Global Audio Devices settings reset after Windows update

Operating System Info

Windows 11

Other OS

No response

OBS Studio Version

31.0.3

OBS Studio Version (Other)

No response

OBS Studio Log URL

Log file when everything works as normal and global audio devices initialize correctly: https://obsproject.com/logs/Bfb4d0VcLhzumtzX

Log file when global audio devices fail to initialize correctly: https://obsproject.com/logs/mVekXmXb5X02Ko9B

Log file when global audio devices fail to initialize correctly and I manually set global audio devices again: https://obsproject.com/logs/bdurkWomqy7igyO1

OBS Studio Crash Log URL

No response

Expected Behavior

I expect OBS to reliably remember my choice for Settings > Audio > Global Audio Devices.

If I disconnect one of the audio devices set here, or it was not available when OBS initialized, OBS should monitor for it to be reconnected/become available again and use it.

Current Behavior

Currently, my use case for OBS is using it as a NVIDIA ShadowPlay/Medal.tv alternative thanks to the Replay Buffer feature. It works great, except for the fact that OBS seems to randomly forget the Global Audio Devices settings that I have set every so often.

I have OBS set up to launch at startup with some relevant flags for my use case. I did this by adding a shortcut to it in shell:startup. Every now and then, I'll take a "clip" (save the replay buffer using a hotkey I configured) to find the clip has no audio -- I will then maximize OBS to find that all my configured audio devices in Settings > Audio > Global Audio Devices are set to [Device not connected or not available]:

Note that OBS never forgets these midway through a session - my current workaround is every time I boot my PC, I check if OBS has initialized the Global Audio Devices correctly. If it hasn't, I just reconfigure it and everything works fine from there. If I unplug my audio devices and plug them back in, OBS remembers and the audio works smoothly without me having to set the Global Audio Devices again.

My initial layman theory is that OBS starts up before whatever part of Windows OBS gets the audio devices from is ready (or has otherwise initialized my audio devices), so OBS then thinks my audio devices were never plugged in in the first place and doesn't listen for them being "plugged in" (or otherwise re-initialized) anymore. Perhaps either that, or for whatever reason something about the audio device metadata/guid changes so that OBS doesn't recognise them anymore.

Steps to Reproduce

No clue what causes this, it appears to be random, sorry!

Anything else we should know?

I was able to find some other users experiencing this issue back in 2021:

https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/obs-keeps-on-forgetting-audio-device.148391/

Start by comparing the three linked OBS log URLs for normal initialization, failed initialization, and manual reconfiguration, focusing on Settings > Audio > Global Audio Devices after Windows startup. Reproduce the startup case if possible and trace why unavailable devices are not recovered; done means configured devices reliably return after startup or reconnection without manual selection.