3d Camera Tracker Error 'unable to obtain dynamiclink server connection' (After Effects 23.x)

[borgNZ]

3d Camera Tracker Error 'unable to obtain dynamiclink server connection'. I have re-installed and updated to the latest release. Please note I do not use dynamic link ever! 2017 Imac Monterey Vers 12.6 64GB Ram, Radeon Pro 580 8 GB. Any assistance here would be greatly appreciated. My productivity vs cost of Adobe subscription has been seriously compromised this year. Rich.

Title edited by Mod. to include After Effects version

[Rick Gerard]

I'm not having any problems with a slightly newer M1 MacBook Pro and AE 23.1.0. It took about 20 seconds to start up and analyze a 6-second, 120 fps, 4K, ProRez video. 

What version of AE are you using, and how much ram have you allocated to other apps in Preferences/Media and Disk Cache? You can get there using the keyboard shortcut Alt/Option + Ctrl/Cmnd + ;

An even multiple of 4 GB usually works best.

[Lewiz]

I am having the exact same problem, AE version is 23.1, 24 gB allocated to Adobe. Track camera literally still worked last week, now it stopped. Rolling back doesn't help.

[Vicente5E48]

3d Camera Tracker Error 'unable to obtain dynamiclink server connection'. 

I have cleaned with Adove CC Cleaner Tool and reinstalled and it still gives the same message.
This is a Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB RAM and 48C GPU with After Effects 23.1

RAM reserved for other applications is 32GB (I've tried 16, 64, etc...)

Maximum disk cache size 280GB

All multiplies of 4 as I have read in previous queries

This is really desperate...

 

 

[Vicente5E48]

I'm running AE 23.1.0 in a brand new Mac Studio Ultra 128GB 48C GPU macOS MOnterey.

Disk Cache 280GB

64GB RAM for other apps

I've tryed everything but still doesn't work. This is my second day trying to fix this mess and I just wanna cry

[Vicente5E48]

UPDATE: I have tried again by deleting all existing Adobe folders on the Mac and reinstalling again. No result.

this is a disgrace. i have just wasted two days trying to fix this.

[nishu_kush]

Hi Vicente5E48,

Some work was done on this issue in the current release. Sorry to hear that you're still seeing this.

Could you share the details of the footage (frame rate, frame size, format/codec) you're trying to track? Do you see the error with all the media files or a particular one?

We're here to help, just need more info.

Thanks,

Nishu

[nishu_kush]

Hi All,

Sorry to hear about the issue.

Do you mind sharing the following details:

• What are the details of the footage (frame rate, frame size, format/codec)?
• Does it happen with all the footage or a particular one?
• What's the exact version of the OS?

We're here to help, just need more info.

Thanks,

Nishu

[Vicente5E48]

Thanks for your reply. It happens with all the media files. All of them

[nishu_kush]

Thanks for testing it.

Do you mind clearing all the Adobe apps and associated folders using the Adobe Cleaner tool and reinstalling After Effects?

Let us know if it brings any change.

Thanks,

Nishu

[Vicente5E48]

thanks Nishu for you support.

I already did. I cleaned all apps and folders but the problem is still there.

[nishu_kush]

That's strange! I was working on the same issue with a user, and they were able to fix it by doing a clean installation. Could you create a new user account on your computer and test After Effects in it? 

Let us know the outcome.

Thanks,

Nishu

[Vicente5E48]

Problem still there with a new user account.

MacOS Monterey

Mac Studio Ultra 128GB 48C GPU

[Lewiz]

Hi Nishu, thanks for taking the time. 

The issue is present on Apple ProRes 422 1920x1080 Quicktime video, but just as well on X-AVC100 1920x1080 10-bits MXF. Tried with some more footage, but it keeps happening on every format. In fact, AE cannot even start analyzing a track, because it starts trying to link to the dynamic server for whatever reason, and doesn't find it.

I DID find out that this does NOT happen on Windows 11, my laptop runs on that and that is my workaround for now. However, on my workstation (which I cannot upgrade to Windows 11 yet) the problem persists whatever I do.

My exact Windows version is Edition Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H2 OS build 19044.2364
Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4190.0.

I hope this information means anything to you.

[nishu_kush]

Thanks for trying. Allow me some time to do some research.

I appreciate your patience.

Thanks,

Nishu

[nishu_kush]

Thanks for sharing the details. Allow me some time to do some research.

I appreciate your patience.

Thanks,

Nishu

[WShawn]

Attempted a routine 3D camera track on some 4K footage

Error message pops up while attempting to initialize: "unable to obtain dynamic link server connection"

After Effects 22.6

Mac Studio 2022

Apple M1 Ultra (CPU/GPU)

128 GB RAM

Mac OS 12.6 Monterey

This was all working fine 3-4 weeks ago on this exact setup. Many hours of Warp Stabilization and 3D Camera tracking, no hiccups. 

No notable changes to my hardware or software.

Firewall: Off (as before)

After Effects has Full Disk Access (as before)

After Effects has access to Files and Folders (as before)

After Effects user since 1997

These are the steps I've taken to correct the issue. None have succeeded:

0. Restarted/power cycled computer multiple times

1. Created new project from scratch

2. Attempted 3D track in AE 23.1

3. Attempted 3D track on two other clips

4. Signed in and out of Adobe Creative Cloud

5. Stopped various processes in the Activity monitor and renamed various folders related to Dynamic Linking

6. Moved all preference files for AE 22.6 and 23.1 (generating new ones upon relaunch)

7. In AE reduced RAM for other applications to 12 GB (the lowest it will go)

8. Turned off multi-frame rendering in AE

9. Switched from GPU to CPU Video Rendering

10. Removed Dropbox and Lucid cloud drive from startup items

11. Un-installed JDownloader (I'd installed it a few weeks ago).

12. Followed the instructions (backing up log files) and ran Adobe CC Cleaner tool (removing ALL of my Adobe apps and associated files)

13. Reinstalled Creative Cloud App, AE 23.1 and Media Encoder 23.1 ONLY (No third-party plugins installed)

14. Attempted to use Dynamic Link between AE and Media Encoder. Media Encoder hangs up when attempting to render a simple AE comp "Connecting to Dynamic Link Server."

15. Created a new user account and attempted track. Same error

16. Updated Mac OS to Monterey 12.6.2

As a last resort I:

Wiped a spare external SSD

Performed a clean install of MacOS Monterey

Installed After Effects 23.1 (which also installs the Abobe CC app and Media Encoder)

Finally, on this totally clean install, I was able to do this 3D camera track. Given that I've lost at least $600 of billable client hours dealing with this, the prospect of backing up and erasing my system drive to start from scratch does not appeal to me.

Thoughts? Is there any process I should be looking for in the Activity Monitor that would indicate some conflict that prevents the Dynamic Link Sever from initializing? When invoking a process that uses Dynamic Linking I do see a process called "dynamiclinkmanager" using 0.3% of my CPU in the Activity Monitor.

Thanks for reading.

[WShawn]

3D Camera Tracker not working! What's wrong?

[OussK]

without more information no one can help you, so what is your AE release? OS? Is it a project-based issue or a general issue? send some screenshots...

[Mylenium]

You have not provided any system info, details about your project, version of AE you are using and so on. Just saying that the tracker doesn't work is not in any way useful. You need to do much better and provide all the details before anyone can even guess.

Mylenium

[WShawn]

Thanks for responding. Here are the details:

Attempted a routine 3D camera track on some 4K footage

Error message pops up while attempting to initialize: "unable to obtain dynamic link server connection"

After Effects 22.6

Mac Studio 2022

Apple M1 Ultra (CPU/GPU)

128 GB RAM

Mac OS 12.6 Monterey

This was all working fine 3-4 weeks ago on this exact setup. Many hours of Warp Stabilization and 3D Camera tracking, no hiccups. 

No notable changes to my hardware or software.

Firewall: Off (as before)

After Effects has Full Disk Access (as before)

After Effects has access to Files and Folders (as before)

After Effects user since 1997

These are the steps I've taken to correct the issue. None have succeeded:

0. Restarted/power cycled computer multiple times

1. Created new project from scratch

2. Attempted 3D track in AE 23.1

3. Attempted 3D track on two other clips

4. Signed in and out of Adobe Creative Cloud

5. Stopped various processes in the Activity monitor and renamed various folders related to Dynamic Linking

6. Moved all preference files for AE 22.6 and 23.1 (generating new ones upon relaunch)

7. In AE reduced RAM for other applications to 12 GB (the lowest it will go)

8. Turned off multi-frame rendering in AE

9. Switched from GPU to CPU Video Rendering

10. Removed Dropbox and Lucid cloud drive from startup items

11. Un-installed JDownloader (I'd installed it a few weeks ago).

12. Followed the instructions (backing up log files) and ran Adobe CC Cleaner tool (removing ALL of my Adobe apps and associated files)

13. Reinstalled Creative Cloud App, AE 23.1 and Media Encoder 23.1 ONLY (No third-party plugins installed)

14. Attempts to use Dynamic Link between AE and Media Encoder fail. Media Encoder hangs up when attempting to render a simple AE comp "Connecting to Dynamic Link Server."

15. Created a new user account and attempted track. Same error

16. Updated Mac OS to Monterey 12.6.2

As a last resort I:

Wiped a spare external SSD

Performed a clean install of MacOS Monterey

Installed After Effects 23.1 (which also installs the Abobe CC app and Media Encoder)

Finally, on this totally clean install, I was able to do this 3D camera track. 

Thoughts? Is there any process I should be looking for in the Activity Monitor that would indicate some conflict that prevents the Dynamic Link Sever from initializing? When invoking an item that uses Dynamic Linking I do see a process called "dynamiclinkmanager" using 0.3% of my CPU in the Activity Monitor.

BTW, the above is a copy and paste of a thread I posted on January 3rd that garnered zero replies.

To this I'll add that I ran the Adobe CC Cleaner Tool again earlier today and moved every cache and preference file that contained the word "Adobe" out of my user/Library. No luck.

Cheers.

[Lewiz]

Hi Nishu,

Any luck on this issue yet? Meanwhile I tracked another piece of footage on my laptop, where everything is working fine, but on my desktop it still isn't working. Could it be because my desktop connects through a company network with thousands of firewalls? I saw in windows task manager a certain adobe analysis server is called upon?

[Lewiz]

Bump...

[Lewiz]

The problem is something with the network. Obviously an external Adobe server is called upon during the startup you mentioned. It has little to do with how fast or new the computer is, though obviously some overambitioned software writer at Adobe upgraded the dynamic link part on a too new machine, so older OS's have a problem establishing the dynamic link. This can't be that hard to figure out. It used to work fine. Adobe, act now. 

[borgNZ]

Hey Nishu, 

I have tested the Camera Tracker on Pro Res 444, DNxHD HQX 10-bit and a rendered PNG Seq, all at 1920 x1080, and tried 25fps, 23.976 and 30fps. Issue still persists. One of the shots I tested was working just fine a week prior to my inital comms regarding the issue. This is costing me time and financially blowing out budgets. I have a number of projects lined up for the start of the year. 

[Lewiz]

For everyone here experiencing this issue, it has NOTHING to do with footage or codecs or fast pc's or whatsoever. The Dynamic Link manager simply WON'T connect to, among other, the Adobe Analysis server. It's a NETWORK and therefore probably Windows (or MacOS) vs. Adobe fault.