Preparing is normal at first
When you go live, AFK Live starts sending within seconds, but YouTube takes a little while to start showing it. Preparing or Waiting for stream for up to about 30 seconds is normal. Your stream's page in AFK Live shows Live as soon as we're sending.
For 24/7 streams: Auto-start on, Auto-stop off
YouTube has two settings that decide what happens when a stream connects and disconnects. Set them once:
- Open YouTube Studio's live dashboard and choose Stream.
- In Stream settings, open Additional settings.
- Turn Enable Auto-start on. YouTube then goes live by itself as soon as our stream arrives, without you pressing Go live in YouTube Studio.
- Turn Enable Auto-stop off. With it on, YouTube ends your live the moment the stream pauses, even for a second when we restart it, and the next connection can sit on Preparing.
Stuck on Preparing?
This usually happens after a restart or after you change the stream's shape (landscape or vertical) or quality: YouTube holds on to the old live and won't show the new picture in it.
- Leave your stream running in AFK Live.
- In YouTube Studio's live dashboard, press End stream on the live that's stuck.
- Start a fresh live with the same stream key (the Stream tab again). With Auto-start on, it picks up our stream within about 30 seconds.
You don't need a new key, and you don't need to stop anything in AFK Live.