Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Discord automatically switching to OBS Virtual Camera

[raz415]

I cannot use these programs anymore, my camera randomly starts showing the OBS logo instead of input from my webcam. This is because the source of ALL OF THESE programs changes to OBS Virtual Camera from my webcam every few minutes. I have tried just leaving the PC alone for a few minutes, it still happens with no input from me. What the hell is OBS Virtual Camera, where did it come from and how do I get rid of it?

I'm going insane over this. WHY is this happening, I'm not even using OBS at the time. I have uninstalled OBS and it's still happening.

 

[raz415]

The .dll responsible for the virtual camera wasn't getting deleted because it was in use all the time (either by Chrome, Discord, Zoom or whatever meeting program I had open). Once I got rid of the .dll, OBS Virtual Studio was gone and the issue no longer occured.

I have after a while resintalled and I have the exact same issue. What is going on??? How can this be fixed?

 

[R1CH]

Your webcam must be frequently disconnecting and these applications use the next available capture device. There is nothing in the virtual camera code that forces it to be the primary camera. If you don't use the virtual camera you can uninstall it from the C:\Program Files\obs-studio\data\obs-plugins\win-dshow folder without uninstalling OBS itself.

 

[raz415]

Thanks R1ch! I wanted to give some additional details:
- I have discovered that this is the reason Bluestacks started crashing all the time (just closing with no error message). Once I have switched source Bluestacks' Camera settings from Automatic to my actual webcam, it stopped crashing completely. This is the only program where this solution worked.
- Many of the programs for some reason change automatically to the virtual camera. The ones that cause problems for some reason do not remember my camera of choice.

I think you are correct. When my camera "disconnects" (in reality I don't think it does, I have captured video with it using OBS for 8 hours straight without any issues), most programs switch to something else automatically. The something else is the Virtual Camera.

The question for me is: why does my computer stop detecting my camera sometimes? But that's not an OBS issue :)