Profiles......

[supersire]

They serve no purpose. I assumed a new profile would be exactly that; a new profile. I ended up deleting dozens of hours of work after assuming I had made a new profile. I then noticed scene collections (AKA:Profiles) a bit late. Googling this gave me a 2 year old thread in an archive here where folks pointed out this ludicrous mistake. Two years and this blunder still exists? Shame on whomever's dingus idea this was. Is this not obvious? I really don't understand how such a great piece of software can have such a misleading feature, especially when it has been pointed out several times over the last couple of years.

TLDR; Don't call it a profile when all it is is a different streamkey. Rename scene collections to 'profiles' and combine the two functions.

 

[Osiris]

The names are correct, a profile is for your settings (different profiles for different streaming services or different recording profiles) and a scene collection is just that a collection of scenes.
This is to allow you to use one profile for multiple scene collections or multiple profiles with one scene collection.

Not sure how you lost hours of work though, creating a new profile doesn't touch the scenes at all.

 

[NLeseul]

The workflow that would presumably lead to loss of work is: User duplicates profile A into profile B. User clears out all scenes while using profile B, assuming them to be still stored in profile A. User switches back to profile A and finds all scenes still missing.

Assuming that a profile is a top level container for multiple scene collections is a reasonable mistake to make, and I can understand why someone would be misled.

Perhaps the real problem, though, is the lack of an undo function, so a user can't fix a mistake like that after they notice it?

 

[Fenrir]

Perhaps the real problem, though, is the lack of an undo function, so a user can't fix a mistake like that after they notice it?

This is a good insight, and probably the real question here, however, I'd like to clarify a few points.

Profiles contain more than just your stream key. They contain all recroding and streaming encoder settings, your canvas and output size, several advanced options, and various other settings in the Settings menu.

Scene Collections contain your scenes, sources, and audio settings. They are separate for very good reasons. Many users stream to multiple services, and it's very useful to simply switch those profile settings rather than having to change entire scene collections. Saving both to the same place is a waste of resources, and this is unlikely to be changed.

The vast majority of our users do not have these kinds of issues. While I truly am sorry that you lost your scenes/sources due to a misunderstanding, we can't change the core functionality of the program due to a handful of users. From our perspective, this kind of mistake has happened twice (probably a couple more times, but you get the point) in two years. Generally indicates that the design is fine.

 

[NLeseul]

Profiles contain more than just your stream key. They contain all recroding and streaming encoder settings, your canvas and output size, several advanced options, and various other settings in the Settings menu.

Scene Collections contain your scenes, sources, and audio settings. They are separate for very good reasons. Many users stream to multiple services, and it's very useful to simply switch those profile settings rather than having to change entire scene collections. Saving both to the same place is a waste of resources, and this is unlikely to be changed.

I think the main point of confusion is just that "profile" is kind of an odd term for that concept, and doesn't match what users think of as a profile from other services. If you switch your "profile" on a Playstation or on Facebook, you're basically swapping out your whole workspace and working on a completely different dataset, with no other associations with your previous data.

(My use case for having multiple OBS "profiles," fwiw, is switching between 1080p and 720p.)

 

[Prestonode]

I think the main point of confusion is just that "profile" is kind of an odd term for that concept, and doesn't match what users think of as a profile from other services. If you switch your "profile" on a Playstation or on Facebook, you're basically swapping out your whole workspace and working on a completely different dataset, with no other associations with your previous data.

(My use case for having multiple OBS "profiles," fwiw, is switching between 1080p and 720p.)

Well, I would like to know why the profiles are not saving. I have created scenes - one for webinar and one for streaming. However even if i switch profiles, it does not save it, so every time i have to go in and change the scenes. There is also no button to know if your profile is saved except what you see on the profile choices? Do I have the latest update? Yes I do.

 

[Fenrir]

Well, I would like to know why the profiles are not saving. I have created scenes - one for webinar and one for streaming. However even if i switch profiles, it does not save it, so every time i have to go in and change the scenes. There is also no button to know if your profile is saved except what you see on the profile choices? Do I have the latest update? Yes I do.

Scenes and sources are not saved to the profile, they are saved to the scene collection (the menu next to profiles).

Profile = stream/recording setup and encoder settings
Scene Collection = scenes and source settings

 

[xjonx]

Scenes and sources are not saved to the profile, they are saved to the scene collection (the menu next to profiles).

Profile = stream/recording setup and encoder settings
Scene Collection = scenes and source settings

As someone new to this software the Profile/Scene workflow is VERY confusing , but I think I get it. One thing is I don't stream at all, just record, so the scene concept is very hard to grasp. I am not switching between anything. I'm going from a set input to a set output recording. Only starting and stopping a recording.

If I want to have two completely different workflows, say one for VHS recordings and one for HDMI/OTA recordings, I would have to save both the profile and the scene because I am using different sources and settings for both?

One feature add that would be VERY HELPFUL would be some sort of one button solution. A "save current state" option where everything is saved/opened regardless of the profile/scene settings both would be save and both would be made active when opened.

 

[Fenrir]

What part about it specifically is confusing? It sounds like you understand it just fine. There's nothing special about it, scene collections is all your scenes/sources, the things that make up the preview. Profiles is the output settings, so your resolution, encoder options, etc.

We've had several requests for ways to link the two, and are working on ways of accomplishing this, but as it is a core design of the program it's not as simple as it would seem.

 

[JP Lantieri]

5 years later and the thing is still as confusing as ever. I just lost hours of preparation for a series of streaming which was doing well. I have to spend time again trying to recreate my settings like they used to be. I haven't even found a way to store different configurations, the only way I found was to locate the file "untitled.json" in the "Library / Application Support / obs-studio" folder in my Mac and save it somewhere else. Not convenient, not straightforward, and very primitive.
Still very surprised that OBS does not propose a simple and easy way to save various configurations since it's an issue and a concern that has regularly been raised for many years.

 

[Fenrir]

Have you tried looking at the "Profile" and "Scene Collection" menus? Both should be fairly self-explanatory.

Can you be more specific about what part of those menus, which do exactly what you're describing, is not sufficient? It's hard for us to make changes for the better when we get vague "it doesn't work for me" complaints.

 

[weslijones]

I have just had the same experience as these others have. Deleted scenes that took hours to setup because I thought I was creating a new dataset for my OBS settings and setup in general when I made a new profile. This is a common use of the term in other applications. Different user profiles will have separate dataset workspaces.

OBS "Profile" and "Scene Collection" menus provide the functions that users want. But the labeling could be improved. What may be worse is that there is no way to UNDO deletions as a result of this misunderstood labeling.

One change that might help clarify things a bit is to change "Profile" to "I/O Profile" because it seems that's primarily what the profile settings contain.

 

[bucci3270]

While it was easy to figure out once I made the mistake, I also did this initially. I had one streaming layout that I worked on for about an hour and then needed to layout another. I created a new profile, laid it all out, and then tried to switch back to the other...that is when I realized that I lost my work from the first. I then figured out what the Scene Collection menu was for. It isn't a mistake I will make again but after lamenting about this to some friends who stream, they all laughed like it is a right of passage. Maybe this is as simple as a hint or welcome message on first-time launch of the program. "Profiles store X data, Scene Collection stores Y data, settings can be found here and here, and join our forum at this link! I don't think you need a redesign, just a way to keep folks from starting out frustrated.

My bigger issue is the lack of an undo button when working with layouts. If I have a layer unlocked and bump it by mistake, there is no going back. Without gridlines or easily accessible X,Y values, it would be great to be able to undo a goof that messes up your spacing. Again, there are workarounds and that is acceptable for a platform that is this powerful for free...and perhaps there are still tricks to this or settings I haven't learned yet.

 

[FatherTime]

I just did the same thing -- deleted a bunch of scenes in a new profile, and yikes -- they were gone from all my previous profiles. Not happy, but at least I've had time to recreate all those deleted scenes before my next gig ... and find this useful blog. I am truly grateful for this software -- it is amazing!!! Thank you all for creating it. Perhaps a useful thing would be to add to the wiki at https://obsproject.com/wiki/OBS-Studio-Overview#scenes-and-sources :
You have "As an important note, all Scenes and Sources are global in OBS Studio, so they can not share a name. This means if you name a source Game, you can't have a Scene with the name Game." You might add that "Scene names and their configurations are global to all the profiles so DON'T delete them in new profiles that you make!!" Oh, and I didn't see a discussion of Profiles in the wiki -- but I probably just haven't found it yet. Again, thanks for the great software! Amazing!!

 

[ThomasConnolly]

While it was easy to figure out once I made the mistake, I also did this initially. I had one streaming layout that I worked on for about an hour and then needed to layout another. I created a new profile, laid it all out, and then tried to switch back to the other...that is when I realized that I lost my work from the first. I then figured out what the Scene Collection menu was for. It isn't a mistake I will make again but after lamenting about this to some friends who stream, they all laughed like it is a right of passage. Maybe this is as simple as a hint or welcome message on first-time launch of the program. "Profiles store X data, Scene Collection stores Y data, settings can be found here and here, and join our forum at this link! I don't think you need a redesign, just a way to keep folks from starting out frustrated.

My bigger issue is the lack of an undo button when working with layouts. If I have a layer unlocked and bump it by mistake, there is no going back. Without gridlines or easily accessible X,Y values, it would be great to be able to undo a goof that messes up your spacing. Again, there are workarounds and that is acceptable for a platform that is this powerful for free...and perhaps there are still tricks to this or settings I haven't learned yet.

"Rite" of passage, as in ceremony or liturgy, not "right." But good info!

 

[Martini]

I'm fairly new to obs software
and also stumbled about profiles and what they actually are.

I don't want to question the being of profiles nor how they work.
Just want to say they are indeed not intuitive to use/understand like the dumb user expect them to behave.

I did a fulltext search on https://obsproject.com/wiki/Home and some other subpages for 'profile' (which seems to be intended as first entry point for newbies) and found not a single match which is very poor for a main navigation menu point.

Please!!! document the profile menu point and how it behaves. Fenrirs answer below gave me at least a direction what to expect.

..., however, I'd like to clarify a few points.

Profiles contain more than just your stream key. They contain all recroding and streaming encoder settings, your canvas and output size, several advanced options, and various other settings in the Settings menu.

Scene Collections contain your scenes, sources, and audio settings. They are separate for very good reasons. Many users stream to multiple services, and it's very useful to simply switch those profile settings rather than having to change entire scene collections. Saving both to the same place is a waste of resources, and this is unlikely to be changed.

 

[Fenrir]

Improving end-user documentation is something we would like to do, but have not had time to devote resources to. The wiki you linked is publicly editable by anyone from the source on our github: https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/wiki and I encourage anyone who wants to help out to update things as they are able.

 

[pogopogo]

I would be willing to work on documentation. OBS has been a huge help while teaching my classes virtually this year. It would be nice to give back to the project.

As for this thread, I stumbled across it when I did the same as others. Fortunately, it wasn't hours of work for me, just a couple of sources to re-create. I, too, think the problem is with the label Profiles and what that means to people versus its usage in OBS. Even changing the name to Settings Profiles, Settings Groups, or even Stream Profiles would be more self-explanatory than Profile. I'm sure there are other names that would work, but the point is most people associate a Profile with something different. When it comes to changing users' thoughts or changing the label, it's much easier to change the label.

 

[Salsa Jim]

Another victim to the profile and scene collection confusion! Lost a few months of work trying to create new profile. THIS IS NOT AT ALL INTUITIVE!

Here is a question: When I first open OBS, what does it links to? To a Profile or to Scene Collection? Which is the primary?

The same scene collection can be linked to multiple profiles to save resources, I get that. So if this is the primary to which OBS links to show the scenes, make it obvious. That this is what the user need to create new to "zerorise" the dataset of scenes.

Very frustrated right now.

 

[Fenrir]

There is no "primary" between Profiles and Scene Collections, so it would select whatever Profile and whatever Scene Collection you had active when you closed OBS, it loads both. They are not linked in any way.

When you create a new for either, the old still exists unless you explicitly delete it, so I am very confused how you could lose months of work unless you very specifically clicked on the "Remove" button for a given Scene Collection or Profile.