Stream Dropping or Unstable
If your stream is frequently disconnecting, buffering for viewers, or showing quality issues, the cause is almost always network-related.
Check your upload speed
Your internet upload speed must be at least 1.5x your streaming bitrate for a stable connection.
| Bitrate | Minimum upload needed |
|---|---|
| 2500 kbps | 4 Mbps |
| 4500 kbps | 7 Mbps |
| 6000 kbps | 9 Mbps |
Test your upload speed at speedtest.net or fast.com. Test multiple times — consistency matters as much as peak speed.
Lower your bitrate
The most effective fix for stream instability is reducing the bitrate:
- Open Settings → Streaming
- Lower the bitrate (e.g., from 4500 kbps to 2500 kbps)
- Consider dropping to 720p resolution — this looks good at lower bitrates and reduces bandwidth demand
Wi-Fi vs wired
Wi-Fi is the most common cause of stream drops:
- 5 GHz band — Always use 5 GHz, not 2.4 GHz
- Signal strength — Keep the iPad close to the router
- Interference — Other Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth devices, and microwave ovens can interfere with 2.4 GHz and to a lesser extent 5 GHz
- Wired connection — A USB-C Ethernet adapter on the iPad provides the most stable connection for streaming
Network congestion
Other devices on your network consuming bandwidth will affect your stream:
- Other people streaming video (Netflix, YouTube)
- Large file uploads or cloud backups
- Other devices streaming from pMix.studio’s production (multiple iPhone cameras)
Fix: Use a dedicated network for streaming, or ensure no other heavy traffic is running during your production.
Platform-specific issues
YouTube
- YouTube requires a 2-second keyframe interval — incorrect settings can cause instability
- YouTube’s ingest servers occasionally have issues — check YouTube Status or their status page
Twitch
- Don’t exceed 6000 kbps — Twitch may reject or throttle higher bitrates
- Try a different ingest server if your default server is having issues
General
- Stream key — An incorrect or expired stream key will cause immediate disconnection
- RTMP URL — Verify the URL matches your platform’s current ingest endpoints
pMix.studio health indicators
Monitor the status bar during streaming:
- Green — Healthy connection
- Yellow — Warning (possible congestion or minor drops)
- Red — Critical issues (high packet loss, disconnection imminent)
Open the Health Stats panel for detailed metrics including frame rate, bitrate, and network performance.
pMix warns you before it drops
If your upload can’t carry the bitrate you’ve set, pMix tells you rather than quietly reducing quality or waiting to fail. Treat that warning as the cue to lower the bitrate — see above.
If the connection does go down for that reason, it redials quickly instead of waiting out the usual backoff.
A stream that fails twice within seconds no longer stops with “check your stream key”. That message was almost always wrong: repeated fast failures usually mean a flaky uplink, not a bad key. It now backs off progressively and keeps trying.
“Please wait before going live again”
Some platforms refuse a new stream for a period after the last one ended. pMix knows about this and holds off, showing how long is left — the hold is scaled to how the previous session actually ended. If you’re confident the platform is ready, START NOW overrides it.
The key was wrong
Fix it in the destination editor while the stream is still retrying. The corrected key is used on the next reconnect attempt; you don’t have to stop and start over.
Still unstable
- Test with a lower bitrate and resolution (e.g., 720p at 2000 kbps) to establish a baseline
- Try a wired Ethernet connection to rule out Wi-Fi issues
- Try a different streaming platform to rule out platform-specific problems
- Test from a different network (e.g., phone hotspot) to determine if your ISP is the issue
- Check if the problem is time-dependent — peak internet usage hours (evening) often have more congestion