gatsbyjs/gatsby · error

[gatsby-plugin-image] Couldn't find image data cache file

Error message

[gatsby-plugin-image] Couldn't find image data cache file

What it means

StaticImage babel-plugin warning: no cached image-data JSON exists for the computed options hash — the image was never processed by writeImages during the node phase of the build, so there is nothing to inline at compile time.

Source

Thrown at packages/gatsby-plugin-image/src/babel-plugin-parse-static-images.ts:61

        if (unresolvedProps.length) {
          // TODO: Add a shortlink to docs on the plugin
          error = `Could not find values for the following props at build time: ${unresolvedProps.join(
            `, `
          )}`
          console.warn(`[gatsby-plugin-image] ${error}`)
        }

        // Adding the filename to the hashing, like in "extractStaticImageProps" function
        if (state.filename) {
          props.filename = slash(state.filename)
        }
        const hash = hashOptions(props)

        const cacheDir = (this.opts as Record<string, string>)?.cacheDir

        if (!cacheDir) {
          console.warn(
            `[gatsby-plugin-image] Couldn't find image data cache file`
          )
        }

        const filename = path.join(cacheDir, `${hash}.json`)
        let data: Record<string, unknown> | undefined

        // If there's no src prop there's no point in checking if it exists
        if (!unresolvedProps.includes(`src`)) {
          try {
            data = fs.readJSONSync(filename)
          } catch (e) {
            // TODO add info about minimum Gatsby version once this is merged
            const msg = stripIndent`
            Could not read image data file "${filename}". 
            This may mean that the images in "${this.filename}" were not processed.
            Please ensure that your gatsby version is at least 2.24.78.`
            error += msg

View on GitHub (pinned to e85d62f177)

Solutions

1. Ensure the image file exists and StaticImage src is a static string
2. Rebuild from a clean cache (`gatsby clean`)
3. Ensure Gatsby is at least 2.24.78 and gatsby-plugin-image is configured

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/gatsby-plugin-image/src/babel-plugin-parse-static-images.ts:61 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of gatsbyjs/gatsby@e85d62f177 (2026-08-26). Data as JSON: /api/errors/89a4b8b85f4bb360. Report an issue: GitHub.