diff --git a/src/frontends/qt4/GuiView.cpp b/src/frontends/qt4/GuiView.cpp
index 8129ab3ef8..ababd24a94 100644
--- a/src/frontends/qt4/GuiView.cpp
+++ b/src/frontends/qt4/GuiView.cpp
@@ -1886,9 +1886,15 @@ bool GuiView::dispatch(FuncRequest const & cmd)
 			importDocument(to_utf8(cmd.argument()));
 			break;
 
-		case LFUN_BUFFER_SWITCH:
-			setBuffer(theBufferList().getBuffer(FileName(to_utf8(cmd.argument()))));
+		case LFUN_BUFFER_SWITCH: {
+			Buffer * buffer = 
+				theBufferList().getBuffer(FileName(to_utf8(cmd.argument())));
+			if (buffer)
+				setBuffer(buffer);
+			else
+				bv->cursor().message(_("Document not loaded"));
 			break;
+		}
 
 		case LFUN_BUFFER_NEXT:
 			gotoNextOrPreviousBuffer(NEXTBUFFER);
diff --git a/status.16x b/status.16x
index d122862024..5c2d359be0 100644
--- a/status.16x
+++ b/status.16x
@@ -117,6 +117,9 @@ What's new
   of the date-insert function. This fixes a crash on Windows with invalid/
   unsupported date specifiers (bug 5827).
 
+- Fix crash when issuing the command "buffer-switch <buffer>" and there
+  is no buffer called <buffer>.
+
 - Adjust the color of deletions slightly when using change tracking. It
   is now easier to distinguish between added and deleted text (bug 5629).