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Troubleshoot the webcam streaming issues

Follow this guide if you are experiencing any of these webcam streaming issues:

  • Webcam stream is stuck (buffering), or video frames dropped.
  • Choppy/jerky webcam stream.
  • No webcam stream at all.

1. Determine if you are eligible for the Premium Streaming​

  • You are eligible for the Premium Streaming (25 frames-per-second) if you are currently a Pro plan subscriber or in the free 1-month Pro trial.
  • You are eligible for only the Basic Streaming if you are on the Free plan. In this case, the webcam stream is up to 5 frames-per-second. Also it's throttled for 30 seconds every minutes.

If you are not sure, follow this guide to find out if you are currently on a Free plan or a Pro plan.

info

Learn more about Premium Streaming vs Basic Streaming.

2. Check the current streaming mode​

Follow this guide to find out the current webcam streaming mode.

  • If you are eligible for the Premium Streaming, the streaming mode should be "Premium (advanced)" or "Premium (compatibility)".
  • If you are eligible for the Premium Streaming, the streaming mode should be "Basic".

If the streaming mode is "0.1 FPS", follow this troubleshooting guide.

3. Check if you get any stream at all​

After you open the Obico mobile app or web app, wait for up to 5 seconds for the webcam live stream to load.

If the webcam stream is coming in (left in the screenshot above) but the stream is choppy/jerky, follow this guide to fix it.

If you don't see any webcam stream (right), continue to the next step.

4. Check for server connection issues​

Server connection issues are the most common root causes for not having a webcam stream. Follow this troubleshooting guide to check if it's the case, and if it is, how to fix it.

5. Open the troubleshooting page.​

The Obico plugin has a powerful troubleshooting page to help you diagnose the webcam streaming problems.

You can access this troubleshooting page by:

  1. Open OctoPrint settings page by clicking the wrench icon (🔧).
  2. Scroll down the navigation bar on the left side.
  3. Click "Obico for OctoPrint" tab.
  4. Click the "Troubleshooting" button.

6. Examine connection status on the troubleshooting page​

In the "Plugin Status" column, look for:

  • The "Connection to server" status, and
  • The "Connection to webcam" statuses

6.1 If the server connection has issues​

When the plugin has problems connecting to the Obico server, the webcam stream won't come through either.

Follow this guide to fix the server connection problem first. Come back to this guide if the webcam streaming still doesn't work after the server connection problem is fixed.

note

You can still get a decent webcam stream even if there are occasional server connection errors, e.g., the error rate is lower than 5%.

6.2 If the webcam connection shows "Error"​

This usually means the webcam streaming in OctoPrint is not working. Follow this troubleshoot guide to figure out why and fix it.

7. None of the above solves the problem?​

Get help from a human.