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Streamlabs Errors — How to fix common errors!

In this article we will tell you how to fix common streaming software Streamlabs errors.

Posted at January 28, 2022

1 Streamlabs problems and errors

Streamlabs OBSis a powerful streaming software that usually works well and causes a few problems, but as with any program, errors can occur with Streamlabs OBS that initially baffle the user. Whether it is compatibility issues, mishandling, or hardware errors, the range of errors that can occur when using Streamlabs is diverse. That’s why our experts have taken it upon themselves to analyze the various problems and their causes so that you won’t be alone in fixing them. So, this article is all about understanding the program and getting to the root of errors like Streamlabs Lagging or Streamlabs Black Screen and fixing them.

2 Streamlabs OBS — These are the most common errors

Experience has shown that it is usually always the same errors that occur when using Streamlabs OBS. We have taken a look at this topic and, based on intensive research, we have selected the most common problems with Streamlabs in order to present them to you. If you experience problems as well, you will almost certainly find the solution here!

2.1 Streamlabs Lagging

Lags are not desirable in livestreaming — neither for the creator nor for the viewer. It leads to delays and problems with the connection, which does not leave a good impression on the viewer and in extreme cases can even be very annoying. Lags can manifest themselves in different ways — so-called frame skips can occur, where the image hangs constantly and shortly afterward picks up where the actual livestream is. This can result in seconds-long jumps, which is of course not nice to look at for anyone. The biggest problem, however, is that you as a streamer often don’t even notice the Streamlabs lagging. Because the problem is often not with the program or you, but with your internet connection or the Streamlabs settings.

If you experience such lags, it is recommended to check the settings of the program for possible sources of error. It is often the case that the selected livestream settings exceed the performance of your internet connection and the program permanently demands more from your line than it is able to provide. So, if Streamlabs lags, you should throttle the settings and adjust them to your line. Here’s what you can do to counteract lags:

• Reduce bitrate.
• Change encoder (from hardware to software or vice versa).
• Change the quality control method.
• Decrease quality presets.
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You can find these settings by starting Streamlabs OBS, opening the preferences and then clicking on the «Output» menu tab. Finally, under «Stream» you will find all the options to change the quality of your stream and thus prevent lags. Of course, you should note that preventing Streamlabs from lagging will in most cases result in a drop in the image quality of the stream. However, experience shows that viewers clearly prefer a smooth stream over a high picture quality with lags.

2.2 Streamlabs Black Screen

You’ve set up a scene, added one or more sources to the scene, and now you’re wondering why you see nothing but a black screen in the preview? This phenomenon is known as Streamlabs Black Screen and is usually fixed with a few clicks.

Many creators who are just starting to stream and set up Streamlabs make a crucial mistake when creating the main scene, which causes the screen to remain black. Especially when you want to grab gameplay and present it to your viewers. When creating the source, a gameplay shot is often added here. However, this is wrong, at least if you are not streaming with a capture card. If you want to stream a game from a PC, you should opt for window or screen capture. Game capture is quite misleading and often causes perplexed streamers afterward. This is because it is only used to record or transmit capture card content.

However, if you choose a window or screen capture, either a specific window (game.exe) or a specific whole screen is displayed. And that’s exactly what you want when transferring PC games. Note, however, that with screen capture, viewers may also see when you switch to the desktop while playing. We, therefore, recommend that you use window recording, which is only activated once the game has started.

2.3 Streamlabs crashes

With a complex computer program like Streamlabs OBS, many different processes are running at the same time and especially when the tool is running at full speed during a recording or during streaming, unwanted crashes can occur. The causes of these crashes can be various and have to do with the own system, an error in the program code or with a short-circuit of the program. We can’t tell you for sure in this guide why Streamlabs crashes on you, but we can give you some tips to prevent crashes.

• Restart Streamlabs after the crash. Usually, crashes are one-time events.
• Check if your system is powerful enough to handle streaming with Streamlabs and playing video games at the same time. It’s best to install a system monitor tool to keep an eye on CPU and graphics card usage.
• In case of persistent crashes, a Streamlabs OBS update may be necessary and provide a remedy. How to update the tool, you can read in our guide to the topic.
• Check your computer for viruses and malware.
• If all solutions did not help, you can try uninstalling Streamlabs OBS and then reinstalling it.

2.4 Streamlabs does not start

You click on the Streamlabs OBS icon and nothing happens. Not good, but no need to worry. If Streamlabs does not start properly, there are no serious reasons for this problem. With a few quick actions, you can try to fix the error.

• Press the key combination CTRL + ALT + Del. And open the Windows Task Manager. Click on the «Processes» tab and look for the process «Streamlabs Desktop» in the list. Right-click on this entry and then click on «End Task» to close the program that is running in the background but did not open properly. After the process is terminated, click the Streamlabs icon again. Now Streamlabs OBS should open normally again.
• Restart your PC and try to open the program again after the restart.
• Uninstall Streamlabs OBS, delete the associated local folders and files, and perform a fresh installation.
• Perform a Streamlabs OBS update. How to do that you can read here.

2.5 Streamlabs bad stream quality

As a streamer, you always have an eye on the chat. If you get a lot of messages that the quality of the stream is not good enough, you should seriously think about whether this problem is caused by you or Streamlabs OBS. If such messages appear in the chat, you will not be able to avoid dealing with them. We have summarized the most common causes of poor stream quality for you.

• Your internet connection is under significant load and can’t be fully used for your stream. Often it’s because downloads are still running in the background or your partner is using streaming services like Netflix or AmazonPrime in your living room.
• The Streamlabs OBS settings do not match the performance of your internet connection. You can, for example, increase the bitrate or turn up the general quality settings.
• Your PC is running at full capacity.
• There are problems with the servers of the streaming platform. Unfortunately, you have no influence on this rather rare circumstance.

3 Conclusion

If you use Streamlabs OBS, you have actually chosen a good streaming tool, which runs stable and causes hardly any problems if used correctly. Nevertheless, it is in the nature of things with a complex program like this that here and there, bugs will appear and they need to be fixed. Due to the fact that the developers of Streamlabs always keep an eye on it, serious problems should be fixed quickly in the form of updates. If the error is not in the program itself, it can usually be fixed with a few clicks on your part.

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How To Fix ‘Error Fetching Your Channel Information’ in StreamLabs

The error fetching your channel information occurs in Streamlabs OBS for users attempting to stream content on Twitch. This problem is not OS exclusive as it’s reported to occur on Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10.

‘Error Fetching your Channel Information’ in Streamlabs

After investigating this particular issue, it turns out that there are multiple scenarios that will cause this behavior with StreamLabs. Here’s a shortlist of potential culprits that might cause this problem:

• Sign in issue – Some users that were also encountering this issue have reported that they’ve managed to fix this issue by accessing their Twitch account from a browser and disallowing the StreamLab OBS connection.
• Corrupted Twitch cookie – Another reason that might cause this error is a corrupted Twitch cookie that ends up interfering with StreamLabs. To resolve the issue in this case you’ll need to clear every Twitch cookie from your default browser.
• Stream language glitch – As it turns out, this problem can also occur due to a well known StreamLab bug having to do with the default language. In this case, you should be able to resolve the problem by changing the Streaming language to something different before changing it back to the correct one.
• Missing Visual C++ Redist 2017 package – One very recent Windows version, you can expect to see this error if your OS installation doesn’t include the Visual C++ Redist 2017 interaction. You can fix this problem by installing it manually via the official channels.
• Leftover obs-plugin files – If you previously installed a StreamLab plugin, leftover files might end up causing streaming issues now that the main plugin is removed. To fix this problem, you’ll need to delete the frontend-tools.dll from the installation folder.
• The stream is not bonded to an IP – Sometimes you’ll see this error due to the fact that the streaming attempt is not using your machine IP. This happens if you leave the default choice instead of picking the correct IP from the Network menu. You can resolve this issue by selecting the correct IP manually.
• Missing .NET Framework 4.72. – While this .NET framework is an integral part of Windows 10, you need to install it manually on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 in order to facilitate SteamLabs the correct infrastructure to run correctly.
• Missing admin access – If you don’t allow admin access to the StreamLab installer, it might be unable to copy over certain files. To make sure that doesn’t happen, you can reinstall it and force the installer to open with admin access.

Method 1: Signing out & back into StreamLabs

If you haven’t tried this yet, you should start this troubleshooting attempt by signing out of the problematic account in StreamLabs before signing back in.

Several affected users that where also troubleshooting the same error message have reported that the issue was finally resolved after they’ve signed out & then right-back in into the affected Twitch account from the StreamLabs application.

If you’re not sure how to do this, follow the instructions below:

Note: This operation is not done from the StreamLabs application. You need to do it directly from the Twitch account.

1. Open your default browser, visit Twitch.tvand sign in with the same account you currently have linked in StreamLabs. On the Twitch.tv site, click on the Log In button (top-right corner of the screen. Logging out & in of your Twitch account
2. Once you are successfully logged in, click on your account icon (top-right section), then click on Settings from the newly appeared context menu. Accessing the Settings menu of Twitch
3. Once you’re inside the Settings menu, click access the Connections menu, then scroll down to the Other Connections section and click the Disconnect button related to StreamLabs.Disconnecting Twitch from SteamLabs
4. Once the StreamLabs connection is terminated, return to the StreamLabs and connect your Twitch account once again to see if the problem is now resolved.

If you are still seeing the same fetching your channel information error when attempting to go live, move down to the next potential fix below.

Method 2: Clearing every Twitch cookie

According to a lot of affected users, you might expect to see this error code due to a Twitch cookie issue. Even though you are using StreamLabs OBS, the app still relies on your browser for certain interactions, so a corrupted cookie might be responsible for the ‘fetching your channel information’ error.

If this scenario is applicable, you should be able to fix this problem in 2 different ways:

• You can either go specifically after Twitch cookies and delete them solely
• You can clear the entire cookie folder from your browser.

If you want to go for the focused approach, here’s how to clean the specific Twitch cookies from your browser. When you’re inside the cleanup window, use the search function to find and delete every Twitch cookie.

On the other hand, if you want to go for a full cleanup, follow these instructions on cleaning the cache & the cookies from your browser.

Deleting cookies and another type of browsing data

In case you already cleared the cookies and you’re still dealing with the same error code, move down to the next potential fix below.

Method 3: Changing the Streaming Language

Although this might seem like a weird fix, some users that were also dealing with the error fetching your channel information have managed to resolve the problem entirely by reselecting a different language, then changing it back again to the previous value.

We haven’t been able to find an official explanation from the developers, but affected users suspect that this behavior resulted from a StreamLabs glitch.

If you want to attempt this potential workaround, follow the instructions below to temporarily change the Streaming language from the StreamLabs application:

1. Open the StreamLabs account and login with the Twitch account that you’re encountering issues with.
2. Once you have successfully signed in, go ahead and click on Settings (gear icon located in the bottom-left corner of the screen). Accessing the Settings menu of StreamLabs
3. From the Settings menu of StreamLabs, select the General tab from the left-hand column, then move over to the right section and use the drop-down menu under Language to change it to something different. Changing the default language in StreamLabs
4. Hit Done to save the changes, then close the StreamLabs app before starting it again.
5. At the next application startup, open the Settings screen again and change the language back to what it was previously.
6. Initiate another streaming attempt and see if you managed to get rid of the fetching your channel information error.

If the problem is still not resolved, move down to the next potential fix below.

Method 4: Installing Visual C++ Redist 2017

According to some affected users, you might also expect to see this error in instances where the computer where the StreamLabs OBS application is installed is missing a critical C++ Redist needed to facilitate gameplay streaming.

Several users that were previously encountering the same problem have confirmed that they managed to fix this problem by downloading and installing a compatible version of the Visual C++ 2017 package.

If you’re unsure on how to do this, follow the instructions below to install the correct version of the Visual C++ Redist 2017 x64 package:

1. Open your browser and visit the official MIcrosoft.com download page of the Visual C++ Redist 2017 download pack.
2. Once you’re on the correct page, scroll down to the Visual Studio 2015, 2017, and 2019 section and click on vc_redist.x86.exe if your Windows version is on 32-bit or vc_redist.x64.exe if your Windows version is on 64 bit. Downloading the correct VC version
3. Once the download is complete, double-click on the .exe installer, click Install, then follow the on-screen prompts to install the missing Visual C++ Redist package. installing the missing redist packages
4. Once the installation is complete, restart your computer if you’re not prompted to do so automatically and see if the error is resolved once the next startup is complete.

In case you still end up with the fetching your channel information error when you try to use StreamLabs to stream on Twitch, move down to the next potential fix below.

Method 5: Deleting the frontend-tools.dll file

As it turns out, this problem can also occur due to some type of corrupted files left behind in the obs-plugins folder of Streamlabs OBS. In most cases, this problem will start occurring after the user attempts to uninstall a plugin for StreamLabs.

If this scenario is applicable, you should be able to fix the problem by navigating to the location where StreamLabs stores the plugin files and deleting the frontend-tools.dll.

This workaround is confirmed to be effective by several users that managed to resolve the error. Follow the instructions below to clear it:

Open File Explorer and navigate to the following location:

Note: If you installed StreamLabs in a custom location, navigate there instead.

Once you arrive at the correct location, right-click on the frontend-tools.ddl and choose Delete from the newly appeared context menu. Deleting the frontend-tools.dll

Note: You might get a warning about ‘scene corruption’, but don’t worry as it will go away the next time you open the app.

Method 6: Binding StreamLabs to an IP

As it turns out, this problem can originate from a TCP or IP issue. If your streaming attempts are constantly denied by the fetching your channel information error or a different error message (like ‘Invalid Path or Connection URL‘ error), one thing you can try to do is to bind the streaming attempt to your machine IP.

This operation will require that you know your IP so you can bind it in the StreamLab application.

If you want to enforce this potential fix, start following the instructions below:

Press Windows key + R to open up a Run dialog box. Next, type ‘cmd’ inside the text box and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open up an elevated Command Prompt. Running the Command Prompt

Note: When you see the UAC (User Account Prompt), click Yes to grant admin access.

Once you’re inside the elevated CMD prompt, type ‘ipconfig’ and hit Enter to get an overview of your network. Running the ‘ipconfig’ command

From the returned list, scroll down to the network that you’re currently using and take and copy the IPV4 Address (we’ll need it a little later) Fetching the IPV4 address

Now that you have successfully found out your IP address, open the StreamLabs application, and click on the Settings icon (bottom-left section of the screen). Accessing the Settings menu of StreamLabs

Next, expand on the drop-down menu and choose the IP that you previously discovered at step 3 before saving the changes. Selecting the correct IP address

If the same problem is still occurring, move down to the next method below.

Method 7: Download .NET Framework 4.7.2 (Windows 7/8 ONLY)

If you’re encountering this problem on Windows 7 or on Windows 8.1, keep in mind that there’s an additional requirement that you need to fulfill before you’ll be able to stream content from the StreamLabs application.

Since the installation of .NET Framework 4.7.2 is not handled by the WU component (like on Windows 10), you will need to install it manually using the official channels.

Some users that where also encountering this error message in StreamLabs on Windows 7 and Windows 8 have confirmed that the problem was fixed once the missing .NET framework was installed.

Here’s a quick step-by-step guide on how to install the missing .NET framework on your computer:

1. Open your default browser and navigate to the official download page of the .NET Framework 4.7.2.
2. Once you arrive to the correct location, scroll down to the Runtime section and click on Download .NET Framework 4.7.2 Runtime. Downloading the Runtime version of the .NET framework
3. Once the download is complete, open the installer and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation of the missing .NET Framework, then restart your computer.
4. After your computer boots back up, open StreamLabs and see if the problem is resolved by attempting to go live once again.

If the same problem is still occurring, move down to the next potential fix below.

Method 8: Reinstalling StreamLabs with admin access

If none of the fixes above have worked for you, one last thing you can try is to reinstall the StreamLab application and ensure that you allow the installed admin rights. This might be effective since the installer might have trouble copying over some files in case it has no admin rights.

If you think this scenario might applicable, follow the instructions below to reinstall the StreamLabs apps with admin rights:

1. Press Windows key + R to open up a Run dialog box. Next, type ‘appwiz.cpl’ inside the text box and press Enter to open up the Programs and Features menu. Type appwiz.cpl and Press Enter to Open Installed Programs List
2. Once you’re inside the Programs and Features menu, scroll down through the list of installed applications and locate StreamLabs OBS. When you see it, right-click on it and choose Uninstall from the context menu. Uninstalling the StreamLabs OBS application
3. Follow the uninstallation instructions to get rid of the app, then restart your computer.
4. Once the next startup is complete, visit the official download page of StreamLabs and initiate the installation.
5. After the download is complete, don’t open it conventionally. Instead, navigate to the location where it was downloaded, right-click on it and choose Run as Administrator. Running installer as administrator
6. After the installation is complete, open StreamLabs, sign in with your Twitch account once again and see if the error is now resolved.

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