How to Fix OBS Invisible Browser Dropdown Menus

When capturing a web browser in OBS Studio, you may find that dropdown menus, right-click context menus, and pop-ups do not appear in your stream or recording. This common issue is usually caused by how your graphics card renders browser overlays or how OBS captures the window. This guide offers three quick, direct methods to fix this bug so your dropdown menus display correctly.

The most efficient fix is to change the capture hook within OBS Studio. This allows OBS to capture the entire composited browser window, including all temporary overlays and dropdowns, without sacrificing browser performance.

  1. Open OBS Studio.
  2. Locate your browser’s Window Capture source in the “Sources” dock.
  3. Double-click the source to open its Properties.
  4. Locate the Capture Method dropdown menu.
  5. Change the setting from Automatic or BitBlt (Windows 7 and up) to Windows 10 (1903 and up).
  6. Click OK to apply the changes.

Method 2: Disable Browser Hardware Acceleration

If changing the capture method does not work, the browser’s hardware acceleration may be rendering the dropdown menus on a different graphical layer that OBS cannot detect. Disabling this feature forces the browser to render everything on a single layer.

For Google Chrome:

  1. Open Chrome and click the three dots in the top-right corner, then select Settings.
  2. Click System in the left sidebar.
  3. Toggle off Use graphics acceleration when available.
  4. Click the Relaunch button to apply the changes.

For Microsoft Edge:

  1. Open Edge and click the three dots in the top-right corner, then select Settings.
  2. Click System and performance in the left sidebar.
  3. Toggle off Use graphics acceleration when available.
  4. Click Restart to relaunch the browser.

For Mozilla Firefox:

  1. Open Firefox and click the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner, then select Settings.
  2. Under the General panel, scroll down to the Performance section.
  3. Uncheck Use recommended performance settings.
  4. Uncheck Use hardware acceleration when available.
  5. Restart Firefox.

Method 3: Use Display Capture

If you require hardware acceleration for browser performance (such as for web-based gaming or 3D rendering) and Method 1 did not work, you can use Display Capture instead of Window Capture.

  1. In OBS Studio, go to the Sources dock and click the + (Add) button.
  2. Select Display Capture and click OK.
  3. Select the monitor where your browser is displayed.
  4. Click OK.

Note: Display Capture will record your entire screen, including any desktop notifications or other open windows on that monitor.