gatsbyjs/gatsby · error

The asset with id: ${id}, contains no file.

Error message

The asset with id: ${id}, contains no file.

What it means

Contentful asset download warning: the ContentfulAsset node has no `file` field — typically an asset that is unpublished, still processing, or whose upload failed in Contentful — so nothing is downloaded and the asset is skipped.

Source

Thrown at packages/gatsby-source-contentful/src/download-contentful-assets.js:58

  } = gatsbyFunctions

  // Any ContentfulAsset nodes will be downloaded, cached and copied to public/static
  // regardless of if you use `localFile` to link an asset or not.

  const bar = reporter.createProgress(
    `Downloading Contentful Assets`,
    assetNodes.length
  )
  bar.start()
  await distributeWorkload(
    assetNodes.map(node => async () => {
      let fileNodeID
      const { contentful_id: id, node_locale: locale } = node
      const remoteDataCacheKey = `contentful-asset-${id}-${locale}`
      const cacheRemoteData = await cache.get(remoteDataCacheKey)
      if (!node.file) {
        reporter.log(id, locale)
        reporter.warn(`The asset with id: ${id}, contains no file.`)
        return Promise.resolve()
      }
      if (!node.file.url) {
        reporter.warn(
          `The asset with id: ${id} has a file but the file contains no url.`
        )
        return Promise.resolve()
      }
      const url = createUrl(node.file.url)

      // Avoid downloading the asset again if it's been cached
      // Note: Contentful Assets do not provide useful metadata
      // to compare a modified asset to a cached version?
      if (cacheRemoteData) {
        fileNodeID = cacheRemoteData.fileNodeID // eslint-disable-line prefer-destructuring
        touchNode(getNode(cacheRemoteData.fileNodeID))
      }

View on GitHub (pinned to e85d62f177)

Solutions

1. Check the asset in Contentful and ensure it has an uploaded file
2. Re-publish the asset and re-run the sync

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/gatsby-source-contentful/src/download-contentful-assets.js:58 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/0fa7d62dde92657f. Report an issue: GitHub.