What causes "Model with ID ${model.id} already exists" in janhq/jan?

Choose a different model.id for the import

Model with ID already exists

Error message

Model with ID ${model.id} already exists

What it means

When importing a model, the extension moves the model folder to <providerPath>/models/<model.id>. If a directory with that ID already exists on disk, it throws 'Model with ID ... already exists' to prevent overwriting the existing model's config and weights.

Solutions

Choose a different model.id for the import
Delete the existing model folder under <providerPath>/models/<id> if it is no longer wanted
Use the provider's model listing to confirm the existing model before re-importing
If the existing folder is a stale partial import, remove it and retry

Example fix

// before
await importModel({ ...model, id: 'llama-3-8b' }) // already exists
// after
await importModel({ ...model, id: 'llama-3-8b-imported' })

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const target = join(providerPath, 'models', model.id)
if (await fs.existsSync(target)) throw new Error('pick another id or delete first')
await importModel(model)

Try / catch

try {
  await importModel(model)
} catch (e) {
  if (/Model with ID .* already exists/.test(e.message)) {
    model.id = `${model.id}-${Date.now()}`; await importModel(model)
  } else throw e
}

Prevention

List existing models before importing
Generate unique IDs (hash of file content) for imports
Clean up stale model folders regularly
Dedupe imports in the UI by checking existing IDs

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the import flow (llamacpp_extension public method that renames/moves a local model folder) with a model.id that matches an existing folder under the provider's models directory.

Common situations: Re-importing the same GGUF twice; importing a model with an ID identical to a previously imported one; leftover folders from a partially deleted model.

Understand the failure class

Background: "already exists" / EEXIST / FileAlreadyExistsException: what the 'file already exists' error means and how to fix it — this error's family across 37 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of janhq/jan@7205d770c1 (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4544e955891a2e3e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at extensions/llamacpp-extension/src/index.ts:1825

   * @param model
   */
  async update(modelId: string, model: Partial<modelInfo>): Promise<void> {
    const modelFolderPath = await joinPath([
      await this.getProviderPath(),
      'models',
      modelId,
    ])
    const modelConfig = await invoke<ModelConfig>('read_yaml', {
      path: await joinPath([modelFolderPath, 'model.yml']),
    })
    const newFolderPath = await joinPath([
      await this.getProviderPath(),
      'models',
      model.id,
    ])
    // Check if newFolderPath exists
    if (await fs.existsSync(newFolderPath)) {
      throw new Error(`Model with ID ${model.id} already exists`)
    }
    const newModelConfigPath = await joinPath([newFolderPath, 'model.yml'])
    await fs.mv(modelFolderPath, newFolderPath).then(() =>
      // now replace what values have previous model name with format
      invoke('write_yaml', {
        data: {
          ...modelConfig,
          model_path: modelConfig?.model_path?.replace(
            `${this.providerId}/models/${modelId}`,
            `${this.providerId}/models/${model.id}`
          ),
          mmproj_path: modelConfig?.mmproj_path?.replace(
            `${this.providerId}/models/${modelId}`,
            `${this.providerId}/models/${model.id}`
          ),
        },
        savePath: newModelConfigPath,
      })

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