How to Restore Missing OBS Scenes

When OBS Studio opens with an empty Scenes list or with the wrong layout, your scenes are often still on disk. OBS stores scenes and their sources inside a scene collection, which is a JSON file in its settings folder. Restoring missing scenes usually means finding the right collection, then switching to it, importing it or recovering a backup copy of it.

Before you start

The whole process runs locally on your computer. OBS does not keep your scenes in an online account, so nothing can be restored from a service unless you set up your own backup or sync tool. Have these ready:

• Access to the same computer and user account where the scenes were created, or the drive that held that account.
• Any scene collection files you exported earlier with Scene Collection > Export.
• The media files, images, plugins and capture devices your scenes used, because a collection stores references to them, not the files themselves.
• Permission to view hidden folders, since the OBS settings folder is inside your user profile.

It also helps to know what is actually missing. Scenes and sources belong to the scene collection. Output settings such as bitrate, encoding, frame rate and recording format belong to the profile, which is managed separately in the Profile menu. If only your stream or recording settings changed, look at profiles rather than scene collections.

Step-by-step instructions

Work through these steps in order and stop as soon as your scenes reappear. Each step leaves the original files untouched.

• 1. Open the Scene Collection menu in the top menu bar. The collections listed at the bottom are the ones OBS currently knows about. Select each one in turn; switching collections is the most common fix, because OBS may have opened a different or newly created collection.
• 2. If the scenes are not in any listed collection, choose File > Show Settings Folder. This opens the obs-studio configuration folder for your user account.
• 3. Close OBS completely before touching any files. OBS writes scene collection data when it exits or switches collections and can overwrite a file you are trying to recover.
• 4. Copy the entire basic folder from the settings folder to another location. This is your safety copy and makes every later step reversible.
• 5. Open the scenes subfolder inside basic. Each scene collection is a .json file named after the collection. You may also find .bak files, which are earlier copies OBS kept of a collection.
• 6. If the collection you need is missing but a matching .bak file exists, copy it to a separate folder and rename the copy so it ends in .json, for example a new name followed by .json. Do not overwrite the existing .json file in place.
• 7. Start OBS, open Scene Collection > Import, add the recovered or previously exported .json file, check that the collection name is correct and confirm the import.
• 8. Select the imported collection in the Scene Collection menu and review your scenes.

Folder locations depend on how OBS was installed. A standard install keeps its settings in the user profile: in the AppData Roaming folder on Windows, in Application Support inside the user Library on macOS, and in the hidden .config folder on Linux. A portable install keeps its settings in a config folder next to the program. Flatpak and other packaged Linux builds can use their own application data location, so File > Show Settings Folder is the most reliable way to open the correct one.

The Import dialog can also bring in layouts from some other streaming applications, but how completely those convert depends on the source application and your OBS version. Treat converted collections as a starting point and review every source.

Check the output

After switching or importing, confirm that the restore really worked rather than just the scene names:

• Click through every scene and confirm the expected sources appear in the Sources list and in the preview.
• Open the properties of each capture source and confirm the correct camera, microphone, display or window is selected.
• Use File > Show Missing Files, if your version offers it, to locate media and image sources whose files were moved or renamed.
• Check the Audio Mixer for the microphones and desktop audio you expect, and confirm the levels respond.
• Make a short test recording and play it back to confirm video and audio are both present.
• Open Settings and confirm your profile still has the intended bitrate, encoder, frame rate and recording format, since a restored scene collection does not bring these back.

A recovered .bak file reflects the collection at the time that copy was saved, so recent changes may be missing. Compare it with what you remember of the layout before deleting any other copies.

Common problems and next steps

The collection file is in the scenes folder but not in the menu. Import it with Scene Collection > Import instead of relying on OBS to detect it automatically, then select it from the menu.

Scenes are back but some sources are blank or show an error. Sources from third-party plugins stay empty until the same plugin is installed and compatible with your OBS version. If OBS started in safe mode after a crash, third-party plugins and scripts are disabled for that session; restart OBS normally before judging the result. Media and image sources need their files at the original paths or reselected in properties.

Cameras or capture cards show nothing. After a reinstall, a driver update or moving to another USB port, the device can be listed under a different identifier. Open the capture source properties and select the device again. Window capture sources may also need the window reselected if the application name or title changed.

The collection opens empty after a crash. The .json file may have been saved incompletely. Restore from a .bak copy or an export as described above, keeping the damaged file in your safety copy rather than deleting it.

The settings folder is empty after a reinstall or new computer. Check whether OBS previously ran in portable mode, under a different user account or from another drive. If your operating system backup tool was enabled, restore the obs-studio folder from it to a separate location first, then import the collection file. Once your scenes are back, export each important collection with Scene Collection > Export and store the files somewhere outside the OBS settings folder.