diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/12185-aix-devices-chdev-fail.yml b/changelogs/fragments/12185-aix-devices-chdev-fail.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..20c31ee050
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/12185-aix-devices-chdev-fail.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - "aix_devices - fix ``chdev`` command failures being incorrectly reported as successful results, now properly fails the task when device attribute changes cannot be applied (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/12185)."
diff --git a/plugins/modules/aix_devices.py b/plugins/modules/aix_devices.py
index 9b1ba585b2..56dbe25960 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/aix_devices.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/aix_devices.py
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ def change_device_attr(module, attributes, device, force):
             if not module.check_mode:
                 rc, chdev_out, err = module.run_command(cmd)
                 if rc != 0:
-                    module.exit_json(msg="Failed to run chdev.", rc=rc, err=err)
+                    module.fail_json(msg="Failed to run chdev.", rc=rc, err=err)
 
             attr_changed.append(attributes[attr])
         else: