bevyengine/bevy · error · DeserializeMetaError

Failed to deserialize minimal asset meta: {0:?}

Error message

Failed to deserialize minimal asset meta: {0:?}

What it means

DeserializeMetaError variant for minimal meta deserialization: even the minimal (header-only) form of the asset's .meta data failed to parse. Bevy first tries a minimal read of meta files; when that also fails the meta is unusable at any level.

Source

Thrown at crates/bevy_asset/src/loader.rs:370

    RequestedSubasset(AssetPath<'static>),
    /// A general [`AssetLoadError`] for an asset dependency.
    #[error("Failed to load dependency {dependency:?} {error}")]
    LoadError {
        /// Which dependency failed.
        dependency: AssetPath<'static>,
        /// The original error for that dependency.
        error: Box<AssetLoadError>,
    },
}

/// An error that occurs while deserializing [`AssetMeta`].
#[derive(Error, Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq)]
pub enum DeserializeMetaError {
    /// Failed to deserialize the asset metadata.
    #[error("Failed to deserialize asset meta: {0:?}")]
    DeserializeSettings(#[from] SpannedError),
    /// Failed to deserialize the minimal asset metadata.
    #[error("Failed to deserialize minimal asset meta: {0:?}")]
    DeserializeMinimal(SpannedError),
}

/// A context that provides access to assets in [`AssetLoader`]s, tracks dependencies, and collects asset load state.
///
/// Any asset state accessed by [`LoadContext`] will be tracked and stored for use in dependency events and asset preprocessing.
pub struct LoadContext<'a> {
    pub(crate) asset_server: &'a AssetServer,
    /// Specifies whether dependencies that are loaded deferred should be loaded.
    ///
    /// This allows us to skip loads for cases where we're never going to use the asset and we just
    /// need the dependency information, for example during asset processing.
    pub(crate) should_load_dependencies: bool,
    populate_hashes: bool,
    asset_path: AssetPath<'static>,
    pub(crate) dependencies: HashSet<ErasedAssetIndex>,
    /// Direct dependencies used by this loader.
    pub(crate) loader_dependencies: HashMap<AssetPath<'static>, AssetHash>,

View on GitHub (pinned to 396ca72708)

Solutions

1. Inspect the .meta file — it may be truncated or corrupted
2. Delete/regenerate the .meta file to restore a valid minimal meta
3. Check that custom AssetMetaDyn implementations serialize a valid minimal form

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/bevy_asset/src/loader.rs:370 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of bevyengine/bevy@396ca72708 (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bbc76a7590c53f44. Report an issue: GitHub.