If you are unable to solve your issue using the tips below, please contact the developers by opening a bug report on Discord. As a last resort, you can perform a hard reset to restore the app to its default state. Note that this will delete all your data.

Clear up device resources #

You can try the following steps to free up resources on your device:

• Restart the Backyard AI app
• Restart your computer
• Quit all other apps that might be using a lot of memory

If this fixes your issue, other programs on your computer were consuming too many resources, preventing Backyard AI from running correctly.

Decrease the context size #

If you are using a model with a context size of 4096, try the following steps:

• Change your max model context size to 2048 in the settings
• Create a brand new character (the default Backyard AI assistant is fine)
• Create a new chat and try to load the model

If this fixes your issue, your device cannot handle the default context size of 4096. Use a smaller model, or lower your context size permanently.

Run the installer again #

If your app fails to start up, you can try the following steps:

• Download the latest installer from our website and run it again (you will not lose any data)
• Create a brand new character
• Try to load a new chat

If this fixes your issue, there was a problem with your installation.

Verify GPU settings #

Go to the "Settings" page in the left sidebar:

• Set GPU acceleration to "None", and try again. If that works, it means your GPU settings are not valid.
• Switch GPU mode to "Manual", and set the value to 10%. If that works, increase the percentage steadily until the model does not load anymore. Select the highest value that works.
• Do NOT use an integrated GPU with Backyard AI.

For more information on GPU settings, see GPU Acceleration.

Check if you have conflicting GPU drivers #

On Windows CUDA, download the latest Nvidia Drivers and install them. If you have an AMD GPU, download the latest AMD Drivers and install them.

Make sure you are on a supported device and OS #

• Mac: please make sure that you are using Mac OS 12 or later.

• Windows: please make sure you are using Windows 8 or later.