siyuan-note/siyuan · error

inspect imported notebook

Error message

inspect imported notebook [%s] failed: %w

What it means

As a final safety check, validateImportedNotebookIdentities probes the imported notebook directory with hasEncryptedNotebookPayloadAtPath to detect whether the payload is actually encrypted. If that inspection itself errors (unreadable files, IO failure walking the tree), it returns 'inspect imported notebook [%s] failed' wrapping the cause; a reliable verdict is required before deciding the notebook may enter the workspace.

Solutions

  1. Read the wrapped payloadErr in the kernel log to find which file failed and why; fix that file's permissions or restore it.
  2. Re-extract or re-export the import archive to get a complete, readable notebook directory.
  3. Disable 'files on-demand' / placeholder mode for the workspace on cloud-synced folders so files hydrate locally before import.
  4. Retry ImportData after verifying all .sy files inside the imported box directory are readable by the kernel process.
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

for (const f of await fs.promises.readdir(path.join(boxDir), {recursive: true})) {
  await fs.promises.access(f, fs.constants.R_OK); // ensure the whole notebook tree is readable
}

Try / catch

try {
  await importData(src);
} catch (e) {
  if (/inspect imported notebook/.test(e.msg)) {
    console.error('Fix unreadable files inside the imported notebook dir (see wrapped payloadErr), then retry');
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: ImportData where hasEncryptedNotebookPayloadAtPath(boxDir) returns an error while scanning the imported notebook — unreadable .sy files, permission errors, symlinks pointing outside, or IO failures during the scan.

Common situations: 1) Partially extracted or truncated archive. 2) Files restored from backup with wrong ACLs/ownership. 3) Cloud-sync placeholder files failing to hydrate on access. 4) Failing storage device during import.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to read file", EACCES, ENOENT and "could not read <path>" errors: when a program can't read a file from disk — this error's family across 49 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@9f775e8a12 (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/44aaf75bf4342502. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at kernel/model/import.go:1370

		var boxCrypt *conf.BoxEncryption
		if boxConf != nil && boxConf.Encrypted {
			if boxConf.BoxCrypt != nil && validateBoxEncryption(boxConf.BoxCrypt) == nil {
				boxCrypt = boxConf.BoxCrypt
			} else {
				boxCrypt = backup
			}
			if boxCrypt == nil {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("encrypted notebook [%s] has no valid identity", boxID)
			}
		} else if boxConf != nil && backup != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("notebook [%s] has conflicting normal and encrypted identities", boxID)
		} else if backup != nil {
			boxCrypt = backup
		}

		payloadFound, payloadErr := hasEncryptedNotebookPayloadAtPath(boxDir)
		if payloadErr != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("inspect imported notebook [%s] failed: %w", boxID, payloadErr)
		}
		if boxCrypt == nil && payloadFound {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("imported notebook [%s] contains encrypted payload without identity", boxID)
		}
		if boxCrypt == nil {
			continue
		}

		if err = validateBoxEncryption(boxCrypt); err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid imported notebook identity [%s]: %w", boxID, err)
		}
		if filelock.IsExist(filepath.Join(util.DataDir, boxID)) && IsEncryptedBox(boxID) {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("refuse to overwrite existing encrypted notebook [%s]", boxID)
		}
		encryptedBoxIDs = append(encryptedBoxIDs, boxID)
	}
	return encryptedBoxIDs, nil
}

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