AE won't stop tracking after a dozen or two frames.

[nubnubbud]

This is effectively a port of a topic from 2017 before this was a bug report forum, though the bug has existed (just confirmed it myself) since CS6. Though listed as answered here, the workarounds found are risky and can cause crashes and other unintended results. This needs to be fixed.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-discussions/ae-wont-stop-tracking-once-started/td-p/950...

Basically, if you have trackers which use enough CPU (super easy to do with large features or search areas, especially on high res footage), the entire UI lags to the point that it cannot recognize keypresses or clicks. Larger trackers will cause it to happen more quickly. It still tracks, and will stop when the clip is over, but in many cases this can leave a clip unstoppably tracking for half an hour with the only workaround being a risky move that could close without saving if the OS is fickle.

versions: all since at least CS6
platform: Windows, possibly others. widespread and well known bug.

[JohnColombo]

Hi @nubnubbud,

Thank you for reporting this issue and for the link to the older discussion. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to reproduce the AE interface becoming unresponsive during tracking in our testing. Even using 4K footage and large search/feature areas on several minutes of frames, the Stop button for tracking and the space bar both were able to stop the tracking immediately. In seeing how long this bug has persisted, we would certainly like to see it fixed as well.

To help us reproduce the issue, would you be able to provide a project & footage that reproduces the issue on your machine? A screen recording would also be helpful.

It's also possible that this issue is dependent on system specs, so sharing the configuration of the system you are using would be helpful as well.

Thanks for reporting this issue and for any further information you can provide,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team  

[nubnubbud]

I run an intel 6700k and GTX 1070 with 32gigs of RAM, an M.2 for cache and edit storage, an SSD for bulk storage, and a hard drive for massive archives, which I've used since 2017.
Interestingly, I didn't have the issue on older hardware from CS3 to CS6, but back then 1080p was my highest definition workloads, so it probably wouldn't have mattered. Back then I was pretty new, just running a dell prebuilt. I eventually moved to a GTX 580, an old intel 7-2700k and 8 gigs of RAM that I used from 2011 to 2017, and I'm trying to secure funds for a new upgrade because I was holding out through the chip shortage.

the issue was very rare in CS6, and only happened with 4k or higher footage, (I sometimes played around with 16k back then. yes, it actually worked on a 2011 intel chip) but now, even footage as small as 2k can make it happen. 

what systems are you testing it on? I have a feeling this is being tested on workstations optimized for adobe software. My systems are optimized for general rendering and light CGI, and some light game server hosting. for off-hours.
This likely happens when RAM is gobbled up by the program. However, along with the price of these programs, I can't justify increasing my RAM to fit video files, as I would need more than 256 gigs of RAM to store each shot, which is clearly excessive and would require exorbitant costs.

I won't be able to share any of these current shots due to rights issues, but even if I could, someone at Adobe would need to open up a transfer service. I could maybe share a light frame or two of video here. lat time I tried to share footage I had to compress it till it was basically useless, and my suspicion is it happens with large files.
here's some more users from across time with the issue, for some more qualitative experiences and some tech specs, though.
https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/30629/ways-to-force-stop-or-limit-extent-of-after-effects-...
https://community.fxhome.com/discussion/6396/single-point-tracker-doesnt-stop
https://creativecow.net/forums/thread/motion-tracking-freezes-after-effects/ <---this one is interesting, a confirmed issue in CS3, in 2010