diff --git a/tests/conftest.py b/tests/conftest.py
index 0cac803e..01ec6b5f 100644
--- a/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ def __init__(
             backbone = torch.nn.Linear(num_frames, num_hidden)
             torch.nn.init.ones_(backbone.weight)
         else:
-            backbone = self.load_from_checkpoint(finetune_from).backbone
+            backbone = self.from_disk(finetune_from).backbone
 
         for param in backbone.parameters():
             param.requires_grad = False
diff --git a/zamba/models/efficientnet_models.py b/zamba/models/efficientnet_models.py
index f36c2021..17314bbd 100644
--- a/zamba/models/efficientnet_models.py
+++ b/zamba/models/efficientnet_models.py
@@ -17,7 +17,10 @@ class TimeDistributedEfficientNet(ZambaVideoClassificationLightningModule):
     )
 
     def __init__(
-        self, num_frames=16, finetune_from: Optional[Union[os.PathLike, str]] = None, **kwargs
+        self,
+        num_frames=16,
+        finetune_from: Optional[Union[os.PathLike, str]] = None,
+        **kwargs,
     ):
         super().__init__(**kwargs)
 
@@ -25,7 +28,7 @@ def __init__(
             efficientnet = timm.create_model("efficientnetv2_rw_m", pretrained=True)
             efficientnet.classifier = nn.Identity()
         else:
-            efficientnet = self.load_from_checkpoint(finetune_from).base.module
+            efficientnet = self.from_disk(finetune_from).base.module
 
         # freeze base layers
         for param in efficientnet.parameters():
diff --git a/zamba/models/model_manager.py b/zamba/models/model_manager.py
index a49387f7..7bf79d48 100644
--- a/zamba/models/model_manager.py
+++ b/zamba/models/model_manager.py
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ def instantiate_model(
            Only used if labels is not None.
         model_name (ModelEnum, optional): Model name used to look up default hparams used for that model.
             Only relevant if training from scratch.
-        use_default_model_labels(bool, optional): Whether to output the full set of default model labels rather than
+        use_default_model_labels (bool, optional): Whether to output the full set of default model labels rather than
             just the species in the labels file. Only used if labels is not None.
 
     Returns:
@@ -78,9 +78,8 @@ def instantiate_model(
 
     # predicting
     if labels is None:
-        # predict; load from checkpoint uses associated hparams
         logger.info("Loading from checkpoint.")
-        model = model_class.load_from_checkpoint(checkpoint_path=checkpoint)
+        model = model_class.from_disk(path=checkpoint, **hparams)
         return model
 
     # get species from labels file
@@ -110,10 +109,8 @@ def instantiate_model(
             return resume_training(
                 scheduler_config=scheduler_config,
                 hparams=hparams,
-                species=species,
                 model_class=model_class,
                 checkpoint=checkpoint,
-                labels=labels,
             )
 
         else:
@@ -157,10 +154,8 @@ def replace_head(scheduler_config, hparams, species, model_class, checkpoint):
 def resume_training(
     scheduler_config,
     hparams,
-    species,
     model_class,
     checkpoint,
-    labels,
 ):
     # resume training; add additional species columns to labels file if needed
     logger.info(
@@ -170,7 +165,7 @@ def resume_training(
     if scheduler_config != "default":
         hparams.update(scheduler_config.dict())
 
-    model = model_class.load_from_checkpoint(checkpoint_path=checkpoint, **hparams)
+    model = model_class.from_disk(path=checkpoint, **hparams)
     log_schedulers(model)
     return model
 
diff --git a/zamba/models/slowfast_models.py b/zamba/models/slowfast_models.py
index fed19fa1..58e12501 100644
--- a/zamba/models/slowfast_models.py
+++ b/zamba/models/slowfast_models.py
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ def __init__(
         if finetune_from is None:
             self.initialize_from_torchub()
         else:
-            model = self.load_from_checkpoint(finetune_from)
+            model = self.from_disk(finetune_from)
             self._backbone_output_dim = model.head.proj.in_features
             self.backbone = model.backbone
             self.base = model.base
diff --git a/zamba/pytorch_lightning/utils.py b/zamba/pytorch_lightning/utils.py
index d42a444c..041f63e9 100644
--- a/zamba/pytorch_lightning/utils.py
+++ b/zamba/pytorch_lightning/utils.py
@@ -303,5 +303,6 @@ def to_disk(self, path: os.PathLike):
         torch.save(checkpoint, path)
 
     @classmethod
-    def from_disk(cls, path: os.PathLike):
-        return cls.load_from_checkpoint(path)
+    def from_disk(cls, path: os.PathLike, **kwargs):
+        # note: we always load models onto CPU; moving to GPU is handled by `devices` in pl.Trainer
+        return cls.load_from_checkpoint(path, map_location="cpu", **kwargs)