zylon-ai/private-gpt · error · RuntimeError

Conversion failed: {e}

Error message

Conversion failed: {e}

What it means

RuntimeError raised by convert_file when the conversion_func throws and raise_in_exception is true; the original exception is chained. It wraps any converter failure (LibreOffice missing/failed, output file unreadable) behind a uniform 'Conversion failed' message. With raise_in_exception false, the original FileInfo is returned unchanged.

Source

Thrown at private_gpt/components/ingest/utils.py:474

def convert_file(
    file_info: FileInfo,
    conversion_func: Callable[[FileInfo, str, bool], Path],
    target_extension: str,
    raise_in_exception: bool = False,
) -> FileInfo:
    try:
        converted_path = conversion_func(
            file_info, target_extension, raise_in_exception
        )
        new_file_name = (
            file_info.file_name.replace(file_info.extension, converted_path.suffix)
            if file_info.file_name and file_info.extension
            else None
        )
        return get_file_info(converted_path, file_name=new_file_name)
    except Exception as e:
        if raise_in_exception:
            raise RuntimeError(f"Conversion failed: {e}") from e
        return file_info  # Return the original FileInfo on failure


def convert_unsupported_file(
    file_info: FileInfo, raise_in_exception: bool = False
) -> FileInfo:
    extensions_map = {
        ".xls": (".xlsx", convert_file_with_libreoffice),
        ".doc": (".docx", convert_file_with_libreoffice),
        ".ppt": (".pptx", convert_file_with_libreoffice),
    }
    if file_info.extension not in extensions_map:
        return file_info  # Return original FileInfo if no conversion is available

    target_extension, conversion_func = extensions_map[file_info.extension]
    return convert_file(
        file_info, conversion_func, target_extension, raise_in_exception
    )

View on GitHub (pinned to 4a030776a3)

Solutions

1. Look at the chained cause (__cause__) to find the real failure — ImportError means missing soffice, CalledProcessError means soffice crashed on this file.
2. Install/fix LibreOffice or repair the source document accordingly.
3. Only enable raise_in_exception when callers can handle conversion failure; otherwise the graceful fallback returns the original FileInfo.
4. Validate the file opens in LibreOffice before ingest for exotic documents.

try:
    converted = convert_file(file_info, convert_file_with_libreoffice, '.pdf', raise_in_exception=True)
except RuntimeError as e:
    logger.warning('conversion failed: %s (cause=%s)', e, e.__cause__)
    converted = file_info  # proceed with original for fallback reader

When it happens

Trigger: Calling convert_file / convert_unsupported_file / convert_unsupported_file_as_fallback with a document whose conversion raises — e.g. soffice not installed (ImportError) or exiting non-zero — while strict mode is enabled.

Common situations: Deployments enabling strict conversion for data quality; corrupted uploads; missing LibreOffice dependency surfacing through this wrapper.

Related errors

• INVALID_REQUEST_ERROR
• Failed to convert {file_info.file_data} to {target_extension
• Invalid system item in list (dict): {item}
• Invalid system item in list: {item}
• Invalid system specification: {system}

AI-assisted analysis of zylon-ai/private-gpt@4a030776a3 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/91ae59cbaa0d8447. Report an issue: GitHub.