diff --git a/src/lerobot/configs/train.py b/src/lerobot/configs/train.py
index e3d354691..7f32f255c 100644
--- a/src/lerobot/configs/train.py
+++ b/src/lerobot/configs/train.py
@@ -101,6 +101,14 @@ class TrainPipelineConfig(HubMixin):
     batch_size: int = 8
     prefetch_factor: int = 4
     persistent_workers: bool = True
+    # DataLoader multiprocessing start method. "spawn" is the safe default on
+    # Linux because workers do not inherit fork-time state from the parent —
+    # "fork" can crash with non-fork-safe libraries that the parent has loaded
+    # (e.g. PyAV / torchcodec / ffmpeg) with errors like
+    # `multiprocessing.context.AuthenticationError: digest received was wrong`,
+    # `Pin memory thread exited unexpectedly`, or random worker segfaults.
+    # See https://github.com/huggingface/lerobot/issues/2488.
+    dataloader_multiprocessing_context: str = "spawn"
     steps: int = 100_000
     # Run policy in the simulation environment every N steps to measure reward/success (0 = disabled).
     env_eval_freq: int = 20_000
diff --git a/src/lerobot/scripts/lerobot_train.py b/src/lerobot/scripts/lerobot_train.py
index ec5565cf4..bca92629a 100644
--- a/src/lerobot/scripts/lerobot_train.py
+++ b/src/lerobot/scripts/lerobot_train.py
@@ -475,6 +475,7 @@ def train(cfg: TrainPipelineConfig, accelerator: "Accelerator | None" = None):
         collate_fn=collate_fn,
         prefetch_factor=cfg.prefetch_factor if cfg.num_workers > 0 else None,
         persistent_workers=cfg.persistent_workers and cfg.num_workers > 0,
+        multiprocessing_context=cfg.dataloader_multiprocessing_context if cfg.num_workers > 0 else None,
     )
 
     # Build eval dataloader if a held-out split exists