OBS is SO buggy!

[MusikbyJH]

Been using OBS for a few years now, but for some reason, this damn software always seems to do something strange. I will do absolutely nothing, and simply open the app up to record like normal, but it suddenly just won’t see my camera. This has happened SO much. And I literally change nothing. Just simply turn it on, and it suddenly just doesn’t work. Yesterday, my wife was with me about to start recording, and it happened again. I was happy she was there and got to witness this. Nothing I did worked. Restarted computer and app, changed cords, changed ports, checked, re-checked, then re-re-checked settings. It simply wouldn’t see my camera. So, after 40 mins of just trying to trouble shoot this and being absolutely baffled why suddenly it won’t work, then guess what…suddenly it worked again. I literally did NOTHING different. My wife looked at me completely blown away, seeing that it just wasn’t working, and suddenly it decided to just work. I don’t k own what’s going on, but this software has been the bane of my existence since using it. So incredibly cumbersome. I’m ready to just pay for a legit service that just works. So sick of this doing this to me regularly. My setup never changes. There’s ZERO reason this should just “not work” randomly like this, on a regular basis. I could have been recording a day earlier and not moved or unplugged anything, and come back to it and have this happen as if it’s never seen my camera or computer before. So incredibly frustrating.
Everything is up to date. Mac OS Sequoia (most recent version), all camera and app firm ware is updated. There’s no reason for this to do this all the time. So damn frustrating.

 

[AaronD]

Some systems give exclusive access to video devices. Originally, it was for performance reasons, to avoid squashing the system by trying to copy live video in real time, but today's machines are far better than that. But not everyone seems to have gotten that memo. Windows definitely hasn't.

What that means is, if you already have the camera in a different app somewhere, then OBS can't have it. And if OBS has it, then nothing else can until OBS closes completely. Only if nobody wants it at the moment, can anyone grab it. So what else do you have running?

It could also be a permissions thing, but that would probably not be intermittent like you describe. I'm leaning towards Mac also being exclusive, even today, and when the camera didn't work in OBS, it was because something else already had it.

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Not all systems are exclusive like that. I run my rigs on Ubuntu Studio Linux, and I can grab as many copies of the same camera in as many different apps as I want. OBS is one of them, but the entire zoo works too, all at the same time. It's nice!

 

[MusikbyJH]

Thanks for your reply. This has been something that has been going on with multiple cameras and it’s driving me nuts. Initially it was with my Canon R5. I had to run the EOS Webcam Utility plugin to use it. And it worked…and then sometimes I’d turn all my stuff on, and it simply wouldn’t work. No rhyme or reason. After closing, restarting, doing anything I could find about troubleshooting…nothing ever worked. Then, suddenly out of nowhere, without me doing anything special, it would just work.
Now I’m using a DJI Osmo Pocket 3. It has a weird quirk that when you are using it with OBS as a webcam, it will force it to be in vertical format. The work around is to open the Photo Booth app, and have that running with OBS. That has absolutely worked perfectly. I’ve recorded many videos like this with no problem. We even did a live stream on YouTube for almost 3 hours. No problems. I turn on everything the same exact way, and it works. Then, a few days later, I go to record again….and nothing. It just doesn’t see the camera. Literally nothing has changed. I sat there again restarting the app, my computer, camera…trying different ports. Nothing worked whatsoever. This went on for like 20 minutes as my wife sat there watching. Then, after quitting OBS and restarting (for maybe the 5th time now) it opened up, and saw my camera like nothing was wrong. Again, everything was the same. Same cables. Same ports they were initially in. Photo Booth app was running and everything worked fine.

This makes zero sense. It happens all the time, and it’s driving me absolutely mad. I’m an audio engineer by trade and definitely good with technology and trouble shooting. But what’s happening here makes zero sense whatsoever. There’s no rhyme or reason to why this works or doesn’t work. I’m wondering if paying for something like Streamlabs would work better. This OBS crap is killing me. And I can’t find ANY answers.

 

[AaronD]

I'm not entirely convinced that it's not an exclusivity issue. I'm not a Mac guy, so maybe there's something small somewhere that people who grew up with them have learned to look for, but I find it hard to tell if an app is actually closed. Not having a window is apparently not enough, like it is for pretty much every other system.

So, if you've closed all the windows, but you haven't actually closed the app, then it might not have released the camera yet, and so OBS can't have it.

Again, this would be an operating system issue, not OBS, and so anything you switch to would have the same problem...unless it has a way to steal what belongs to someone else and possibly wreck the other app, which is generally a big no-no in software design.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Also not a MacOS guy, so take of this what you wish
- are you doing full OS reboots in there, or just suspend/hibernate? I don't know of ANY consumer/desktop OS that really handles that well, over the long run. For the truly in-the-weeds geeks, there are ways to clear out memory and other 'problems' without a reboot, but for 99.999+% of users, a FULL reboot is the quickest, easiest method. Windows OS is really bad about this... but the others, in the focus on user functionality over stability, aren't a lot better (in my experience, getting better... but..)
- Assuming your Mac system is setup like most, your system is set to auto-update... so there can be plenty of good reasons for a change in behavior when OS and drivers changing, unannounced, in the background

The above being general, and possibly what you already know/are well aware of.

Where I'd start:
- The Canon EOS webcam util is _NOT_ known for its stability/reliability (code quality, in general). And paying for that PoS ('Pro version') ... just offensive... but I digress

And like in Windows, basic troubleshooting, especially with Sources, starts at Operating System level (fresh OS start, OBS Studio Not started at all) - then check your Video Sources.
And you are adding a potential point-of-failure by adding Photo Booth app as you describe, when OBS Studio can rotate (Transform) a Video source 90degrees all by itself. Have you tried/tested that?

but bottom line... the joy of modern computers... and just my observation that in the vast majority of cases I'd seen in these forums over the last 5 years, problems like what you mention are very rarely OBS Studio's fault... its just the place you see the issue (correlation, not causation)