toeverything/AFFiNE · error · Error

Failed to generate PNG buffer from image

Error message

Failed to generate PNG buffer from image

What it means

Thrown in the Electron `captureArea` handler when `image.toPNG()` yields a null or zero-length buffer after a non-empty capture — PNG encoding of the captured frame failed. Screenshot capture for that area fails with this error rather than returning invalid data to the renderer.

Source

Thrown at packages/frontend/apps/electron/src/main/ui/handlers.ts:231

    if (e.sender.session.availableSpellCheckerLanguages.includes(language)) {
      e.sender.session.setSpellCheckerLanguages([language, 'en-US']);
    }
  },
  captureArea: async (e, { x, y, width, height }: Electron.Rectangle) => {
    const image = await e.sender.capturePage({
      x: Math.floor(x),
      y: Math.floor(y),
      width: Math.floor(width),
      height: Math.floor(height),
    });

    if (image.isEmpty()) {
      throw new Error('Image is empty or invalid');
    }

    const buffer = image.toPNG();
    if (!buffer || !buffer.length) {
      throw new Error('Failed to generate PNG buffer from image');
    }

    clipboard.writeImage(nativeImage.createFromBuffer(buffer));
  },
} satisfies NamespaceHandlers;

View on GitHub (pinned to b6de0ad51b)

Solutions

1. Retry with a valid image; the native image object could not be converted to PNG.
2. Check that the image data is complete and in a supported format.
3. Recreate the native image from the source buffer before converting.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/frontend/apps/electron/src/main/ui/handlers.ts:317 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of toeverything/AFFiNE@b6de0ad51b (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c7ae82bc446ceb38. Report an issue: GitHub.