Webcam devices not listed when OBS Portable is executed from Google Drive Stream virtual driver

[Windol]

Issue Description:
I am using OBS Portable and have encountered a problem with my webcam detection depending on where OBS is launched from. When I run OBS Portable from a standard physical drive, it correctly lists my webcam. However, if I copy the exact same OBS Portable folder to my Google Drive Stream folder and run it from there, the webcam is no longer listed.

Expected Behavior:
OBS Portable should detect my webcam regardless of whether it is running from a physical drive or from a Google Drive Stream folder.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install or copy OBS Portable onto a normal physical drive.
2. Launch OBS Portable from that drive and observe that the webcam is detected (see first screenshot).
3. Copy the same OBS Portable folder into the Google Drive Stream folder.
4. Launch OBS Portable from the Google Drive Stream folder and notice that the webcam is no longer listed (see second screenshot).

Screenshots:

• When running from a normal physical drive (webcam is detected - log file: 2025-04-07 18-27-19.txt):
  
  
• When running from Google Drive Stream (webcam is not detected - log file: 2025-04-07 18-29-28.txt):
  
  

Additional Information:

Environment:

OBS Version:

Request for Assistance:
I would appreciate any guidance or suggestions on how to ensure OBS Portable detects my webcam correctly when running from the Google Drive Stream folder. Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[prgmitchell]

The recommendation would be not to run OBS from a cloud drive, this is not supported.

 

[Suslik V]

Any input device shouldn't be enumerated for the network based application because of security reasons. Application doesn't have enough permissions. It is by design of the OS. Your mic shouldn't work either.

 

[Windol]

This is strange. On the other computer with an Intel processor and an NVidia video card, it works even from Google Drive Stream. Why do these restrictions only apply on a computer with an AMD processor and without a dedicated video card? It seems to me that this is a bug and not a restriction.

 

[prgmitchell]

You have picked out "intel processor and an Nvidia video card" as being related to this without any actual evidence of that. The point still stands though, running OBS or really any software from a cloud drive isn't something you should do and isn't supported so there wouldn't be any time invested into trying to troubleshoot it.

 

[Windol]

The issue is that on two different computers, OBS is behaving differently and there is no reason for this difference, so I went to the forum to seek help to try to understand what is happening. Saying that because it is being run from an emulated drive it is out of scope and does not require analysis is at least convenient, since although this use case is not recommended, it works in some environments. Could this same problem that affects OBS in other environments not be behind other defects?

And even if you tell me that there is a check to identify whether OBS is being run from a cloud drive, there is still a defect that allows it to work in other environments.

I am aware that my usage context is unusual, but that does not mean that there is no defect.