carrierwaveuploader/carrierwave · error · CarrierWave::ProcessingError

errors.messages.processing_error

Error message

errors.messages.processing_error

What it means

Raised as CarrierWave::ProcessingError by CarrierWave::RMagick#manipulate! when RMagick raises ::Magick::ImageMagickError while loading or writing frames — for example a corrupt image, an unsupported format, or a write to a format string like "png:/path". Unlike the MiniMagick variant, every ImageMagickError becomes the generic processing error; there is no re-raise for install problems.

Source

Thrown at lib/carrierwave/processing/rmagick.rb:401

        frame = yield(*[frame, index, options].take(block.arity)) if block_given?
        frames << frame if frame
      end
      frames.append(true) if block_given?

      write_block = create_info_block(options[:write])

      if options[:format] || @format
        frames.write("#{options[:format] || @format}:#{current_path}", &write_block)
        move_to = current_path.chomp(File.extname(current_path)) + ".#{options[:format] || @format}"
        file.content_type = Marcel::Magic.by_path(move_to).try(:type)
        file.move_to(move_to, permissions, directory_permissions)
      else
        frames.write(current_path, &write_block)
      end

      destroy_image(frames)
    rescue ::Magick::ImageMagickError
      raise CarrierWave::ProcessingError, I18n.translate(:"errors.messages.processing_error")
    end

  private

    def create_info_block(options)
      return nil unless options
      proc do |img|
        options.each do |k, v|
          if v.is_a?(String) && (matches = v.match(/^["'](.+)["']/))
            CarrierWave.deprecator.warn "Passing quoted strings like #{v} to #manipulate! is deprecated, pass them without quoting."
            v = matches[1]
          end
          img.public_send(:"#{k}=", v)
        end
      end
    end

    def destroy_image(image)

View on GitHub (pinned to b5f0abe10e)

Solutions

1. Validate the file is a readable image before processing (Marcel sniff or Magick::ImageList.read probe in a cache callback) and reject early
2. Rescue CarrierWave::ProcessingError where uploads are handled and return a validation error
3. Reinstall/recompile the rmagick gem against the installed ImageMagick (gem pristine rmagick) if errors happen for every image
4. Migrate from the deprecated RMagick engine to CarrierWave::MiniMagick or CarrierWave::Vips, which are maintained

Example fix

# before
class PhotoUploader < CarrierWave::Uploader::Base
  include CarrierWave::RMagick
  process resize_to_limit: [800, 800] # corrupt file -> ProcessingError
end

# after
class PhotoUploader < CarrierWave::Uploader::Base
  include CarrierWave::RMagick
  process resize_to_limit: [800, 800]

  before_cache :verify_image!
  def verify_image!(file)
    Magick::ImageList.new(file.path).first
  rescue Magick::ImageMagickError
    raise CarrierWave::ProcessingError, :invalid_image
  end
end

def valid_rmagick_image?(path)
  list = Magick::ImageList.new(path)
  !list.empty? && list.columns > 0
rescue Magick::ImageMagickError
  false
end

begin
  uploader.cache!(uploaded)
rescue CarrierWave::ProcessingError
  uploader.errors.add(:base, :processing_failed)
end

When it happens

Trigger: An uploader including CarrierWave::RMagick with process blocks (or a custom manipulate! block calling frames operations) where Magick::ImageList.read/read_inline fails on the input or frames.write fails — corrupt bytes, wrong extension, or an output format the ImageMagick build cannot encode.

Common situations: RMagick/ImageMagick version mismatches (RMagick compiled against ImageMagick 6 then the system upgrades to 7), memory-exhausting large images surfacing as ImageMagickError, and user-uploaded files that are not actually images.

Related errors

• errors.messages.processing_error
• errors.messages.processing_error
• errors.messages.content_type_allowlist_error
• errors.messages.content_type_denylist_error
• errors.messages.min_width_error

AI-assisted analysis of carrierwaveuploader/carrierwave@b5f0abe10e (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/551848df3cccfc74. Report an issue: GitHub.