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Troubleshooting ClipCat

The sidebar tells you whether replay is running, disabled, or stopped by an error.

Save now is disabled or no clip is saved​

Turn on the replay switch and wait for Replay buffer running. A clean installation has replay disabled. Give the buffer time to collect footage before saving. If another save is in progress, wait for its result.

After a restart or capture-setting change, the buffer starts empty. A short clip immediately afterward is expected.

Capture engine missing​

On Windows, reinstall the official ClipCat installer to restore bundled capture components. On Linux, install your distribution's obs-studio package. Disk buffering also needs ffmpeg. Restart ClipCat after fixing the missing component.

Capture did not start or the picture is wrong​

Check the error message, graphics driver, and encoder shown in the sidebar. Try H.264 with a lower resolution and FPS. If hardware encoding fails, the CPU fallback may be slower.

On Windows, check Capture desktop if you want the primary screen outside a full-screen game. On Wayland, accept the screen-sharing portal request and select the intended screen. Linux does not use Windows game-capture hooks.

Hotkeys do not respond​

Try the same action using Save now or Record to distinguish a shortcut issue from a capture issue. Check for conflicts with game overlays or another recorder, then assign a different shortcut and save. Windows includes fallback handling for games that suppress normal global shortcut events; this does not guarantee every game will accept every key combination.

On Linux, global shortcuts and key-state detection can be limited by the desktop session, particularly for native Wayland apps.

Microphone is silent​

New settings default to Off. Select a microphone mode and device, save, and make a short test recording. With Push-to-talk, hold its key while speaking. Check OS microphone permissions and mute controls. See Audio.

Low memory, disk full, or save errors​

Shorten the replay or lower bitrate for memory pressure; consider disk buffering for longer replays. Make space on both save and buffer drives and verify folder permissions. Capture stops when less than 1 GB remains. If finalization reports a partial recording, keep that file while investigating.

Logs and runtime state are in %LOCALAPPDATA%\ClipCat on Windows, or $XDG_STATE_HOME/clipcat (normally ~/.local/state/clipcat) on Linux. Remove private information before sharing logs.

Update cannot proceed​

Stop manual recording and wait for clip saving to finish. Updates cannot install during those operations. Save any wanted replay content, then retry from Settings > Info. See Info and updates.

If the problem continues, report it with your capture settings and platform details.