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NOALBS Cloud

NOALBS Cloud Connect

What Connect does

Section titled “What Connect does”

NOALBS Cloud Connect is an optional desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux. It links OBS on your computer to a switcher in NOALBS Cloud so you can see OBS’s status and control it from the app or dashboard. It can also restart OBS after a crash, upload OBS logs and crash reports, start other programs such as Streamer.bot, and manage several OBS setups on one computer.

Connect is an alternative to the browser source, which stays supported. It connects OBS to the switcher the same way, so switching works through it too, and adds the features above. Use one or the other for a switcher: if a browser source or another computer connects to the same switcher, it takes over and Connect shows that it was disconnected.

Download and install

Section titled “Download and install”

  1. In the dashboard, open the switcher’s Settings page and find the NOALBS Cloud Connect card. Choose Download for … for your computer, or open the GitHub releases page to choose another platform or Linux package.

  2. The downloads use these names:

    Platform File
    Windows NOALBS-Cloud-Connect-windows-x64-setup.exe
    macOS NOALBS-Cloud-Connect-macos-universal.dmg
    Linux AppImage NOALBS-Cloud-Connect-linux-x86_64.AppImage
    Linux Debian/Ubuntu NOALBS-Cloud-Connect-linux-amd64.deb
    Linux Fedora/RPM NOALBS-Cloud-Connect-linux-x86_64.rpm

  3. The app is not code-signed yet, so Windows and macOS may warn before opening it:

    • On Windows SmartScreen, choose More info, then Run anyway.
    • On macOS, right-click the app and choose Open, or go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
    • On Linux, make the AppImage executable before opening it: chmod +x NOALBS-Cloud-Connect-linux-x86_64.AppImage. You can also install the .deb or .rpm package.

  4. To verify a download, put SHA256SUMS from the same release in the same folder as the file you downloaded. Keep the file’s original name. Then check that one file:

    • Linux: awk '$2 == "NOALBS-Cloud-Connect-linux-x86_64.AppImage"' SHA256SUMS | sha256sum -c
    • macOS: awk '$2 == "NOALBS-Cloud-Connect-macos-universal.dmg"' SHA256SUMS | shasum -a 256 -c
    • Windows (PowerShell): Get-FileHash .\NOALBS-Cloud-Connect-windows-x64-setup.exe, then compare the hash with that file’s line in SHA256SUMS.

    On Linux, use the name of the package you downloaded (.AppImage, .deb or .rpm). On Linux and macOS the command prints OK for your file, and fails if the file isn’t in SHA256SUMS or its name doesn’t match.

On first run, Start NOALBS Cloud Connect when my computer starts is enabled by default. You can change it in the app’s settings.

Updates

Section titled “Updates”

Connect checks for updates 30 seconds after it starts, then every 6 hours. It never installs an update by itself. When an update is available, the Updates row in the Connect window shows it with an Install and restart button. You can also select Check for updates at any time.

OBS and your programs keep running while Connect updates and restarts. Updates are signed, and Connect only installs updates signed by NOALBS.

How the update is installed depends on your platform:

  • On Windows, a small progress window shows the update; you don’t have to answer any questions.
  • On Linux, each format updates in its own way: an AppImage replaces the file, while .deb and .rpm packages ask for your password to install.
  • On macOS, the app is replaced.

Only copies installed from the first public release onwards can update automatically.

Pair a computer

Section titled “Pair a computer”
  1. In Connect, add a setup and give it a name. Select Pair with NOALBS Cloud.
  2. Connect displays a code under Enter this code on the NOALBS Cloud pairing page:. Select Open pairing page in the app; it opens the browser page for you. Check that the code on the page matches the one in the app.
  3. On the pairing page, choose a Workspace and Switcher, then select Connect to this switcher. You need switcher-management access in that workspace to pair a computer.
  4. After pairing, the computer appears under Paired computers in the switcher’s Settings page, in NOALBS Cloud Connect. Use Revoke there to stop the computer’s token from connecting. Unpair in the app removes the token stored on that computer; revoke it in the dashboard as well to fully revoke access.

Control OBS

Section titled “Control OBS”

The Connect app has Start, Stop and Restart controls for each setup. In the dashboard, the paired-computer card has Start OBS, Stop OBS and Restart OBS; Stop OBS and Restart OBS ask you to confirm. The Live page also offers Start OBS when a paired computer reports OBS not running or OBS crashed. The app’s Stop and Restart controls act immediately without a confirmation dialog.

The switcher’s Who can start, stop and restart OBS permission lets the owner allow only owners, owners and admins, or everyone in the workspace (including operators). NOALBS support cannot use this permission. Dashboard-issued OBS commands appear in the activity feed with the account that issued them.

Connect can show these OBS states:

State Meaning
OBS connected Connect can reach OBS over its WebSocket connection.
Starting OBS… OBS is starting.
OBS is running OBS is running on a setup that is not paired yet.
OBS is waiting for input OBS is running but has not connected to Connect yet.
OBS is asking about Safe Mode OBS is showing its Safe Mode prompt.
OBS websocket is off OBS WebSocket is disabled. Select Turn on OBS websocket in Connect to enable it.
OBS is not responding OBS stopped responding.
OBS crashed OBS crashed.
OBS not running No OBS process is running for this setup.
OBS running, not started by Connect Connect cannot safely identify which OBS process belongs to this setup (for example, when multiple OBS processes match). Start remains available, but Connect refuses the request rather than choosing a process.

In the dashboard’s OBS watchdog setting, the owner can choose:

  • Off: Connect reports a crash or an OBS process that stops responding, but does not restart OBS.
  • Restart OBS: Connect restarts OBS after a crash or when it stops responding. It does not resume the stream automatically.
  • Restart OBS and go live again: Connect restarts OBS and starts the stream again if it was live.

Use several OBS setups on one computer

Section titled “Use several OBS setups on one computer”

Add a separate setup in Connect for each OBS configuration you want to manage. On Linux, give each setup its own OBS settings folder.

On Windows and macOS, setups that share an OBS settings folder need to use Share the OBS settings folder with another setup and a different Websocket port for each setup. On Windows, a separate portable OBS copy can keep its own settings next to obs64.exe; Connect labels this option Portable OBS (keeps its own settings next to obs64.exe) and detects the OBS portable_mode marker file.

Logs and crash reports

Section titled “Logs and crash reports”

The switcher’s Who can see OBS logs permission controls access to logs. In the Logs card, select Get latest OBS log to ask an online Connect computer to upload its latest OBS log. Connect also uploads an OBS log after a detected crash and includes a matching crash report when it can identify one for that OBS process.

Logs are kept for up to 30 days, with a limit of 20 logs per switcher. The dashboard viewer masks common sensitive values by default, including stream keys in stream URLs, selected query-string secrets, bearer tokens and IP addresses. Select Show sensitive values to reveal them. The downloaded log is the raw file and is not redacted.

Programs

Section titled “Programs”

The Who can add, start and stop programs permission is set to owners only by default. The owner can allow admins or everyone in the workspace; NOALBS support is excluded. People without this permission do not see the program list, paths or arguments in the dashboard.

You can add programs in Connect or from the dashboard. Give each program a full executable path and its arguments, one per line. On macOS, you can choose the app itself (for example /Applications/TextEdit.app); Connect opens it the way Finder does. In the dashboard, the fields are Full program path and Arguments (one per line). Choose Start with OBS or Stop with OBS if the program should follow OBS’s start or stop, whether OBS is started or closed from Connect, the tray, the dashboard, or directly on your computer. If the watchdog restarts OBS after a crash, programs set to follow OBS keep running. To let dashboard users add or edit programs, enable Allow the dashboard to add and edit programs in Connect on that computer.

Stop asks a program to close, then force-closes it after 5 seconds if it is still running. OBS gets 20 seconds to close. Stop ends every running process that uses the program’s executable. You cannot change the executable path while that program is running.