chatboxai/chatbox · warning · FilePreprocessFailure

empty_attachment_content

empty_attachment_content

Error message

empty_attachment_content

What it means

FilePreprocessFailure with code empty_attachment_content, thrown from parseFileWithLocalFallback when the local parser returned no readable text and Chatbox AI fallback is disabled/unavailable. The check uses hasParsedText(result.content); empty or whitespace-only content with no fallback path yields this specific code so the UI can explain that the file has no extractable text.

Solutions

1. Enable Chatbox AI cloud fallback so empty local results retry with the cloud OCR-capable parser.
2. Inform the user the file has no extractable text and suggest OCR/vision-capable model.
3. Pre-screen attachments for known empty-content cases (zero-byte, image-only PDFs).
4. Verify canFallbackToChatboxAI() returns true when a license and connectivity are present.

Example fix

// before
if (!hasParsedText(result.content)) {
  if (shouldFallbackToChatboxAI(options)) {
    return await fallbackToChatboxAIParser(file, uniqKey, 'empty_content')
  }
  throw new FilePreprocessFailure(EMPTY_ATTACHMENT_CONTENT_ERROR, 'local_parse', new Error('Local parser returned empty content'))
}
// after
if (!hasParsedText(result.content)) {
  if (shouldFallbackToChatboxAI(options)) {
    return await fallbackToChatboxAIParser(file, uniqKey, 'empty_content')
  }
  throw new FilePreprocessFailure(EMPTY_ATTACHMENT_CONTENT_ERROR, 'local_parse', new Error('Local parser returned empty content'))
}

const result = await parseFileWithLocalParser(file, uniqKey)
if (!hasParsedText(result.content) && !shouldFallbackToChatboxAI(options)) {
  // will throw empty_attachment_content; consider enabling fallback
}

function isEmptyAttachmentFailure(e: unknown): boolean {
  return e instanceof Error && (e as { code?: string }).code === 'empty_attachment_content'
}

try {
  return await parseFileWithLocalFallback(file, uniqKey, options)
} catch (err) {
  if (isEmptyAttachmentFailure(err)) {
    notifyUser('This file has no extractable text. Try an OCR-capable model or cloud parser.')
    return null
  }
  throw err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Local parse succeeded (isSupported true, key present) but the extracted content is empty/blank: scanned PDF without OCR, image-only PDF, empty file, or a binary file the parser read as zero text. shouldFallbackToChatboxAI(options) is false (fallback disabled or canFallbackToChatboxAI() false).

Common situations: User attaches a scanned document or image-heavy PDF to a model that lacks OCR, an empty file, or cloud fallback turned off (offline, no license, admin-disabled).

Related errors

• chatbox_ai_parser_failed
• file_storage_quota_exceeded
• local_parser_failed
• Failed to publish to VibeDrop
• Found skill(s) in / but failed to fetch their contents

AI-assisted analysis of chatboxai/chatbox@81571269ad (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f82f3ca40996511e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/renderer/stores/sessionHelpers.ts:421

function shouldFallbackToChatboxAI(options: LocalParserFallbackOptions): boolean {
  return (
    Boolean(options.forceChatboxAIFallback) || (options.allowChatboxAIFallback !== false && canFallbackToChatboxAI())
  )
}

async function parseFileWithLocalFallback(
  file: File,
  uniqKey: string,
  options: LocalParserFallbackOptions = {}
): Promise<{ content: string; storageKey: string; tokenCountMap: Record<string, number>; parserType: string }> {
  try {
    const result = await parseFileWithLocalParser(file, uniqKey)
    if (!hasParsedText(result.content)) {
      if (shouldFallbackToChatboxAI(options)) {
        return await fallbackToChatboxAIParser(file, uniqKey, 'empty_content')
      }
      throw new FilePreprocessFailure(
        EMPTY_ATTACHMENT_CONTENT_ERROR,
        'local_parse',
        new Error('Local parser returned empty content')
      )
    }
    return result
  } catch (error) {
    log.error(`Local parsing failed for "${file.name}":`, error)

    // Already classified (e.g. a storage-quota failure from the empty-content cloud
    // fallback above) — propagate as-is instead of re-classifying or retrying.
    if (error instanceof FilePreprocessFailure) {
      throw error
    }

    // Encrypted or oversized PDFs cannot be recovered by the cloud parser either,
    // so surface the specific error directly instead of wasting a fallback upload.
    const errorCode = error instanceof Error ? error.message : ''

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