Virtual Camera Troubleshooting
Table of Contents
Install or remove the virtual camera
If the Start Virtual Camera button isn't showing in the Controls dock, follow these instructions to install the virtual camera. You can also remove the virtual camera if it conflicts with other software.
| Platform | Install | Remove |
|---|---|---|
Windows |
|
Follow the instructions at the left, but use virtualcam-uninstall.bat (note the un) instead. |
If you have installed OBS Studio to a different folder or you are using portable mode:
|
||
macOS (macOS 13.0+) |
|
Uninstall OBS Studio to uninstall the virtual camera. |
macOS (macOS 11 / 12) |
The virtual camera will be installed when you first click on Start Virtual Camera. |
Delete /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/obs-mac-virtualcam.plugin. |
Linux |
On Linux, the virtual camera is powered by v4l2loopback. Make sure that v4l2loopback is installed. See the wiki for distribution-specific instructions. |
macOS compatibility
OBS Studio 30.0 and higher running on macOS 13 ("Ventura") and higher include a new virtual camera component that is compatible with all Mac applications.
The virtual camera component in OBS 29.1 and earlier is not compatible with macOS 14 ("Sonoma") at all. If you require the virtual camera to work, update to OBS 30.0 (or newer) or stay on macOS 13 ("Ventura").
The version of the virtual camera component used for macOS 12 and prior may be incompatible with some applications. We recommend using the virtual camera with Chromium-based browsers (such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge) for best compatibility, especially for online services such as Discord.