# Crashes in UE5 FMod - "MAGIC\_WORD" error

**URL:** https://qa.fmod.com/t/crashes-in-ue5-fmod-magic-word-error/24528
**Category:** Unreal Engine
**Tags:** ue4, ue5
**Created:** [September 23, 2026, 9:10am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/crashes-in-ue5-fmod-magic-word-error/24528 "2026-09-23T09:10:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![CaylebObserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@CaylebObserver](https://qa.fmod.com/u/CaylebObserver)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2026, 9:10am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/crashes-in-ue5-fmod-magic-word-error/24528/1 "2026-09-23T09:10:16Z")

</div>

Hello,

We’re having regular hard crashes in editor with the error referencing MAGICWORD within Fmod, which begin after multiple PIE sessions have been started.  
We are using:  
UE 5.6  
FMOD build version 2.03.13  
DLL Version 2.03.13

Crashes can occur on play or on level load, last error is often loading a bank. Attempted fixes have been updating the FMOD plugin version, rebuilding all banks, and removing volume based audio that may have been attempting to play too early with no avail.

We’re also only using unreal’s fmod components and actors, we never load or unload a bank manually, and it’s set to load all banks in the project settings

Below is the log we get when the crash happens.

Any help, guidance or direction into what’s going on here and how we can potentially fix it would be greatly appreciated.

_Error LogFMOD C:\buildagent1\work\c1c3f17eb167c494\studio\_api\src\fmod\_model\_base.h(37) - assertion: ‘mMagic == MAGIC\_WORD’ failed  
Verbose LogFMOD FFMODFileSystem::OpenInternal opening ‘../../../Project/Content/FMOD/Desktop/room.bank’ returned archive 000001DDF5830A00  
Verbose LogFMOD TotalSize = 3996352_