What causes "Failed to get frame delay" in Intervention/image?

Inspect $e->getPrevious()->getMessage() for the underlying ImageMagick error

Intervention/image · error · DriverException

Failed to get frame delay

Error message

Failed to get frame delay

What it means

Frame::delay() reads the per-frame animation delay as getImageDelay() / 100 (src/Drivers/Imagick/Frame.php:109) — seconds from ImageMagick's 1/100s ticks — and wraps any ImagickException as DriverException. It fails when the frame's native Imagick is no longer usable (cleared/destroyed or corrupted), typically while iterating frames of an animated GIF/WebP.

Source

Thrown at src/Drivers/Imagick/Frame.php:111

            );
        } catch (ImagickException | InvalidArgumentException $e) {
            throw new DriverException('Failed to get frame size', previous: $e);
        }
    }

    /**
     * {@inheritdoc}
     *
     * @see DriverInterface::delay()
     *
     * @throws DriverException
     */
    public function delay(): float
    {
        try {
            return $this->native->getImageDelay() / 100;
        } catch (ImagickException $e) {
            throw new DriverException('Failed to get frame delay', previous: $e);
        }
    }

    /**
     * {@inheritdoc}
     *
     * @see DriverInterface::setDelay()
     *
     * @throws DriverException
     */
    public function setDelay(float $delay): FrameInterface
    {
        try {
            $this->native->setImageDelay(intval(round($delay * 100)));
        } catch (ImagickException $e) {
            throw new DriverException('Failed to set frame disposal method', previous: $e);
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 5598b9e397)

Solutions

Inspect $e->getPrevious()->getMessage() for the underlying ImageMagick error
Never clear()/destroy() frame natives while the Frame object is still in use
Re-read the animation from its source when errors occurred earlier in the pipeline
Fail fast: stop frame iteration on the first wrapped error

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

use Intervention\Image\Exceptions\DriverException;

try {
    $delay = $frame->delay();
} catch (DriverException $e) {
    // native frame is unusable; re-read the animation instead of guessing
    error_log('Frame delay failed: ' . $e->getPrevious()?->getMessage());
    throw $e;
}

Prevention

Do all frame reads (delay, size, offset) before any manual teardown of natives
Re-read animated sources from disk rather than reusing frames after errors
Validate animation uploads with a full decode before storing them

When it happens

Trigger: Iterating $image->frames() of an animated GIF/WebP and calling delay() after manual clear()/destroy() of the native; operating on a partially decoded or corrupted animation whose frame native is invalid.

Common situations: Custom animation processing that frees resources mid-loop; corrupted uploads that decode only partially; modifiers holding stale frame references after an earlier exception was swallowed.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Intervention/image@5598b9e397 (2026-08-23). Data as JSON: /api/errors/32d96c1325565a47. Report an issue: GitHub.