Diagnostics and troubleshooting

Live shows go wrong in ways that are hard to see from the host's chair. Your preview keeps moving, chat keeps scrolling, the meters keep bouncing, and none of that proves your audience is getting a picture. The studio has one place that answers the question properly, and it speaks up on its own when something has actually stopped.

Opening diagnostics

In the studio header, next to the GPU switch, there's a small activity icon. Click it to open Diagnostics.

You can open it before you go live and at any point during the show. Close it with the Close button and the broadcast is unaffected either way.

What the panel shows

Output

At the top is a live picture of exactly what is being sent out. This is not the same thing as the stage you work on: the stage is your editing surface, and this is the finished frame. If the two disagree, believe this one.

Compositor

How your computer is coping with drawing the picture.

• Renderer: how the picture is being put together on this machine.
• Resolution: the size you chose before going live.
• Frames per second: how many pictures a second are actually being produced. Around 30 is healthy. A number that sags well below that under movement is a sign your machine is working too hard.
• Last frame: how long the most recent picture took to draw.
• Sources ready: how many of the things meant to be on stage are actually supplying a picture. If this reads 2/3, something in your scene is not showing up.
• GPU memory: how much graphics memory the studio is using.

Broadcast

Only meaningful once you're sending something. Before that it reads Not streaming yet.

• State: whether the broadcast is live.
• Average bitrate: roughly how much data a second is leaving your machine. A number that collapses while the picture keeps moving usually means your upload connection is struggling.
• Frames encoded: a total that should keep climbing. If it stops climbing while you're live, the picture has frozen.
• Encoder queue: work waiting to be processed. A small number is normal, a growing one means your machine cannot keep up.
• Segments uploaded, Uploaded, Uploads in flight: how much has gone out and how much is in transit. If uploads in flight keeps rising, the connection is the bottleneck.

Any error the broadcast has hit is printed at the bottom of this section in red.

Audio mix

The bottom section shows Broadcast audio mix: exactly what your audience would hear, before anybody is listening.

• A level bar with a reading, either Silent or a peak percentage. A bar that never moves means no sound is reaching the broadcast.
• A list of everything in the mix, each labelled as a microphone or a screen share, with muted next to anyone who is muted.
• Audio engine with its current state.

This answers the two questions that used to need a whole test broadcast:

• A microphone that's switched on but missing from the list is not being broadcast at all.
• A microphone that is in the list but has no level is not picking anything up. Check the device and the physical mute switch.

If nothing is in the list, the panel says Nothing is feeding the broadcast yet.

Messages the studio shows you

These appear as strips just under the header. They aren't hidden behind anything, because each one changes what you should do next.

Your video has stopped

Viewers are seeing a frozen picture and the recording is freezing too. Audio is unaffected. End the broadcast and start it again to recover.

This is the important one. Everything else on your screen keeps behaving as if the show is fine, which is exactly how a broadcast can run for minutes as a single frozen frame. When you see this, end the broadcast and start a new one. Your audio is still going out, so tell people what's happening before you do.

This machine cannot run the studio

The studio could not start drawing pictures at all on this computer, and the reason it gives sits right next to the message. Almost always this means the machine's graphics support isn't up to it. Try a different computer or a different browser.

Software rendering

Not an error. Your computer has no usable graphics card for this, so the studio is drawing the picture with the processor instead. The broadcast works normally, it's just slower. Expect a lower frame rate when there's a lot of movement, and choose 720p rather than 1080p. The ? beside the message explains the same thing in place.

The restream to your channels has stopped

Your broadcast is still live on your own site, but the feed to your external destinations has ended. If a reason was given, the message includes it. Check the destination's own dashboard, and if you need those destinations, end the broadcast and start again.

There are two related messages:

• Restreaming to your channels is unavailable right now. The feed to your destinations could not start at all. The show is live on your own site only.
• No frames were seen from the program feed yet. Your destinations may be receiving a black picture. Check the diagnostics panel to see whether pictures are being produced at all.

Restreaming to (destinations)

Just information. This thin line names the destinations you're currently sending to, so you can confirm at a glance that the right ones are live.

The GPU switch

Next to the diagnostics button sits a GPU switch, with a ? explaining it in place.

Turning it on draws your scene using your computer's graphics card rather than its processor, which is faster and smoother. The studio checks whether your machine actually has one before turning it on, and if it doesn't, it says No GPU available on this computer and leaves the switch off.

Leave it off if you aren't sure. The broadcast works either way. Like Quality, the switch is locked once you're live, so decide before you start.

Common problems

The picture froze mid-show

You'll see the Your video has stopped banner. End the broadcast and start a new one. The two broadcasts can be stitched into one afterwards from Merge broadcasts on the broadcasts page.

Nobody can hear a guest

Open diagnostics and look at the audio mix list. If they aren't in it, their microphone isn't reaching the broadcast, so ask them to check the mic button in their own controls. If they're in the list with no level, it's their device.

The picture keeps going soft or blocky

Look at Average bitrate and Frames per second. If either dips when the scene gets busy, your machine or your upload connection is at its limit. End the show, restart it at 720p, and if you can, plug into a wired connection rather than Wi-Fi.

Something in my scene isn't showing up

Check Sources ready in diagnostics. If it reads fewer than the number of things you expect on stage, one of them isn't supplying a picture. Open Participants and toggle it off and back onto the scene.

The studio won't start on this computer

If you get This machine cannot run the studio, or the studio tells you your browser isn't supported, use a recent version of Chrome or Edge on a desktop or laptop. The studio needs a good deal from the browser, and older ones can't provide it.

The broadcast went out but nothing reached my channels

Confirm you didn't have Realtime Streaming switched on. Realtime and external channels are one choice, not two: with realtime on, the Channels button is greyed out and nothing goes to your destinations. See going live.

Where to go next

• Set up the broadcast properly in the first place with going live.
• Recover the show from the copy saved on your own machine, in local recordings.
• Stitch a split show back together in managing broadcasts.