Zackriya-Solutions/meetily · error

Failed to write chunk to file: {}

Error message

Failed to write chunk to file: {}

What it means

Writing a downloaded chunk to the buffered file failed (writer.write_all returned an error). The engine resets the model status to Missing and removes it from active downloads so a retry is possible. The failure is on the local side, so retrying without fixing the disk fails again at the same point.

Source

Thrown at frontend/src-tauri/src/parakeet_engine/parakeet_engine.rs:926

                    }
                };

                if let Err(e) = writer.write_all(&chunk).await {
                    // Remove from active downloads on error
                    {
                        let mut active = self.active_downloads.write().await;
                        active.remove(model_name);
                    }

                    // Update model status to Missing so retry can work
                    {
                        let mut models = self.available_models.write().await;
                        if let Some(model) = models.get_mut(model_name) {
                            model.status = ModelStatus::Missing;
                        }
                    }

                    return Err(anyhow!("Failed to write chunk to file: {}", e));
                }

                let chunk_len = chunk.len() as u64;
                file_downloaded += chunk_len;
                total_downloaded += chunk_len;
                bytes_since_last_report += chunk_len;

                // Calculate weighted overall progress based on total bytes downloaded
                let overall_progress = if total_size_bytes > 0 {
                    ((total_downloaded as f64 / total_size_bytes as f64) * 100.0).min(99.0) as u8
                } else {
                    // Fallback to per-file progress if total size unknown
                    ((index as f64 + (file_downloaded as f64 / file_total_size.max(1) as f64)) / total_files as f64 * 100.0) as u8
                };

                // Report every 1% progress change OR every 500ms for smooth UI updates
                let elapsed_since_report = last_report_time.elapsed();
                let progress_changed = overall_progress > last_reported_progress;

View on GitHub (pinned to 0281737d87)

Solutions

  1. Free disk space of at least the model's total size, then retry — resume continues from the partial file
  2. Move the models directory to a volume with more space and re-download
  3. Exclude the models directory from cloud-sync and real-time antivirus during downloads
  4. Pre-check available disk space before starting and fail fast with a clear message

Example fix

// before
if let Err(e) = writer.write_all(&chunk).await {
    return Err(anyhow!("Failed to write chunk to file: {}", e));
}

// after: fail fast before the download starts
let total = model_def.approx_size_bytes;
let avail = fs2::free_space(&models_dir)?; // fs2 crate
if avail < total as u64 + 100 * 1024 * 1024 {
    return Err(anyhow!("Insufficient disk space: need {} MB, have {} MB", total / 1024 / 1024, avail / 1024 / 1024));
}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Check free space before downloading (fs2 crate)
use fs2::free_space;
let avail = free_space(&models_dir)?;
if avail < total_size_bytes + 256 * 1024 * 1024 {
    return Err(anyhow!("Not enough disk space: need {} MB, have {} MB",
        total_size_bytes / 1024 / 1024, avail / 1024 / 1024));
}

Try / catch

match result {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().starts_with("Failed to write chunk to file") => {
        alert_disk_or_permissions(); // local-side failure: retrying without a fix fails again
    }
    other => other,
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Disk fills up mid-download (most common with multi-GB GGUF files); permissions on the file or directory change mid-write; the file is deleted or locked by another process during streaming; external storage holding the models dir is unplugged.

Common situations: Only a few GB free before starting a 3–5 GB model; user empties the models folder mid-download; cloud-sync clients evicting or locking the file; antivirus quarantining partially written files.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Zackriya-Solutions/meetily@0281737d87 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e0ae0a4f7e998dc5. Report an issue: GitHub.