diff --git a/sleap/config/pipeline_form.yaml b/sleap/config/pipeline_form.yaml
index c34faea55..0497e2815 100644
--- a/sleap/config/pipeline_form.yaml
+++ b/sleap/config/pipeline_form.yaml
@@ -460,7 +460,7 @@ inference:
       help: 'Save the flow-shifted instances between elapsed frames. It improves
       instance matching at the cost of using a bit more of memory.'
       type: bool
-      default: true
+      default: false
     - type: text
       text: '<b>Kalman filter-based tracking</b>:<br />
       Uses the above tracking options to track instances for an initial
diff --git a/sleap/nn/tracking.py b/sleap/nn/tracking.py
index a99aab8b5..619b33f76 100644
--- a/sleap/nn/tracking.py
+++ b/sleap/nn/tracking.py
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ class FlowCandidateMaker:
     img_scale: float = 1.0
     of_window_size: int = 21
     of_max_levels: int = 3
-    save_shifted_instances: bool = True
+    save_shifted_instances: bool = False
     track_window: int = 5
 
     shifted_instances: Dict[
@@ -1225,7 +1225,7 @@ def get_by_name_factory_options(cls):
         option["help"] = "For optical-flow: Number of pyramid scale levels to consider"
         options.append(option)
 
-        option = dict(name="save_shifted_instances", default=1)
+        option = dict(name="save_shifted_instances", default=0)
         option["type"] = int
         option["help"] = (
             "If non-zero and tracking.tracker is set to flow, save the shifted "