Cursor IDE crashes with code 5

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Cursor IDE has started crashing frequently over the last 3–4 days, possibly after the latest update. Crashes often occur while running longer command sequences and especially during Jest tests. After the crash, a popup appears saying “The window terminated unexpectedly (reason: ‘crashed’, code: ‘5’)” and I must reopen the window.

Environment:

OS: macOS 26.2 (Darwin arm64 25.2.0, build 25C56)
Frequency:
Often. Typically during long command sequences or when running Jest tests.

Steps to Reproduce (best effort):

Cursor crashes and shows the popup:
“The window terminated unexpectedly (reason: ‘crashed’, code: ‘5’).”
Expected:
Cursor completes long command sequences and runs tests without crashing.

Actual:
Cursor crashes frequently and requires reopening the window.

Additional Notes:

No new extensions or plugins installed recently.
Only a few Markdown-related extensions.
No logs available; only the crash popup appears.

Steps to Reproduce

Open a large multi‑app project (web/mobile + backend).
Run longer command sequences (via Cursor AI) and/or run Jest tests.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Cursor Version: 2.4.23 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 379934e04d2b3290cf7aefa14560f942e4212920
Date: 2026-01-29T21:24:23.350Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.2.7
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

3

Hey, thanks for the report. This is a known issue with crashes on macOS. A few users have hit the same error code 5, especially after recent updates.

Try these steps to help diagnose it:

  1. Reset Cursor data (this helped a few users):
cd ~/library/Application\ Support/
mv Cursor CursorBackup

This will reset your settings, but it will keep a backup in CursorBackup.

  1. Test without extensions:
cursor --disable-extensions

If it stops crashing, one of the extensions is causing it.

  1. If nothing helped, try:
cursor --disable-gpu

We’ll need logs for the team:

  • Help > Open Logs Folder > send main.log here
  • Help > Toggle Developer Tools > Console, send a screenshot of any errors if you see them
  • Your list of installed extensions
  • Whether you’re using devcontainers or MCP servers

Active threads with the same code:

The team is aware of the issue. Let me know what you find and share the logs, it’ll help narrow down the cause.

4

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