Found an answer - CVPixelBufferCreate isn't that efficient so it runs on a few frames and then crashes. You can include attributes using a CVPixelBufferPool, which apparently is designed for streaming frames and managing the buffers in memory Also realized the format for the attributes dictionary was wrong private var colorPixelBufferPool: CVPixelBufferPool! private var pixelBufferPool_isPrepared = false ... // within delegate if !pixelBufferPool_isPrepared { var videoDescription: CMFormatDescription do { videoDescription = try CMVideoFormatDescription(imageBuffer: videoBuffer) } //videoBuffer is the original CVPixelBuffer catch { print("Failed video description") return } let inputDimensions = CMVideoFormatDescriptionGetDimensions(videoDescription) let outputPixelBufferAttributes: [String: Any] = [ kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey as String: kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA, kCVPixelBufferWidthKey as String: Int(inputDimensions.height), // rotated 90 degrees kCVPixelBufferHeightKey as String: Int(inputDimensions.width), // rotated 90 degrees kCVPixelBufferIOSurfaceOpenGLESTextureCompatibilityKey as String: true, kCVPixelBufferIOSurfacePropertiesKey as String: [:] ] let poolAttributes = [kCVPixelBufferPoolMinimumBufferCountKey as String: 2] var cvPixelBufferPool: CVPixelBufferPool? // Create a pixel buffer pool with the same pixel attributes as the input format description CVPixelBufferPoolCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault, poolAttributes as NSDictionary?, outputPixelBufferAttributes as NSDictionary?, &cvPixelBufferPool) guard let pixelBufferPool = cvPixelBufferPool else { assertionFailure("Allocation failure: Could not create pixel buffer pool") return } colorPixelBufferPool = pixelBufferPool pixelBufferPool_isPrepared = true } ... // let status = CVPixelBufferCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault, Int(rotatedBuffer.width), Int(rotatedBuffer.height), kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA, attributes, &colorBuffer) // throws error eventually, not efficient let status = CVPixelBufferPoolCreatePixelBuffer(kCFAllocatorDefault, colorPixelBufferPool!, &colorBuffer) // works!