Streamlabs Game Capture Not Working

Is your Streamlabs obs not capturing your game?

You are not alone!

The game capture not working on Streamlabs is sadly a common problem, but don’t worry, here’s the solution to it.

What is Streamlabs Game Capture

Streamlabs Game Capture is a general source from Streamlabs (similar to the browser or windows source) which is natively supported in many modern video games.

Some users are reporting that this game capture source is not working, usually not picking up the game and/or showing a black screen.

It is unclear what the cause of the problem is, so there is no specific solution for it, but a bunch of “tricks” you could try.

Most probably one of them will make your game capture source work again.

How do I fix Streamlabs game capture not working? 13 ideas to try

If you want your game capture to work on Streamlabs again, these are some simple steps you could follow.

Remember that you don’t have to do all of them or do them in the order written here, just keep trying each solution until you fix the problem!

Solution 1 – Run Streamlabs with Administrator privileges

This is a simple solution that will probably fix not only your Streamlabs capture problems but many problems on your Windows device in the future.

First of all, if you want to run Streamlabs with administrator privileges (this is, run it as an Administrator), you should be logged in on the PC as an administrator user.

Otherwise, you won’t be able to follow these steps.

With that detail in mind, just:

1. Right-click on the Streamlabs icon on your desktop.
2. Select the “properties” tab.
3. Activate: “Run this program as an Administrator”.
4. Click the “Apply” to apply the changes.

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After that, restart Streamlabs and check if your game capture is working properly now.

Solution 2 – Delete the capture source and add it again

Once you are running Streamlabs as an administrator, if the problem persists, the next potential solution is just to “restart” the Game Capture Source.

For doing that:

1. Select the Game Capture Source within the Sources section.
2. Click the minus (-) button in order to delete it.
3. Restart Streamlabs (be sure you are running the app as an administrator!)
4. Try to re-add the Game Capture Source again (Click +, select the Game Capture Source, and click on “Add Source”)

This is a very simple solution, but many times it fixes the problem of the black screen.

Solution 3 – Change the installation location of Streamlabs

By default, Streamlabs Desktop is installed in the Program Files location.

If this is not your case, you should reinstall the app and make sure you install it there.

To quickly check if your Streamlabs obs is located in the Program Files route:

1. Right-click on the Streamlabs icon on your desktop.
2. Select the “shortcut” tab.
3. The location field should be something like C:Program FilesStreamlabs OBS

It’s very unlikely that this is the problem of your game capture not working (we don’t use to change the default installation location), but just in case, check it out.

Solution 4 – Install Visual C++ Redistributable

As stated here, Streamlabs Desktop requires Microsoft Visual C+ Redistributables 2022 in order to work properly.

The important thing here is to install both versions:

• Visual C+ 2022 Redistributable 64bit
• Visual C+ 2022 Redistributable 32bit

Once you have completed this step, restart your computerand check if your Streamlabs is still not detecting the game.

Solution 5 – Turn off 3rd party in-game overlays

The in-game overlay is an experimental feature that allows you to view the chat and other events overlayed on top of your game.

As an experimental feature, this could be the problem of your black screen game capture, so you should try disabling it.

You’ll be able to do this from the Streamlabs Settings > Game Overlay > Turning off: “Enable in-game overlay”.

IMPORTANT: If you want to use these overlays, at least try to disable 3rd party in-game overlays. For doing that, double-click on the game capture source, and uncheck that option.

Solution 6 – Refresh the anti-cheat hook

Most of the time, the problem with the game capturing source is due to the Anti-cheat features of the games.

Toggling the Anti-cheat hook off and on again might be a solution.

Just double-click on the game capture source, and click on the checkmark of that option.

Solution 7 – Change the capture mode

Again, by double-clicking on the game capture source, instead of auto, try to change the mode to:

• “Capture Specific Window”.
• Or “Capture foreground window with hotkey”

Solution 8 – Disable “Force GPU rendering”

Within the Streamlabs preferences, go to the Advanced tab.

Then look for the “Force GPU as render device” and disable it.

Don’t forget to click on “Done” to apply the changes!

Solution 9 – Use the Integrated Graphics Card

If you are using a laptop, you probably have two available graphic cards.

Using the integrated one instead of the dedicated graphic card could potentially fix the game capture not working.

Right-click on the Streamlabs icon > Run with graphics processor > Integrated Graphics.

Other potential solutions

If all the above fails to fix your game capture not working, try:

• Updating Streamlabs obs. If you are running an older version, updating to the last one could be an easy solution.
• Updating all the drivers of your PC. Same as above, pay special attention to the graphics card drivers (Nvidia Drivers, AMD Drivers, Intel Drivers)
• Just restart the game.
• Adjust in-game settings to borderless fullscreen instead of (exclusive) fullscreen if used or try a window capture then instead (while using borderless fullscreen)

In any case, don’t get frustrated, be aware that some games (like Destiny 2), are currently impossible to capture with the game capture source.

Which solution solved your black screen / game capture problems?

Let us know in the comments below!