How to Backup and Restore OBS Studio Settings

Backing up your OBS Studio configurations ensures you do not lose your customized scenes, sources, hotkeys, and streaming profiles during a system migration or unexpected crash. This guide provides a direct, step-by-step method to export your OBS Studio profiles and scene collections, as well as how to perform a full backup of your entire configuration folder to quickly restore your setup.

OBS Studio separates your settings into two categories: Profiles (which save your resolution, bitrate, and stream keys) and Scene Collections (which save your overlays, sources, and scenes).

How to Backup:

  1. Open OBS Studio.
  2. Backup Profiles: Click on Profile in the top menu bar, select Export, choose a folder on your computer or external drive, and click Select Folder.
  3. Backup Scene Collections: Click on Scene Collection in the top menu bar, select Export, choose your destination folder, and click Save.

How to Restore:

  1. Open OBS Studio on your new or reset computer.
  2. Restore Profiles: Click on Profile > Import, navigate to your backup folder, select the profile folder, and import it.
  3. Restore Scene Collections: Click on Scene Collection > Import, browse to locate your exported .json file, and click Import.

Method 2: Full Backup of the AppData Folder (Comprehensive)

To back up everything at once—including your plugins, transition settings, and general application preferences—you can copy the root configuration directory.

How to Backup:

  1. Press the Windows Key + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog box.
  2. Type %appdata% and press Enter. This opens your system’s Roaming AppData folder.
  3. Locate the folder named obs-studio.
  4. Copy this entire obs-studio folder and save it to an external hard drive, USB flash drive, or cloud storage service.

How to Restore:

  1. Install and open OBS Studio on your destination computer at least once, then close it completely.
  2. Press Windows Key + R, type %appdata%, and press Enter.
  3. Paste your backed-up obs-studio folder into this directory, choosing to overwrite any existing files if prompted.
  4. Open OBS Studio, and your complete layout, settings, and plugins will be restored.