Troubleshooting

Most issues come down to one of a few things. Work down the list.

The overlay is not showing up in OBS

If the browser source is added but nothing appears on stream, work through these:

Check the URL. The source must use your Overlay URL (copy it fresh from the dashboard homepage), not your Studio URL or an old link.
Move the source to the top. In the Sources list, right-click Break Overlay and choose Order → Move to Top. If it sits below your camera or another source, the overlay is hidden behind it.
Make sure the source is visible. The eye icon next to Break Overlay should be on, not crossed out.
Match the size. Set the source Width and Height to 1080 x 1920 so it fills your portrait canvas.
Refresh it. Right-click the source and choose Refresh to reload and re-sync from your latest state.

Still nothing? The board stays blank until you start a break. See the next section.

The overlay is blank on stream

That is normal until you start a break. Pick a template and go live from the studio and the board appears. See Going live.

The break will not start

Start break stays blocked until everything it needs is in place. Check these in order:

Break details are complete. Product type, league or TCG (plus a season for the soccer leagues), and a total of at least 1 spot.
A template is selected. You need at least one saved break template; the studio prompts you to create one if you have none.
Your email is confirmed. Going live requires a confirmed email. Use Resend verification from the banner in the studio or from Dashboard → Account → Email if the link expired.
Your plan is active. After the 7-day trial you need a subscription to go on air. If you downgraded, a template using features above your plan is flagged with the exact reasons: edit it down or upgrade. See Account and billing.

A colored box appears instead of transparent graphics

Double-check that the source is your Overlay URL and that you did not add a color background behind it. The overlay is transparent by design, so anything solid you see is coming from OBS, not from Breakcastr.

The board looks out of date or stuck

Right-click the Break Overlay source in OBS and choose Refresh. It reloads and re-syncs from your latest state. Ticking Refresh browser when scene becomes active in the overlay source settings makes this happen automatically on every scene cut.

The graphics are hidden behind the camera

Your overlay must sit above every other source. Right-click Break Overlay in the Sources list and choose Order → Move to Top (or drag it to the top). Any source above it, like a camera or a frame, will cover your graphics.

Studio actions are not showing on stream

Make sure the overlay and the studio are using the matching links you were given.
Check that you are connected to the internet. If the console loses its connection it pauses and shows a reconnecting notice; controls come back the moment the connection does.
Confirm you have actually started the break. The live board only runs once you are on air.

Celebration effects have no sound

First, work out which problem you have.

You cannot hear them, but your viewers can. This is the usual one, and nothing is broken. OBS sends audio to your stream without playing it back to you. To hear it yourself: set your headphones as the Monitoring Device in Settings → Audio, then open the Audio Mixer, click the ⋮ on your overlay source, choose Advanced Audio Properties, and set its Audio Monitoring to Monitor and Output.

They are too loud or too quiet against your voice. Your overlay source has its own slider in the Audio Mixer. Drag it until effects sit under your talking.

You are checking in a browser tab, not OBS. Browsers block auto-playing audio, so a spare tab showing the overlay may be silent when the stream is fine. Judge audio through OBS, and use the preview buttons in the studio to hear a clip while you are setting up.

New to OBS? The whole audio path is walked through in Set up OBS.

The score widgets only have something to show when their league or team has a game. If there is no game today, the card is empty; the studio also warns you about this in the live preview on the Start Break screen before you go live. And note that studio previews use sample data: real scores appear on the OBS overlay once your break is live.

The overlay reloaded mid-break

Do not. The overlay heals itself. Any reload (a scene cut, a manual refresh, even an OBS crash recovery) re-syncs the exact current board, so every sold spot comes right back with no action from you.

The break ended on its own

A live break auto-ends after 6 hours, a backstop so a forgotten break cannot run forever. Also, if you ended a break and then closed OBS and the studio, the held overlay is closed out after about 20 minutes. An intentional hold between breaks, with OBS still open, stays up as long as you like.

The overlay URL leaked

Reset it from Dashboard → Channel → Reset overlay URL. The old URL stops working immediately, so re-paste the fresh one into your OBS browser source. A break that is already live keeps running.

The camera is a small strip with black bars

Your canvas is portrait (9:16) and your camera is almost certainly widescreen (16:9), so it does not fill the frame on its own. Scale it up and crop the sides, or leave it as a band and let the overlay use the space. Both are covered in Set up OBS.

Still stuck

Check your OBS settings, including your canvas size, against Add Breakcastr to OBS. If something still is not right, email support@breakcastr.com with your channel name and what you are seeing.