Facebook Live took a few restarts for the stream to appear

[AutisticBravoCharlie]

Today we tried to do a broadcast with Facebook Live. We had to stop and restart the stream twice before we saw the preview in Facebook's live dashboard and were able to go live. No issues indicated in OBS. Does anyone else ever see this?

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Was it scheduled, or no? if scheduled, did you follow FB's requirements? (like connecting to stream more than 10 minutes in advance)
Were you patient and aware speed of light isn't that fast, and especially not free FB streaming servers, so your live content and the preview may have a 20-30 second or more delay/lag? I've noticed the FB live producer preview lag is often worse than a cell connected tablet.. so ymmv
For me, the preview stops on occasion, but the stream itself is alive and well. I always monitor from another device (or have someone doing that for me). If the preview stops, I found simply hitting Refresh in the browser restarts the preview
Also, side note, on Win10 v2004, latest Edge browser in Private mode, I've noticed the FB live stream comments don't update, but they do in Chrome... go figure. Also, trimming videos and updating video Thumbnails works well with Chrome, but not latest Edge (FB website doesn't even offer some features to Edge)

 

[AutisticBravoCharlie]

Was it scheduled, or no? if scheduled, did you follow FB's requirements? (like connecting to stream more than 10 minutes in advance)

First was scheduled, and we did connect more than 10 minutes in advance (although I was under the impression that we had 10 minutes past the scheduled start time). Second two attempts were not scheduled.

Were you patient and aware speed of light isn't that fast,

Haha yep. First attempt waited ~10 minutes. Second we waited about 2 minutes. Third the preview appeared in well under a minute.

If the preview stops, I found simply hitting Refresh in the browser restarts the preview

I probably tried that, but will make a note to be sure next time. Thanks.

Also, trimming videos and updating video Thumbnails works well with Chrome, but not latest Edge (FB website doesn't even offer some features to Edge)

That is good to know. We have been having issues trimming with Firefox. I will try Chrome next time.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

First was scheduled, and we did connect more than 10 minutes in advance (although I was under the impression that we had 10 minutes past the scheduled start time). Second two attempts were not scheduled.

Facebook's site is explicit. You can start you Scheduled Live Stream early, with a recommendation of around 20 minutes. If you haven't started your live stream 10 minutes or more before scheduled live stream your live stream may (will?) be cancelled. You can Go Live at any time, but you lose the embedded video option, and non-Facebook viewership options [URL= facebook.com/{group\site name}/Live, and more (but those are the pieces I care about).

I started using a Persistent stream key, and shared the key with no one, but for better security and as recommended, I stopped doing that and now grab the event's stream key the day of the stream (non-issue as you go to /Live/Producer ahead of time anyway, so grabbing key only takes a few seconds). The other setting I always changed is the default of ending stream if video feed is interrupted. If I have a brief Internet disruption, I want the stream to continue and for me to reconnect. My viewers are told to hang on if there is an interruption (which happened regularly months ago, but hasn't recently).

As for Preview not showing up.... may or may not have anything to do on your end. I've had Scheduled Live events work fine when FB Preview wasn't working. Follow basic guidance of doing a test stream, which only your FB site administrators can see, and try to connect to live stream from another device (I have a tablet).

 

[versiehtmv]

I started using a Persistent stream key, and shared the key with no one, but for better security and as recommended, I stopped doing that and now grab the event's stream key the day of the stream (non-issue as you go to /Live/Producer ahead of time anyway, so grabbing key only takes a few seconds). The other setting I always changed is the default of ending stream if video feed is interrupted.

 

[AutisticBravoCharlie]

Since my original post I've been meticulous about doing things absolutely correctly. Last night I scheduled our broadcast. I'm a MILLION PERCENT certain I had Persistent Stream Key checked. My operator started the broadcast, and nothing happened. I go look, and Persistent Stream Key is unchecked. Check it, have my guy stop and restart the broadcast, now working normally.

The other setting that I've noticed changes itself is End Video if Stream Stops. We need this disabled for one of our sites because its internet bandwidth is not perfect and sometimes an otherwise unnoticeable interruption will cause a failure mid-stream.

Anyone else have settings change themselves?

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

I've had FB scheduled live stream disappear before. But I've never seen the settings change.
I also always disable the default End Video is stream stops...as we re-connect first time after a couple of seconds everytime.. though with new PC and ISP fixed upload bandwidth, we haven't had issues recently

As mentioned earlier, our process is to NOT use persistent key (security risk to use that. I did initially but changed a while ago), so we log into FB, copy stream key, and check stream 20 minutes to 1+ hour ahead of time. Then we leave /Live/Producer up and we monitor stream and comments there (thanks heaven's FB fixed comments not updating recently. wasn't constantly updating for a month or so..)
FB has been changing stuff related to streaming, and as a free service, not surprising there have been LOTS of bugs

 

[BobByerly]

Facebook's site is explicit. You can start you Scheduled Live Stream early, with a recommendation of around 20 minutes. If you haven't started your live stream 10 minutes or more before scheduled live stream your live stream may (will?) be cancelled. You can Go Live at any time, but you lose the embedded video option, and non-Facebook viewership options

I have tried persistent stream key several times, but no matter, I always have to get a new key when starting a new stream.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

I have tried persistent stream key several times, but no matter, I always have to get a new key when starting a new stream.

Then I'd think something else is going wrong. Then again, I'm still on OBS Studio v25.0.8
I never had a problem with FB's Persistent key when I was using it. But again, it is generally consider poor security to utilize such, and one really shouldn't be monitoring one's own stream, so if you are there [FB Live Producer] already, why not use unique/new stream key.... so I won't comment further on Persistent Key use or problems.

Now, there was some PEBKAC on my part ... I'd log into FB/live/producer using a account A, and admin for the group streaming for. The default is a personal stream. More than once I'd overlook changing to Manage Page and switch to our Group Page, and when I'd start to get anxious as Scheduled stream was missing, or other, then I'd realize I'd erred and not switched to intended Group.

As a side comment on above, as mentioned we log in 1+ hour ahead of time to grab stream key, and test stream (to enable lots of troubleshooting time, if required). Typically, hitting Start Stream in OBS results in a preview video appearing at FB Live Producer with ~10-15 seconds, rarely a little longer and never a lot longer [I'd start troubleshooting after 30 seconds]. One other thing such an advance login/check of a Scheduled Video is checking if 'Scheduled Video' is missing (had that happen a couple of times... not sure if FB error or screw up by someone else within our Group), but also a chance to check (& update if necessary) stream settings [like not Ending, Adding Hosts, add Featured Link, etc well in advance of actual livestream meaning plenty of time for updates to propagate.