to do. Please advise. Thank you in advance for any direction you can provide.


Your scenes and profiles on a mac are stored in ~/Library/Application\ Support/obs-studio/basic/

Under basic are 2 directories, scenes and profiles. If you look in those directories the contents should be self evident. Each scene collection is a JSON file and each profile is a subdirectory with ini and JSON files. (You may be able to take the scene json file directly to the new system; I haven't tried that but all of the pathing will be wrong for Windows.)

You could try quitting OBS, backing that basic directory up so you have a full copy of all your scene collections and profiles. Then remove ~/Library/Application\ Support/obs-studio and  restart OBS. At this point OBS will have recreated the directories and you will have no scenes or profile. Verify that export and import now show up in your menu.

Now stop OBS and just copy back into place the scene collection json file you want to export and restart OBS and see if export still shows up. Then do the same for the profile directory.

(The approach I use is the 'combombulator' function in UPDeck. It is free and it builds a complete packaged up export of a scene collection and all of its elements.)


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