many settings greyed out and can't change things

[Richard Fendelman]

In 'settings/video' I get a message 'Video output is currently active. Please turn off any outputs to change video settings.
All input drop downs are grayed out.
No Scenes or Sources are populated. I cannot find anywhere where there is an 'output' setting to turn off.
Output/Streaming/Encoder is greyed out.
Output/Recording/Type is greyed out.
Output/Recording/Recording Format and /Encoder is Greyed out.
So, I can not change anything. Plus message at bottom of Settings/Output page states 'Warning: Recordings cannot be paused if the recording encoder is set to "(Use stream encoder)", which I cannot change.

Besides that, I recorded a 'Display Capture' and I only got an MKV file and no MP4 copy. How do I transform that now?
Please help.
Thanks

 

[Harold]

So all of these output settings you want to change but can't are locked because you have an output running (one or more of the following):
Recording
Replay buffer
Streaming
Virtual Camera
The other Virtual Camera
NDI

If you want an mp4 copy of mkvs recorded from obs, file - remux recordings in the main obs window

 

[10Xclubchamp]

I'm having the same issue, and I have nothing streaming or running. I exited out of OBS and came in clean and I'm still unable to change things like output file location see attached screenshot. Also, is there a way to save a file as MP4 vs the Remux process?

 

[Harold]

You didn't stop all the outputs

And yes you can save directly to mp4 instead of remuxing, but it's the objectively WORSE thing to do.

 

[10Xclubchamp]

Thank you for your response Harold, I'm a newbee, can you help me figure out how to stop the outputs so I can make the setting changes I want. And thanks for the MP4 advice.

 

[Harold]

Things that could be outputs that are blocking you:
1> Streaming
2> Recording
3> Replay Buffer
4> Virtual Camera
5> The other Virtual Camera (the one in the tools menu)
6> NDI output

 

[kaelenmitharos]

For those who come after, as I did: uninstalling NDI did the trick. I think it was quietly watching the OBS canvas due to an old configuration I hadn't fixed.

 

[googly_eyes]

I was confused about all of this as well, and found that if I go to:

Settings
Stream
uncheck "Enable Enhanced Broadcasting" box
Click "Apply"

Click on "Output"
Set "Output Mode" to 'Advanced'
You should now be able to adjust all the settings that were grayed out.

I hope that helps others with this UI issue