When something is not showing up

Work out why a scene, a widget or a number is missing from your stream, one symptom at a time.

The browser source is blank

Blank comes down to four causes: the page never loaded, it loaded something other than the scene you meant, the scene has nothing visible on it right now, or the source is the wrong size.

Check the URL

  1. Copy the URL again from Dashboard, Overlays.Every scene card has a copy button, and the editor has Copy source URL in its toolbar. A copied URL carries your overlay key. A retyped one does not.
  2. Check the username is your pulz username, in lower case.Usernames are stored in lower case and matched exactly, so a capital letter anywhere in the name means the page cannot find the account and returns an error instead of your overlay.
  3. Check the scene number against the number on the scene card.Each card reads Scene 2, and that is the number in ?scene=2. Deleting a scene frees its number for the next one you create, so an old URL can end up pointing at a different scene.
  4. Keep the key on the end of the URL.The &k= part is what a source proves itself with. A scene renders without it, but tips never connect, test alerts never arrive, and a counter, a timer or the privacy screen fired from a Stream Deck or your phone takes up to 30 seconds to land instead of being instant.

Check the scene itself

  1. Open the scene in the editor and read the layer list.A layer with a crossed-out eye is hidden. Hidden layers never render in OBS, only in the editor list.
  2. Check the toolbar says Saved.The editor saves on its own about a second after your last change. Unsaved means the change has not reached the server yet, so OBS cannot have it either.
  3. Accept that most widgets draw nothing when there is nothing to draw.A scene holding only chat, alerts or an event feed is genuinely empty between messages. That is the design, not a fault.

Check the source size

  1. Open the browser source properties in OBS.
  2. Set Width and Height to the artboard size of the scene.The scene card prints it, for example 1920 x 1080. A single widget URL wants the size listed beside it under Single widgets.
  3. Resize the source on the OBS canvas with its handles, not by editing Width and Height again.Width and Height are the page the scene is drawn into. The handles scale what has already been drawn.

Alerts are not firing

Twitch only sends pulz the events you have given it permission to receive. pulz asks for almost nothing when you connect, so follows, subs and cheers each need turning on before an alert can exist at all.

Turn on the permissions your alerts need

  1. Open Dashboard, Connections.It is the Connections item in the dashboard sidebar.
  2. Scroll to the Twitch permissions card and find the group headed Reading your channel.
  3. Tick the permissions the alerts you want depend on.The list below says what each one unlocks.
  4. Press the grant button and approve on Twitch.It re-requests everything you already granted alongside the new one, because a Twitch token only carries the permissions of its most recent grant. Seeing the whole list on Twitch is expected, not a mistake.
  5. Come back to pulz and check the permission now shows On.Approving also re-subscribes pulz to the event types that permission unlocks. There is nothing else to press, and no reconnect to do.
  • Followers - follow alerts and the latest-follower label. A follower goal counts without it, because your follower total is public Twitch data either way.
  • Subscribers - sub, resub and gift sub alerts, and a sub goal with a real number.
  • Bits - cheer alerts and bit goals.
  • Channel points - alerts and event feed rows when someone redeems a reward.
  • Hype trains - the hype train widget: level, progress and top contributors.
  • Ad schedule - the ad break widget.
  • Raids need no permission at all. If raids alert and nothing else does, that is the shape of a missing permission.

If the permission is on and alerts still do not fire

  1. Fire a test alert from Dashboard, Stream Control.The Actions card has an Alert type picker and a Test alert button.
  2. Check the source URL ends with your key.A test alert travels over the live channel named by your overlay key, so a URL without &k= never receives one. Single widget URLs never carry the key, so a standalone alerts source cannot be tested this way. Its real alerts still work.
  3. Open the Alerts widget settings and look under Per-event settings.Each event type has its own Enabled switch and an Only above threshold that ignores anything smaller. A threshold left over from a test is a common reason cheers stay silent.
  4. Check the event feed to separate the two halves of the problem.An Event Feed widget lists recent events whether or not a source was open when they happened. Events listed there but never alerted is a widget setting. Nothing listed at all is a permission.

Chat is not appearing

Twitch chat

  1. Check Twitch is connected under Dashboard, Connections.Chat widgets join the channel of your connected Twitch login. With no Twitch connection there is no channel to join. No extra permission is needed to read chat.
  2. Check your filters in the widget settings, under Filter.Hide command messages (starting with !) and Hide known chat bots are both on by default. Hidden words, hidden chatters and the fade timer live in the same group.

Kick and YouTube

  1. Use the Multistream Chat widget, not Twitch Chat.The plain Twitch Chat widget stays Twitch-only even on a scene that also runs multistream chat.
  2. Connect Kick under Dashboard, Connections.The Kick leg reads the chatroom of your connected Kick channel straight from the browser source.
  3. Connect YouTube, and be live on YouTube.The YouTube leg reads the live chat of whatever your connected channel is streaming right now. An offline channel has no live chat to read, and the source re-checks about once a minute, so allow a minute after going live.
  4. Check the Platforms group in the widget settings.Twitch, Kick and YouTube each have their own switch there.

A number reads zero

Every number on a goal or a stat comes from a different place, and they fail differently.

  • Followers is public Twitch data. It needs no permission, so a follower count stuck on zero means the Twitch connection itself, not a permission.
  • Subscribers needs the Subscribers permission. Without it pulz has no number to show and a sub goal sits at zero.
  • Bits this stream and Points redeemed are added up from your recent events, which hold the last 20. Tips this stream adds up the tips that have reached the source itself, because pulz never sees them. All three are live totals, not lifetime ones.
  • Manual count is a number you move yourself with the counter trigger URL, from a Stream Deck, a phone or a hotkey. It never fills in on its own.

The editor warns about every permission a widget could ever need, not only the ones your settings actually use. A goal bar tracking followers alone still asks for subscribers and bits. Read the warning as a checklist, not a fault.

Numbers are also not instant. A source re-reads follower and subscriber totals every 45 seconds, and the answer is cached for a minute on the way out, so a fresh sub can take up to about two minutes to land on screen.

The scene looks different in OBS than in the editor

The editor and OBS run the same renderer, so a layout cannot drift between them. Two things do differ: the size the scene is drawn into, and whether sample data is showing.

Size

  1. Compare the artboard size on the scene card to the Width and Height of the browser source.The whole board scales as one piece to fit the source. Nothing reflows and no widget moves on its own, but everything gets smaller together, text included.
  2. Match the shape, not only the size.The board is scaled to fit and centred, so a 1920 x 1080 scene in a taller source leaves a band above and below rather than stretching to fill it.
  3. Set Width and Height to the artboard size, then scale the source on the OBS canvas.

One widget deliberately does not behave like the rest inside the artboard: making a chat box bigger fits more messages rather than enlarging the text. Text size is its own slider in the chat settings.

An open source re-reads your scene about once a minute, so an edit reaches OBS shortly after you make it with nothing to press. To see it immediately, use Refresh cache of current page in the browser source properties.

The ad countdown or the sub count looks wrong

Ad break

  1. Turn on Ad schedule under Dashboard, Connections.Without it Twitch sends pulz no ad events, so the widget has nothing to count and stays idle forever.
  2. Turn Hide when no ad is near off while you are checking.With it off the widget paints a quiet line reading no ad scheduled instead of hiding itself, which proves the widget is on screen and has nothing to count. Turn it back on before you go live.
  3. Expect the countdown when the break starts, not before it.On stream the widget counts down a break that Twitch has told it has begun. The advance heads-up set by Warn this long before currently only appears in the dashboard preview, so do not treat a missing heads-up as a broken source.

Subscriber count

  1. Turn on Subscribers under Dashboard, Connections.It covers both halves: the sub total a goal shows, and the sub, resub and gift alerts.
  2. Read the number as a total, not as this stream.A sub goal counts your current Twitch subscriber total. A goal of 100 on a channel with 90 subs opens at 90 percent, which is usually the surprise.
  3. Use Starting from to count from where you are now.Set it to your current total and the bar measures the subs you gain from here.

FAQ

Do I need one browser source per widget?

No. A scene is your whole layout in one browser source. Single widget URLs still exist and are fully supported, under Single widgets on the Overlays page, but a scene is fewer sources and one connection instead of many.

Can pulz switch scenes or hide sources in OBS?

No. A hosted page cannot reach the websocket running on your own machine. pulz switches its own scenes inside the browser source, which is what a ?live=1 source is for, and OBS keeps control of everything in OBS.

Why does switching scenes take a moment to reach OBS?

A source with a fixed scene number never changes, by design. A ?live=1 source re-reads which scene is on air about once a minute, so allow up to a minute or refresh the source in OBS.

I granted a permission. Does it backfill what I missed?

Not for events. Approving on Twitch subscribes pulz to the event types that permission unlocks from that moment on, so follows, subs and cheers from before the grant were never sent and cannot appear in an alert or an event feed afterwards. A goal that reads a total is the exception: a follower or sub goal asks Twitch for the current number, so it is right as soon as the permission is on. Bit, point and tip goals count events, so they start from the grant.

Someone has my overlay URL. What can they do with it?

They can watch your scene the way a viewer does. The key on the end is what a source proves itself with, so treat the full URL like a password: keep it out of screenshots, and never put it on screen while you are live.