OBS keeps dropping to 0 kb/s out of nowhere

[KarmaAdjuster]

Over the past couple days, I've tried to stream and every 20-30 minutes or so, OBS suddenly drops to 0 kb/s, my Discord broadcast ends with it saying 'Stream Paused', my voice connection fails, and Twitch shows my bitrate has completely tanked. This has happened both days I've tried to stream, and only when I've attempted to stream, and it's only gotten worse today. Any idea on what could be causing this and how to get this problem fixed? I'll try to provide any other additional details if necessary.

 

[will4111]

same thing has been happening to me as well. can happen from 1hr to 3hrs and it will drop. have seen bitrate msg in the lower left of obs when ever i alt tab from game, or game goes into a loading screen. have been using obs for a few years and never had this issue before.

 

[WaydGaming]

I'm having the exact same problem!

I was streaming and the KBPS just kept tanking to 0! Shortest was 4+ mins and the longest was 34 mins (The 5 most recent vids here https://www.twitch.tv/waydgaming/videos)

Extremely frustrating as everything for me was a-ok in November, and I was away until today, updated OBS and nothing but problems!

Logs attached

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Do you know EVERY single device hooked up to your local network, and using that Internet connection, and EXACTLY what it doing? Unless your PC is only device and you know exactly what is running on the background on your PC, the likely answer is no. And that could be your problem (or not)
Are you doing any network monitoring while streaming? Are you doing any local PC hardware utilization monitoring while streaming (ie Windows Task Manager (Performance tab) and/or Resource Monitor) to look for bottlenecks?

@WaydGaming - did you look at your logs... See all those streamelements errors? have you removed/disabled such plug-ins/elements to troubleshoot? I'd remove OBS browser elements pulling anything that isn't local as OBS may be perfectly fine

 

[WaydGaming]

Hi @Lawrence_SoCal I've been streaming for a few months with no issues with the set-up at all, I was offline for about a month due to being away from home, came back and updated OBS and had the problem since then, so I am fairly confident it's not the set-up but, I will try your suggestion to see if it works (As a stopgap), but I do believe the issue has come about due to the last update :( I do appreciate the reply and giving me some options to look at in the meantime, thank you

 

[Crossybone]

This same happened to me today. I was streaming fine till yesterday. The issue seems to be either obs or windows and nothing else. As soon one is alt tabbing or minimising the obs it is going in background and dropping the bitrate to 0kbs. Not able to find the solution tried everything. I was streaming great with the same setup and internet connection from last 7 months. But I updated my obs today and the problem started

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Hi @Lawrence_SoCal I've been streaming for a few months with no issues with the set-up at all, I was offline for about a month due to being away from home, came back and updated OBS and had the problem since then, so I am fairly confident it's not the set-up but, I will try your suggestion to see if it works (As a stopgap), but I do believe the issue has come about due to the last update :( I do appreciate the reply and giving me some options to look at in the meantime, thank you

You are using 3rd party add-ins with OBS. Are those addins/plugins compatible with the latest OBS (don't assume yes)? or is there a new dynamic with latest OBS update, Windows OS updates, and your add-ins? etc
it may look like you only changed one thing, but this real-time video encoding is hard/complex stuff and you are using a free open-source solution. so.... yea, stuff can break... may or may not be OBS fault/issue... just food for thoughts. I don't use any streamelements/browser sources, so can't comment specifically on interactions

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

This same happened to me today. I was streaming fine till yesterday. The issue seems to be either obs or windows and nothing else. As soon one is alt tabbing or minimising the obs it is going in background and dropping the bitrate to 0kbs. Not able to find the solution tried everything. I was streaming great with the same setup and internet connection from last 7 months. But I updated my obs today and the problem started

that sounds like an overloaded PC (or you made some OS errors regarding process prioritization??).. or... lots of possibilities. My recommendation for best chance of a focused reply, follow forum instructions and create a new thread, properly titled, and post an OBS stream log

 

[WaydGaming]

Even after a system wipe and fresh install of the key software I use, still have the same issue. So sadly having to use streamlabs until OBS fixes/updates (Had zero issues before OBS & Windows update). I now miss my OBS :(

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

I updated from OBS v25.0.8 to v26.1.1 this week, running on Win10 20H@ with all latest updates. No issues whatsoever, streaming/recording, etc all fine.

When you say key software, does that include the 3rd party plug-ins/elements I mentioned might be the cause of the problem (not OBS itself)? Have you reviewed your recent OBS logs?

 

[WaydGaming]

By 'key software' it's just windows, Norton anti-virus, Elgato Wave Link & Streamdeck, Nvidia Broadcast, OBS, Steam (Only games installed so far: Medieval Dynasty & 7 Days To Die) & Discord. I'm gonna give it a while (don't want to be disrupting my stream with 0 kbps issue) before trying OBS again, as I love and miss it!

Thanks for trying to help

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

In another thread, a user had a mis-configured 3rd party A/V s/w (not Norton) that was the cause of the problem
I'm all for security in depth, and not a fan of trusting MS for a security product. But modern A/V has a lot of threat vectors to consider, and makes assumptions that don't always play nice with unexpected use cases. So, might be worth checking into the networking config of Norton, and make sure its not a possible part of the issue (wouldn't mean Norton is to blame, just possible though that an interaction between Norton and ?? has a nasty implication for streaming... worth checking into). The other recent threads with similar issue appears to be related to Windows Update and certain NICs

 

[nepekar]

encountered same issue here, sorry for dead bump, but have you found a solution or maybe a workaround?

 

[Javier Mercado]

Over the past couple days, I've tried to stream and every 20-30 minutes or so, OBS suddenly drops to 0 kb/s, my Discord broadcast ends with it saying 'Stream Paused', my voice connection fails, and Twitch shows my bitrate has completely tanked. This has happened both days I've tried to stream, and only when I've attempted to stream, and it's only gotten worse today. Any idea on what could be causing this and how to get this problem fixed? I'll try to provide any other additional details if necessary.

Hello Everyone: I was having the same exact problem. Notice on the posts that most stated "I downloaded the lastest vesion of OBS Studios 27.1.1. I believe I solved my problem. I trashed OBS Studio 27.1.1 and went back to OBS Studios 26.1.1 and I've been running live for about an hour and NO CRASHES OR kb/s going down to zero and crashing. I'm running steady at kb/s: 2650 to 2700 and NO PROBLEMS! Try it out... Good luck guys..!

 

[Javier Mercado]

In another thread, a user had a mis-configured 3rd party A/V s/w (not Norton) that was the cause of the problem
I'm all for security in depth, and not a fan of trusting MS for a security product. But modern A/V has a lot of threat vectors to consider, and makes assumptions that don't always play nice with unexpected use cases. So, might be worth checking into the networking config of Norton, and make sure its not a possible part of the issue (wouldn't mean Norton is to blame, just possible though that an interaction between Norton and ?? has a nasty implication for streaming... worth checking into). The other recent threads with similar issue appears to be related to Windows Update and certain NICs

 

[Mark Weiss]

This problem has been driving me crazy for the past month. I thought I got some relieve by enabling TCP Pacing in the advanced options, but later in the evening OBS crashed with a "Except Breakpoint Reached" fatal error, causing my PC to lose internet access and needing reboot. Since that event, and since also having to re image my drive due to installing Wireshark to troubleshoot the dropouts causing my MOTU 896 to no longer be accessible as an audio device, I recovered to an Aug back up and got the system working, but every few seconds the green indicator turns yellow / orange and back to green and every few minutes, it goes red and streaming stops entirely.
I have prioritized the OBS computer in Linksys WRT3200ACM, checked CAT6 cables for any damage. Even so, I cannot reliably stream to nginx on my server on the same LAN!
I'm at the point of considering another streaming software, as much as I like OBS, it's not reliable.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

This problem has been driving me crazy for the past month. I thought I got some relieve by enabling TCP Pacing in the advanced options, but later in the evening OBS crashed with a "Except Breakpoint Reached" fatal error, causing my PC to lose internet access and needing reboot. Since that event, and since also having to re image my drive due to installing Wireshark to troubleshoot the dropouts causing my MOTU 896 to no longer be accessible as an audio device, I recovered to an Aug back up and got the system working, but every few seconds the green indicator turns yellow / orange and back to green and every few minutes, it goes red and streaming stops entirely.
I have prioritized the OBS computer in Linksys WRT3200ACM, checked CAT6 cables for any damage. Even so, I cannot reliably stream to nginx on my server on the same LAN!
I'm at the point of considering another streaming software, as much as I like OBS, it's not reliable.

Unless you are running an absolutely clean OBS Studio install (no plugins) and compared to other streaming software at similar bitrates, it is unreasonable to blame OBS. There are dozens of other possible reasons on your system outside OBS to having an issue, and certain gaming related plugins are notorious for almost zero code quality. OBS could be the issue, but in my 2.5 yrs on this forum, something else is the problem almost all of the time (in the high 9X% range). In my experience, on a well setup WIn10 system, OBS Studio has been HIGHLY reliable, rock solid.