I keep getting a "Name is already in use" error when I try to create scenes/sources with names that are the same as ones I've deleted

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Gunther930

New Member
Hi, so I've just started getting this error.

I named one of my scenes "Stream starting soon" for the screen that plays before I get my livestream set up. After I created it, I noticed it was in the wrong scene collection. So I deleted it and went into the correct one and tried to create it again with the same name. However, I got the error "The name is already in use," even though I deleted the other one.

Is there a solution or fix for this or do I just have to choose a different name?

 
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Kazekai

New Member
Hello, same issue on my end. I deleted an old Elgato source and made a new one since Elgato would no longer work on the old one. (Seemed simpler than trying to make the old source work.) Now I can't name the new source Elgato even though the old one has been deleted from every scene.
 
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AaronD

Active Member
You still have a reference to it somewhere. Only when you remove the last one, can you use that name again. If you have a lot going on, it can be hard to find, but that's what it takes.

You might also have to restart OBS after deleting all of the old references.
 
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BreakTheBoxTV

New Member
I had a source with the name it said was already in use. I renamed the source and then I was able to rename the scene that contained it. It looks like you can't have a scene and a source in that scene share a name.
 
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apreslin

New Member
Replying to this thread for posterity because I just encountered it and then figured it out. If you have any scene that references that source, you must delete the source from EVERY scene before that name will be freed up so that you can rename back to it. Be sure to look through all your scenes.
 
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OW_Code

New Member
Yeah tried this from within OBS Studio, didnt work.
apreslin said:
Replying to this thread for posterity because I just encountered it and then figured it out. If you have any scene that references that source, you must delete the source from EVERY scene before that name will be freed up so that you can rename back to it. Be sure to look through all your scenes.
Click to expand...

What I found worked (and fixed two issues I had, the other being no scene of any scene type would show in the preview window, no matter what I checked, Unchecked, or changed in the settings...) was the following:

TL;DR Delete the files for the Profiles, Sources, and Scenes.

The Devs for some godforsaken reason cant fathom their code is dogshit and causes arbitrary incorrect behaviour.
When you create a profile (one is created by default called "Untitled" on first start up.) it saves a bunch of files (JSON and bak files) for Scene and Source behaviour.
Sometimes (for literally no apparent reason) you wont be able to see sources/scenes you previously had working on the preview window. You can see them working in the Studio Mode "Program: Scene" Window" and the "Properties for [Source]" preview Window, but for whatever reason, that video feed wont display (no matter how many checkboxes and settings the devs tell you to click) in the Main OBS Window Preview.

Im giving a general answer to the issue that SHOULD get your OBS back to how it worked when you first started using it.
Go to C: > Users > [Your User] > Appdata > Roaming > obs-studio
In here you will have several folders.
Go into Basic and delete both profiles and scenes folders.
 
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