Scenes, sources, filters vanishing into thin air

[MicaLovesKPOP]

Operating System Info

Windows 11

Other OS

No response

OBS Studio Version

30.1.2

OBS Studio Version (Other)

No response

OBS Studio Log URL

https://obsproject.com/logs/9SQ8s1AZtw27PKPR

OBS Studio Crash Log URL

No response

Expected Behavior

Nothing (just OBS launching and loading my saved profiles as usual)

Current Behavior

My Scenes, sources, filters and scene transitions vanished. My audio mixer sources are still there. My OBS Settings are still there.

It seems the .JSON (attached below) got practically reset when I launched OBS today, though it is still twice much larger in file size than a newly created one.
Assetto Corsa.json

Steps to Reproduce

1. Likely changing GPU and/or reinstalling Windows
2. Start OBS and let it load the .JSON

Anything else we should know?

I've ran into this issue twice before, the first time was in 2014. Every time I stop using OBS and then years later return to OBS, only to find out that this honestly terrible issue still persists. I hope by personally reporting it, it can finally get squashed now.

[RytoEX]

Did you have other scene collection files present in your userdata when this happened? What do you mean "re-installing Windows"? Did you back up your OBS settings, reinstall Windows, then reinstall OBS, and copy your OBS settings back after that?

We've had rare reports of this, and we have tried many times to reproduce this, but we have never been able to see it occur ourselves.

though it is still twice much larger in file size than a newly created one.

It's twice as large as a newly created scene collection JSON because the default OBS scene collection (Untitled, Untitled.json) has two default audio sources: Desktop Audio and Mic/Auxiliary Audio. Newly created scene collections in OBS do not. In any case, it's not relevant to the core issue here.

If you have any backed up userdata (scene collection, ini/config files), it might be helpful for us to examine it.

Additionally, is this the very first log from when this happened? Or did you open OBS, notice the issue, then close and reload it? Did you take any other actions after noticing the issue? Ideally, we want the very first OBS log from when this occurs.

[Mythotical]

I'm having this exact issue. I have to re-add my sources all the time. Scenes stay just sources vanish into thin air. I'm doing a complete reinstall to see if that fixes the issue.

[Fenrirthviti]

Just as a note, a reinstall rarely, if ever, will solve issues with OBS unless there are specific missing files that are required for OBS to run.

I understand the desire to want to fix the issue as fast as possible, but understanding what happened and getting us logs/collections/etc. as requested above is immensely helpful, as we have been trying to replicate these reported failures for over 6 years now, and have failed to do so. We need more information on what actions people are taking, or how they are causing this to happen.

[Mythotical]

Here are the files from me.
2024-06-03 07-49-44.txt
2024-06-12 18-25-20.txt

The first log is when it first happened after upgrading to Beta 2 since I'm part of the Enhanced Broadcasting beta with Twitch. The second is after a reinstall just now.

2024-06-03 07-49-44.csv.gz
2024-06-12 18-25-20.csv.gz

There is my profiler data, the first one of course is when it first happened and the second is after reinstall just now.

[RytoEX]

The first log (2024-06-03 07-49-44.txt) is using the Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting beta client.

OBS 30.1.2-enhanced-broadcasting-v22

Twitch's client runs in Portable Mode by default:

07:49:44.359: Portable mode: true

Portable Mode will load no scenes or userdata unless you pre-copied files to the application's local config folder. This looks like expected behavior in that log.

The second log (2024-06-12 18-25-20.txt) is using our beta client.

OBS 30.2.0-beta1

You have also configured this to run in Portable Mode:

18:25:21.003: Portable mode: true

It looks like it loaded scene data, but no sources. We would need the scene collection JSON files to determine if this is correct or not.

The profiler data will not be helpful, so you don't need to provide it.

[Mythotical]

Here you go, here is the scene collection file.

Twitch.json.txt

[RytoEX]

Here you go, here is the scene collection file.

Twitch.json.txt

That scene collection file only has the scenes and no sources, so the OBS log showing only scenes and no sources is "correct" in that regard. If there were supposed to be sources/sceneitems here, then those are not reflected in the scene collection file. They could be in the backup scene collection file (the .bak file with the same name), but it may already have been overwritten.

Basically, our best chance to have an understanding of what may be occurring is to have the scene collection and profile data as soon as the issue occurs before restarting OBS.

[Mythotical]

Oh ok. I have a new issue now, I'm not sure if it's related but I can't get OBS to open at all now. Could that have been caused by me reinstalling it?

[RytoEX]

Oh ok. I have a new issue now, I'm not sure if it's related but I can't get OBS to open at all now. Could that have been caused by me reinstalling it?

If it's 30.2.0-beta2, then it's a known issue that is fixed in beta3.

[Mythotical]

Oh ok. I have a new issue now, I'm not sure if it's related but I can't get OBS to open at all now. Could that have been caused by me reinstalling it?

If it's 30.2.0-beta2, then it's a known issue that is fixed in beta3.

LOL It is. Thanks. Guess I'll wait on Beta 3 or go back to 30.1.2 for now.

[Mythotical]

Nevermind, I see 3 is released. Thanks for all the help.