How to Save, Export, and Back Up OBS Scenes

OBS Studio saves your scenes and sources in a scene collection, and your output settings in a profile. To move a setup to another computer, keep a backup, or share it with someone, you export one or both of these. This guide explains what each export contains, how to create it, and what you need to fix after importing it.

Before you start

Exporting and importing scenes happens locally inside OBS Studio. No account or online service is required. The exported files stay on your computer until you copy or send them somewhere yourself.

Decide what you need to keep. OBS stores the two parts of a setup separately:

• Scene collection: your scenes, sources, source order, filters and transforms, saved as a single JSON file.
• Profile: output and video settings such as encoding, bitrate, recording format, resolution and frame rate, plus stream service settings.

A scene collection export does not include the media it points to. Images, videos, audio files, fonts and browser source files stay where they are, and the export stores only their file paths. Plugins are not included either, so any source or filter that depends on a plugin needs that plugin installed on the destination computer.

Check which scene collection and profile are active before exporting. The current names appear in the Scene Collection and Profile menus at the top of the OBS window.

Step-by-step instructions

Export a scene collection

• 1. Open OBS Studio and select the scene collection you want from the Scene Collection menu.
• 2. Open the Scene Collection menu again and choose Export.
• 3. Pick a folder and a file name, then save. OBS writes a JSON file.
• 4. Copy any media files your sources use into the same backup folder so you can relink them later.

Export a profile with your settings

• 1. Select the profile you want from the Profile menu.
• 2. Open the Profile menu and choose Export.
• 3. Choose a destination folder. OBS saves the profile as a folder containing its settings files.

Do both exports if you need a complete copy of your scenes and settings. The scene collection rebuilds your layout, and the profile restores your encoder, bitrate, frame rate and recording format.

Back up the whole settings folder

For a full backup of every scene collection and profile at once, use File and then Show Settings Folder. Close OBS first so no file is being written while you copy, then copy the folder named basic, or the entire settings folder, to your backup location. Scene collections are in basic/scenes and profiles are in basic/profiles. On a standard install, the settings folder is usually in these locations:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\obs-studio
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/obs-studio
• Linux: ~/.config/obs-studio

Portable installs and some Linux packaging formats, such as Flatpak, keep settings elsewhere. Show Settings Folder opens the correct location for your installation.

Import scenes and settings on another computer

• 1. Install OBS Studio and any plugins your sources depend on.
• 2. Copy your media files to the new computer.
• 3. Open the Scene Collection menu, choose Import, and select the exported JSON file.
• 4. Select the imported collection from the Scene Collection menu to load it.
• 5. To restore settings, open the Profile menu, choose Import, select the exported profile folder, and then switch to that profile.

Importing adds a new collection or profile and leaves your existing ones in place. That makes the process reversible: you can switch back to your previous collection or profile at any time from the same menus.

Check the output

After you import, click through every scene and confirm that each source shows the expected content. Then open Settings and review the Output and Video pages to confirm that the encoder, bitrate, recording format, base resolution and frame rate match your original setup. Make a short test recording before relying on the imported setup for a live session.

Expect some sources to need attention on a different computer. A capture source such as a webcam, microphone, display capture or window capture refers to hardware and windows on the original machine. Open each one and select the correct device or window again. Encoders also depend on the hardware: if the original profile used a GPU encoder that the new computer lacks, choose an available encoder and check your bitrate again.

Common problems and next steps

Media shows as missing after import. The file paths stored in the collection no longer match the new computer. Recent OBS versions can show a dialog listing missing files so you can locate them. Otherwise, open each affected source and browse to the file again. Keeping media in a folder with the same path on both computers reduces this work.

Some sources or filters are missing entirely. The source probably depends on a plugin that is not installed, or on a version of the plugin that is incompatible with your OBS version. Install the matching plugin and import again.

You want to share scenes with someone else. Share only the scene collection export, together with the media files it uses, unless the other person also needs your settings. A profile can contain your stream service settings, including your stream key. Before you share a profile, open its folder and check the files, or remove the stream key in Settings and then export. Anyone with your stream key can stream to your channel.

You only want a safe copy before experimenting. Open the Scene Collection menu and choose Duplicate to make a copy inside OBS, then edit the copy. For protection against reinstalling or replacing the computer, keep a regular exported file or settings folder backup outside the OBS folder.

Import from other streaming apps. The Scene Collection import dialog in OBS can also read scene files from some other streaming apps. Supported formats vary by OBS version, and imported scenes usually need the same source and media checks described above.