diff --git a/__init__.py b/__init__.py
index 8233d1aab..cdba9256d 100644
--- a/__init__.py
+++ b/__init__.py
@@ -219,6 +219,11 @@ class Fast64Settings_Properties(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
 
     internal_game_update_ver: bpy.props.IntProperty(default=0)
 
+    internal_background_mode: bpy.props.BoolProperty(
+        default=False,
+        description="Used to disable certain parts of the codebase when Fast64 is ran with Blender in CLI mode",
+    )
+
     def to_repo_settings(self):
         data = {}
         data["autoLoad"] = self.auto_repo_load_settings
diff --git a/fast64_internal/utility.py b/fast64_internal/utility.py
index 61b503dcd..a9b3d8460 100644
--- a/fast64_internal/utility.py
+++ b/fast64_internal/utility.py
@@ -155,7 +155,10 @@ def unhideAllAndGetHiddenState(scene):
 
     if bpy.context.mode != "OBJECT":
         bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode="OBJECT")
-    bpy.ops.object.hide_view_clear()
+
+    if not scene.fast64.settings.internal_background_mode:
+        # the viewport is disabled when blender is ran in background mode, so we need to disable this to avoid errors
+        bpy.ops.object.hide_view_clear()
 
     hiddenLayerCols = []