Neither old nor new image file exists for {item.image_name}

Error message

Neither old nor new image file exists for {item.image_name}

What it means

Raised by _complete_partial_filesystem_move when neither the old nor the new image file exists for an item being completed. The move record says there should be a file in one of the two locations, but the underlying image has vanished, so completion cannot proceed for non-intermediate images (intermediates are tolerated via _mark_missing_intermediate_moved).

Source

Thrown at invokeai/app/services/image_moves/image_moves_default.py:511

        new_thumbnail_path = self.image_files.get_path(
            item.image_name, thumbnail=True, image_subfolder=item.new_subfolder
        )
        old_exists = old_path.exists()
        new_exists = new_path.exists()
        if old_exists and new_exists:
            raise RuntimeError(f"Both old and new image files exist for {item.image_name}")
        if not old_exists and not new_exists:
            if item.is_intermediate:
                self._mark_missing_intermediate_moved(
                    job_id=job_id,
                    image_name=item.image_name,
                    old_path=old_path,
                    new_path=new_path,
                    old_thumbnail_path=old_thumbnail_path,
                    new_thumbnail_path=new_thumbnail_path,
                )
                return
            raise RuntimeError(f"Neither old nor new image file exists for {item.image_name}")

        old_thumbnail_exists = old_thumbnail_path.exists()
        new_thumbnail_exists = new_thumbnail_path.exists()
        if (
            old_exists
            and not new_exists
            and (
                (not old_thumbnail_exists and not new_thumbnail_exists)
                or (old_thumbnail_exists and new_thumbnail_exists)
            )
        ):
            # Generate the thumbnail while the source is still available. If this fails,
            # leave the source untouched so transient failures can be retried and corrupt
            # images can be repaired or removed by the operator.
            self._regenerate_thumbnail(old_path, new_thumbnail_path)

        if not old_exists and new_exists and not old_thumbnail_exists and not new_thumbnail_exists:
            self._regenerate_thumbnail(new_path, new_thumbnail_path)

View on GitHub (pinned to 0b6a024f2f)

Solutions

Confirm the image is truly gone (search all subfolders for the image_name); if found, move it to the expected old or new path and re-run recovery.
If the image is intentionally deleted, delete the corresponding image_subfolder_move_items row (and image DB record) so completion no longer expects the file.
For intermediates, verify the is_intermediate flag is set correctly; missing intermediates are tolerated and marked moved automatically.
Check for case-sensitivity or subfolder naming mismatches between DB old_subfolder/new_subfolder and the on-disk layout.

Example fix

// before: DB row expects file that was deleted
SELECT image_name FROM image_subfolder_move_items WHERE job_id = 7 AND state = 'planned';
// after: remove orphaned item for intentionally deleted image
DELETE FROM image_subfolder_move_items WHERE job_id = 7 AND image_name = 'missing.png';
DELETE FROM images WHERE image_name = 'missing.png';

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

from pathlib import Path
def item_file_missing(item) -> bool:
    return not item.old_path.exists() and not item.new_path.exists()
# pre-check each planned item before completing

Type guard

def file_available(paths: list[Path]) -> bool:
    return any(p.exists() for p in paths)

Try / catch

try:
    service.complete_partial_filesystem_moves(job_id)
except RuntimeError as e:
    if "Neither old nor new image file exists" in str(e):
        # image gone: drop the item/record instead of retrying
        ...

Prevention

Don't delete images from disk while a move job is planned/in-progress
Run move jobs when no bulk-delete operations are queued
Check that pending move items reference existing files before completing
Use the app's delete APIs so DB records and pending items stay consistent

When it happens

Trigger: complete_partial_filesystem_moves processing an item whose image was deleted from disk (manually, by a cleanup job, or by a failed earlier move that removed the source before writing the destination), or an incorrect new_subfolder recorded in the DB pointing at the wrong folder.

Common situations: User deleted images directly on disk while a move job was pending; disk/restore lost files; intermediates cleanup raced with a move job; DB rows referencing images removed by 'Delete all images' during a pending move.

Understand the failure class

Background: "File not found" and ENOENT errors: why libraries can't find a file that should exist — this error's family across 50 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of invoke-ai/InvokeAI@0b6a024f2f (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cbf4a60ccf791670. Report an issue: GitHub.