The STREAM button is on and nothing arrives, or the status block will not get past connecting…. Three causes, in the order they actually occur.
1. The key
Most stream problems are the key. Expired, rotated by the platform, or from a different channel than you think.
Fetch it fresh from the platform and paste it in — do not retype it. Then try again.
2. The address
| Check | |
|---|---|
| Server and key in separate fields | Pasting the whole thing into one does not work |
rtmps:// where the platform requires it | Most large platforms no longer accept plain rtmp |
| No stray space at the beginning or end | Pasting from a web page collects them |
Where a platform gives one long address with the key in it, split at the last slash: everything before is the server, what follows is the key.
3. The network
Outgoing streaming ports blocked is more common in church and school buildings than people expect, because the network was set up for browsing rather than broadcasting.
Test from the same machine, on the same network, at a quiet moment. If it works on a phone hotspot and not on the building network, that is your answer and it is a question for whoever manages that network.
It connects but drops frames
A bitrate the connection cannot carry. The status block counts frames the network could not take, and if that number climbs the answer is a lower total bitrate — not hope.
Set the total to what your upload carries continuously, not to what a speed test showed once. See encoder and bitrate.
It worked last week
Then something changed, and it is nearly always one of these:
- The platform rotated the key.
- Somebody updated the router or the firewall.
- Another device on the network is now using the upload.
- The rundown changed and there is more movement in the picture than before.
While you are diagnosing
Record locally. If the stream cannot be fixed in the minutes you have, at least the service exists afterwards. REC is independent of the stream and costs almost nothing extra — see recording.